An well respected entrepreneur friend who's doing very well and has huge potential ahead of him asked me yesterday if I am considering starting my own sometime.
We got into a thought provoking discussion around why one should do so and how each of us was thinking about it. We also exchanged philosophical ideas that motivate each of us. I decided to write this to gather a balanced set of views from others that may help people who find themselves at such cross-roads.
For me an important question to ask is what really should be the motivation for someone to start their own. My experience has taught me that you should think about where you can have the most impact on the world. It can be either economic or social depending upon your interest. That doesn't matter because you can be an employee or an owner in either of these spheres.
Your impact in a corporate job depends upon the kind of role you're in and the kind of company you're in. If you're in a limited role in a low-moderate growth company you may have a higher chance of increasing your impact by joining or setting up a start up. The importance of the transformational nature of your start up idea is lesser in this situation. And if you're in a broader role or in a good trajectory in a fast growth company then you may have higher impact in the span of your career in a corporate role than through your own business. Unless you work on something truly transformational, by which I mean what the likes of Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Uber did. They built platforms that were truly scalable and capable of providing opportunities to millions of more people and businesses.
I think the first situation is an easier decision. The second situation tests your judgement. You could say that, at the time of starting, you'll not know the true transformative potential of your idea, e.g., a lot of people didn't realize the potential of the idea of Facebook in its early days. But it's also easy to fail to question your judgement that what you're working on truly has unidentified potential.
Start up landscape is a mix of good and not-so-good in everything - ideas, business models, people. While some are fixing an important problem, others are getting influenced by the trend.
I am not perfect and I don't always find it easy to follow what deep down I believe is the right thing. But for this one my answer is focus on impact.
We got into a thought provoking discussion around why one should do so and how each of us was thinking about it. We also exchanged philosophical ideas that motivate each of us. I decided to write this to gather a balanced set of views from others that may help people who find themselves at such cross-roads.
For me an important question to ask is what really should be the motivation for someone to start their own. My experience has taught me that you should think about where you can have the most impact on the world. It can be either economic or social depending upon your interest. That doesn't matter because you can be an employee or an owner in either of these spheres.
Your impact in a corporate job depends upon the kind of role you're in and the kind of company you're in. If you're in a limited role in a low-moderate growth company you may have a higher chance of increasing your impact by joining or setting up a start up. The importance of the transformational nature of your start up idea is lesser in this situation. And if you're in a broader role or in a good trajectory in a fast growth company then you may have higher impact in the span of your career in a corporate role than through your own business. Unless you work on something truly transformational, by which I mean what the likes of Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Uber did. They built platforms that were truly scalable and capable of providing opportunities to millions of more people and businesses.
I think the first situation is an easier decision. The second situation tests your judgement. You could say that, at the time of starting, you'll not know the true transformative potential of your idea, e.g., a lot of people didn't realize the potential of the idea of Facebook in its early days. But it's also easy to fail to question your judgement that what you're working on truly has unidentified potential.
Start up landscape is a mix of good and not-so-good in everything - ideas, business models, people. While some are fixing an important problem, others are getting influenced by the trend.
I am not perfect and I don't always find it easy to follow what deep down I believe is the right thing. But for this one my answer is focus on impact.
