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Why do you want to be an entrepreneur (or are you one) – Is it to get insanely rich?
By Jon Gillespie-Brown | October 25, 2006
If you haven’t thought about the WHY then you should.
Many ‘younger’ people I hear talk about becoming an entrepreneur seem to heavily focus on this aspect, of getting really rich, and yet most entrepreneurs I know definitely don’t do it for the money (alone).
There are many good reasons to not set out chasing the money but in the end why do we do it? Surely it’s not for the fun of it or because we had a great idea, in the very final analysis what is entrepreneurship about – it’s about creating wealth.
My way of explaining it is that money is simply the by product of excellence – if you build a company that is successful it’s likely that you created something that other people want and will pay handsomely for…if you have succeeded in this very difficult task then you will make money.
If you make money then the next step is to make enough to enrich you and your family.
If you have a business that has other peoples money in it, like VC or Angel funding, then others will drive home the need to make them lots of money in their quest for riches – so what about you?
Another way many people use the acquisition of riches is simply as a way of ‘keeping score’.
For many of us, including me, entrepreneurship is a way to deliver a higher level of freedom from the corporate hamster wheel – a way to exert our own force on the World – in my case it’s a compulsion that leads to wealth rather than a compulsion for wealth itself.
My advice to those seeking riches is to stop now and read my post "How rich do you want to be".
The path to riches comes from being outstanding at what you do, or following your passion and executing to such an extent that the riches come as if by magic.
No-one I know has ever become rich simply by "chasing the money".
Last 3 posts by Jon Gillespie-Brown
- Choosing a "Stanford quality" startup idea–part 3 - October 11th, 2011
- Choosing a "Stanford quality" startup idea–part 2 - October 11th, 2011
- Choosing a "Stanford quality" startup idea - October 10th, 2011
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About the Author: |
| Jon Gillespie-Brown is a published Author, Lecturer, Founder/CEO and Mentor on Entrepreneurship. He currently mentors at Stanford, UC Berkeley and the London Business School. Visit his site for tips by email/twitter, blog updates, detailed articles, worksheets, news, a free quiz and more! Go now to http://www.tobeanentrepreneur.com/ | |
November 8th, 2006 at 5:18 pm
I Always Liked Buckminster Fuller’s approach to the problem by stating that “wealth” is a measure of time not money.
He said that if you stopped working today, you could determine how wealthy you were by how many months you could survive without changing your lifestyle and without working again. For example, if you had monthly expenses of $3,000 per month and you had $10,500 in assets, you could last three and a half months. As a result, you would be 3.5 months rich.
Therefore your wealth is probably higher when you are doing what you want to do, and it is possible to achieve infinite wealth.
November 14th, 2011 at 3:00 am
Your piece is very encouraging, I read it and liked especially where you said “entrepreneurship is a way to deliver a higher level of freedom from the corporate hamster wheel – a way to exert our own force on the World – in my case it’s a compulsion that leads to wealth rather than a compulsion for wealth itself.” I borrowed some of your words when I was speaking to some high school kids. Nice work.