Why so few do startups

I agree. I'm 28 with a very understanding girlfriend, but certainly sometimes she's a bit peeved at how much I "work". Of course, I don't see it as working - I see it as doing what I really want to do (you'd never have seen me get out of bed in the middle of the night and do a quick hour of "work" before going back to sleep in the job I had before!).

That's put a strain on our relationship time and time again. We've pulled through, but I can't imagine it would work too well if we were actually married with children.

I wouldn't recommend you start a startup unless you're willing to sacrifice pretty much every shred of social life for it. Think of it like starting a family, in fact - it will suck out all your social energy and focus it on a single thing. Which is why starting a startup and a family together is probably not a good idea.

A kid in high school? Try getting things done with a 3 week old! I think the swing should get Founder status with the amount of time the little one spends swinging side to side cooing while I'm sitting next to him hacking.

And while I agree with many or Aaron's and James' points, the largest reason most folks don't start startups - guts. They don't have the guts to come up with an idea, they don't have the guts to build it, they don't have the guts to follow through. And at the core, they don't have the guts to forsake all others for their startup. Not that a lack of these "guts" is any way a deficiency, as really, different strokes for different folks, but it really comes down to guts.

"However, the vast majority of people in such startups don't have that problem, because they are young and single - burning a year or two at both ends is a worthwhile risk."

The most common entrepreneur is not someone like Bill Gates. It's a middle-aged white male starting a company in an industry hes been in for years. Young people being the most common start-up founders is actually a myth.

My friend is 25 with a child and a wife without access to capital or time. Sometimes your not in a position to start a company which is fine. But don't blame it on your age.

Time, money, etc., surely all play a role, but I'm not convinced that these answers are sufficient either. Probably the real answer is that it varies for everyone.

For me, the biggest hurdle was just realizing it was even possible. I had been implicitly trained for years that what you do is go to school and then get a job. The question of starting companies never even entered my mind. Thankfully, I came across some good resources (e.g., Philip Greenspun) that started to change my thinking.

Now, I do work full-time at a company, but also do my own projects in my free time. I wish I had more time, but frankly, there's a lot you can get done part-time if you just go at it. My current biggest hurdle is neither time nor money nor realization of possibility... but because I do have limited time, I tend to overanalyze project ideas before starting them...

The article is quite over-simplified. Yes, those are some reasons, but I would bet it has as much to do as what you were exposed when younger. A kid whose dad played quarterback in college has an easier time playing quarterback in youth football because the dad has "been there:" knows what it takes, how to approach it, etc.

For someone with parents doing shift-work or working in a bureaucracy, who grew up with no exposure to what it takes to run a business, there is a huge intellectual/emotional hurdle that is hard to see over, making it difficult to jump.

Well, there's one factor that is not listed and that is a really important time-sucker: learning a new (human) language. I'm relocating to Berlin and I don't speak German. I wonder how much that'll hinder my productivity!