Actually, the last company I interned with was a very nice place to work. The atmosphere was casual, the people were great, and I found lots of interesting things to work on.
Some people fear that a life comparable to Dilbert's awaits them if they get on the corporate track. Others, including me, realize that one can be creative and successful in the corporate world.
But that's not for me. Nothing compares to building and actualizing my own vision. I mentioned my internship earlier -- it was a great experience, but I realized that this wasn't for me. My co-founder feels very similarly and it was from this mindset that our best ideas came about.
Founding a company has always been one of my most consistent aspirations and there's never been a better time to go for it. And my final reason: it's fun as hell.
Whatever we do here will eventually be lost in time. And those who do remember our dream, they too will inevitably perish. To me, creating something of great value to others is the only reason why we even matter. Besides that, our worth is simply that of the atoms that make us.
Put simply. a startup is my opportunity to change the world.
I don't think I can avoid it... I've tried, but I keep coming back to the idea of starting a business.
I enjoy the creativity and the stimulation.
To solve the money problem.
1. So that I can spend my time implementing my own vision rather than someone else's.
2. For the money, which gives me the freedom to decide who is worth impressing.
All of it created with sweat and anxiety, most aspects failing at some point and being brought back from the brink. I can't think of a more complex system to build- needing inspiration and creativity and luck in so many disciplines- with unlimited capacity when you finally get it right.
Without college educated parents, you are born into the lower (working) class. You can move up to the upper (professional) class in a generation by getting a college education and working a professional job for a major corporation.
A lifetime of corporate work provides no means to advance to the ownership (ruling) class. I refer to people like Rupert Murdoch, Dick Cheney, the Waltons, and Bill Gates as uber-capitalists -- they have enough money to truly make an impact on society at large.
I'm starting a company now so I can be able to make a true positive impact on the world in my lifetime.
I read somewhere that paul said he wanted to do via-web to solve the money problem once and for all. I think that is a real good motivation.
Second, probability of trying 15 different things in next 5 years and having one homerun is not as low as one would be tempted to think.. That still saves you 20 years of doing job and you are firing on all cylinders when you really are doing what you like the most, so the odds definitely are with you...
Third there is a certain degree of ego satisfaction when 1000s of people are using what you created (again one starts with a hope right?)
As you set out for Ithaca
hope your road is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
angry Poseidon - don't be afraid of them:
you' ll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
wild Poseidon - you won't encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.
Hope your road is a long one.
May there be many summer mornings when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you enter harbours you're seeing for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfume of every kind -
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to learn and go on learning from their scholars.
Keep Ithaca always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you're destined for.
But don't hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you're old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you've gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaca to make you rich.
Ithaca gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you wouldn't have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.
And if you find her poor, Ithaca won't have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you'll have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.
K.Kavafis
you just want to conquer the world ;)
-Zaid
you just want to conquer the world ;)