

Is it OK to Want to Make Money? Slaying Some Silicon Valley Myths - SRSimko
http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2010/12/06/is-it-ok-to-want-to-make-money/

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kondro
Isn't money the reason most of us start businesses? The road of an
entrepreneur is a long and difficult one and, unless you already drive a
Porsche, surely money (or freedom, which is usually bought by money) is a
primary motivating factor?

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JacobAldridge
We did a study on this a few years ago [1], primarily in the UK, US and
Australia, which supported the anecdotal experience I've had working with a
number of businesses (and therefore business founders). That is, most people
start their business for reasons _other_ than money; financial ambition is
usually important, but not the primary factor.

Even those who 'just want to get rich quick' usually want to get rich for some
reason - family, holidays, ego etc. That's what drives them.

[1] [http://www.shirlawsonline.com/editorials/54-what-
motivates-p...](http://www.shirlawsonline.com/editorials/54-what-motivates-
people-to-start-their-own-business)

~~~
endtime
The three things I value in doing a startup rather than working for e.g.
Microsoft or Google are, in no particular order:

1) Freedom to work on what I want, how I want. Would Google let me use
CoffeeScript? I doubt it.

2) Variety - I get to touch all aspects of the business (business decisions,
software-related stuff, customers, management) and also get to touch all
aspects of the software cycle (spec, design, implementation/testing,
deployment/server administration). I'm learning way more general, transferable
skills than I would at Microsoft.

3) Potentially, lots of money. As you say, I don't want money for its own
sake...I want it so that I can assign relatively higher priority to how
interesting my next job is versus how well it pays, and to support my eventual
family.

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rdl
I find it hard to be motivated by "want to make money", at least once basic
starvation is solved, on an ongoing basis. I definitely am motivated in the
decision making process by "wow, owning a $100m exploration yacht would be
awesome" or "I'd like to afford a house in Palo Alto someday". It doesn't
motivate me every single minute, or even every morning, though.

Learning something new, building something fun, or making customers happy,
general professionalism, or desire for and having respect of teammates, is a
much more continuous reinforcement.

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zacharycohn
One of my main reasons for planning to do a start up soon is the freedom to
work on what you want, and the freedom to work toward creating your own
vision.

I think a healthy goal for money is to have enough money to not have to worry
about money.

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Dylanlacey
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1978785>

Here, sans video, with more comments.

