

Entrepreneurs Must Make Money Before Making Meaning - gigamon
http://www.lovemytool.com/blog/2008/01/bootstrapping.html#more

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nostrademons
I always thought that Drucker said it best: "Profit is the cost of doing
business."

Businesses exist for a purpose: to provide goods and/or services to customers.
They don't exist _just_ to make money. You can make money in plenty of other
ways and not have a business. (Think about a lottery winner or speculator.)

But if you want to keep doing business, you have to make money, and you have
to make money over and above the cost of capital. Otherwise, you'll never be
able to marshal the resources necessary to keep providing your goods and
services.

~~~
daniel-cussen
I'm not entirely sure playing the lottery and speculating are such good ways
of making money. Someone who's in it solely for the money is probably going to
start a business before doing either of these things.

~~~
gigamon
This opens up another topic that is equally interesting, which is the
relationship between entrepreneurs and risk management.

My observation is that entrepreneurs are NOT risk takers. They are very much
risk-averse. This is a strange comment but as an entrepreneur, I differentiate
between taking risk and mitigating ambiguity.

I don't gamble and I don't play the lottery. I think doing so would be taking
undue risk because I have absolutely no control of the outcome.

On the other hand, doing startup is not risk to me because I believe I can
control the outcome. It is just that the outcome is somewhat ambiguous which I
know how to mitigate.

I suppose if I take a step back, this is not unlike the difference between an
amateur gambler and a professional gambler. If I know how to count cards, I
won't think that I am taking risk neither.

\--Denny--

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jmzachary
Somehow, it seems like making money and making meaning are two sides of a
Mobius strip. They are really the same thing, although they appear to be
different. Fooling oneself into thinking they really are separate things is
harmful to the wealth of an entrepreneur.

~~~
Tichy
I don't know, what about criminals? They make money, too, but do they make
meaning?

~~~
gigamon
It depends entirely on the criminal ... ;-)

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icky
Naturally, you will pardon my wariness of clicking a link to "lovemytool.com".

~~~
gigamon
Sorry about that. I hope all is forgiven.

\--Denny--

~~~
icky
After reading the article, all is indeed forgiven. Though you might want to
consider rebranding to something less porny. ;-)

~~~
gigamon
It is a tough call. The primary site, LoveMyTool, is an on-line marketing site
for network monitoring TOOLs so at least there is some excuses for it.

It is a difficult name to forget.

\--Denny--

