Motivations for Starting a Business: Escape vs Ambition.
Motivations for starting a business change where you end up. Among five hundred and fifty-eight founders, independence was negatively associated with both intended and achieved employment growth. Meanwhile, career ambition was positively associated with survival and income.
Six motives, and the one that is yours.
Researchers asked five hundred and fifty-eight people mid-start what drove them. The answers sorted into self-realization, financial success, roles, innovation, recognition and independence. Independence is probably yours, because being your own boss has been in your head for years. It is also the one on this book's cover.
Why independence among motivations for starting a business predicts less.
The people most driven by wanting out intended to build smaller things. Then they built smaller things than they had intended. This happens because you were shopping for distance from a manager. Therefore the cheapest way to buy that distance is to work alone.
What forward-looking ambition does instead.
Marco Caliendo, Alexander Kritikos and Claudia Stier found the other half of the picture. Career ambition, a forward-looking motive, was positively associated with survival and income. Also, people moving toward an opportunity did better on innovation and expansion. In short, escapers do not fail, but they arrive somewhere smaller.
Rank your own motivations for starting a business.
Write the six motives on a page and rank them honestly from strongest to weakest for you.
Next to independence, note whether your plan quietly assumes you will work alone.
From the book.
Marco Caliendo, Alexander Kritikos and Claudia Stier found the other half of the same picture, because career ambition, which is a forward-looking motive rather than an escape, was positively associated with both survival and income, and people who moved toward an opportunity did better on innovation and on expanding the business.
I Want to Start a Business but I Can't Quit My Job, chapter 8: The job might be the problem, and a business might not be the answer
Questions about motivations for starting a business.
Which motivations for starting a business predict smaller firms?
Independence. It was negatively associated with both intended and achieved employment growth.
Which motive predicted survival and income?
Career ambition, a forward-looking motive rather than an escape.
Does wanting independence mean you will fail?
No. It means you may arrive somewhere smaller than you meant to.
Read the whole chapter.
This lesson covers one section of chapter 8, “The job might be the problem, and a business might not be the answer”. The book goes further, with the full evidence, the stories and every exercise.
Lessons in this chapter.
- 01 Starting a Business After Unemployment: Escape Can Work.
- 02 Don't Know What to Sell: You Are Typical.
- 03 Motivations for Starting a Business: Escape vs Ambition.
- 04 Going Back to a Job After Self Employment: The Loop.
- 05 Marx Alienation of Labor: Does Owning Work Cure It.
- 06 Survivorship Bias in Entrepreneurship: The Empty Slot.
- 07 Do I Want a Business or Just to Quit: Two Columns.
- 08 Wrong Reasons to Start a Business: Why Motive Matters.