Forget all those options. If you can tap into that person's passion with what you're doing, hire them.
Besides, there is no such thing as long-term employment anymore. A talented person could create immense value for you in a month that'll pay dividends down the road.
If the candidate tells you point blank he'd rather be working for himself than working for you, there are any number of problems at hand.
Possibilities:
a. He doesn't respect you enough to lie about it.
b. He doesn't really want the job, or else he would have lied about it.
c. He's pathologically honest.
d. He thinks pretending to be "the entrepreneurial type" will impress you, so he tells you an entirely different lie.
I'm hard-pressed to think of an innocent explanation for telling a potential employer you would rather not be working for'em.
The people I work for right now know that I'm not going to be here forever, because one of the many things I'm working on will end up working out well for me.
I came to work here because the last project I was working on didn't work out very well and I spent my time consulting.
For now, the stability allows me to work on every weird idea I've got until I have something fleshed out enough to go work on it with more dedication.
I just got out of my 12 year old startup and took a full time, real job. I told them upfront I would probably last 6-9 months, and we are planning my projects accordingly.
I have to say it is the most relaxing thing I have ever done in the last 12 years. I come to work, do the work, socialize with other employees at lunch, do more work, and then go home. The magic is that when I go home, I don't have any other responsibilities. I don't care about sales, hitting payroll, leases, bank covenants, customer issues...
I can definitely see how people could be lulled into doing this year after year.
The other plus side is I get to see how another business is being run (truthfully this is my first real job working for someone). I also get an 'employee' perspective, something that is invaluable. I get to see their view of management and infrastructure.
I would say it's a great way for an entrepreneur to regroup and get perspective. (my experience is a bit skewed since I'm working for a quite amazing company.. though if it were less functional that would be a learning experience of a different kind)
I think most people tend to hire other people with similar characteristics as them. So a person who went to an top 10 school is likely to look for that on a resume, just as an entrepreneur will look positively on a candidate with an entrepreneurship spirit
there are some jobs that would be great for an entrepreneur-type, and there are some times when you need to hire someone who's best while ignoring the longer-term
Besides, there is no such thing as long-term employment anymore. A talented person could create immense value for you in a month that'll pay dividends down the road.