The question I'd really like answered: Let's say there are 1000 startups - there must be at least 5000 people who work at those startups. Of those 5000, how many of them actually reaped the benefits of working at the startup? How many made some large amount or went on to build their own startups?
In other words, these are the theoretical advantages of working at a startup - but does this reflect the real situation on ground?
Not that privileged rich people invariably make good decisions, but one would hope they generally have connections and decent advice. Do they tell their kids "Screw investment banking, law, and medicine. That's for the middle class. The smart money is in web 2.0!"?
The parents push their kids to do that kind of stuff because it will make them wealthy and they will have prestigious titles. That doesn't mean it is the path to happiness. I think it is working out like shit for all the kids who listened to their parents advice.
Background: I lived in NYC and am friends with far too many lawyers and wall street bankers with no idea why they are a banker or a lawyer.
Almost without fail, I was happier than every single one of them, even though they made twice or more of my salary every year.
They work more hours than us in the startup world. We boast about that phase of living at the office and falling asleep at our desk, but at least that war story is half made up and is supposed to end. That's what they do forever.
I have a friend. He is 32, a laywer at a corporate law firm. He is not a partner at the firm. He works rediculous hours, often up till 2am on weekends. He works those hours becuase if he doesn't, he will be fired. He doesn't like his job, his boss, his company, or even being a lawyer. But he is working 60+ hours a week because without it he'll lose his $200k a year job. And most of that money goes to paying for his great penthouse apartment. When I graduated college he gave me the advice "whatever you do, save as much money as you can so you can go and do whatever you want if you find out you don't like your career" with the seriousness and tone of a kidnapping victim.
A lot of weekends, I come into the office and work. But I roll in at 1 and leave at 8pm, after I had the morning off. My banker friends have conference calls with their boss at 8am on a Sunday the night after we went out. It sucks!
All of those guys (and girls) make double what I do. But at the end of the day I'm not sure they put more money in the bank. Their echo chamber values things that ours simply doesn't. We love people making it to be ramen profitable. They think you are a loser if you don't have a BMW, a real rolex, go to bottle clubs on the weekends to drop $300 at a bar, and have a $3000 a month apartment somewhere in the city. I spent half of that, and do basically the exact same things except with a Subaru, a regular bar, and a $1400 a month apartment.
At least the doctors have rewarding work most of the time.
But I would tell my kids to be an engineer, or a freaking high school teacher, or a circus juggler, long before I told them to try and work on wall street or be a lawyer.
You can buy a lot of material goods with their inflated salaries, but I have yet to find one that was actually happy with their job or their life. So they strive to become partner at the firm or a big enough bonus that they could leave and do something less stressful. But when they finally get there, then they raise the bar yet again and sucked back in for a few more years. It looks unbearable.
If I could tell my kids to do anything, it would to do what you are doing. Own a business that you can run from anywhere and be your own boss. You probably won't make as much money as working for Goldman, but if you want to surf you can setup shop next to the beach in hawaii and start the day with 2 hours on the beach and work the rest. If you like skiing, move to the mountains and do the same. If you want to travel, pack your laptop and spend half of each day working and half exploring. I imagine you are infinitely happier than people making 5x as much doing the grind in those fields.
[Edited the horribly rambling mess into a rambling mess]
I completely agree with the sentiment expressed in this post. Too many kids in my school (top-10 undergrad or whatever that means) ended up in banking, consulting, and law school because that was what seemed "prestigious".
However, don't dismiss the fact that there aren't people passionate about finance. I am personally involved in this industry and I hustled since I was in high school to work in the industry. I spent 2 straight years of high school working part-time and full-time summers at trading firms and realized this is exactly what I want to do.
What we need is shut down this "prestige whoredom" prevalent across all elite colleges in America and have graduates try different careers to figure out what in the world they want to do with their lives. Sadly, a lot of the current generation of college degree holders will slave away their lives doing things they don't like doing - not that its different from any previous generation to be honest.
You could also see it this way: imagine a guy who climbs mountains. Now compare him to a guy who does not climb mountains. The guy who climbs is wet, he's hungry, he's cold, and he's tired climbing that mountain. The guy not climbing the mountain is warm and comfortable beside his fireplace reading a book. Why is that one guy putting himself through miserable torture and climbing a mountain? Even if he gets to the top, he's still going to have to come down again? Is life not a whole lot more comfortable just sitting down beside a fireplace and reading a book?
I'm not exactly sure if you are saying the guys working as lawyers and bankers are the mountain climbers or the ones sitting by the fireplace. I really don't think they're either.
I climb mountains, and the going up part sucks. I do it for backcountry skiing so it is always cold, usually windy, and very wet. But getting to the top feels amazing, and going down on skis is even better.
The startup is like the mountain climb, there is a top (hypothetically).
For bankers and lawyers, there is no top. There is never a point when you say "that is enough". It is a treadmill, not a mountain climb. You just stay on it slogging for more cash and more cash. First you have an apartment, then you want to have kids so you need to move out to Westchester and buy a 2 million dollar house, then you need nice cars to drive to the train station (which soon will have to be replaced when the lease runs out), and boats, and then a porsche, and then private school for your kids, and then a vacation house in the mountains, and then private college for your kids, then money for retirement, and if you have a lot of money you give your kid the seed money for his hedge fund. It never stops.
In other words, these are the theoretical advantages of working at a startup - but does this reflect the real situation on ground?