Wrong Reasons to Start a Business: Why Motive Matters.
Escape motives are not wrong reasons to start a business in the sense of disqualifying you. Adidas came out of unemployment. However, escape gets you moving without telling you where to go, so the motive matters most before you start.
Escape motives are not wrong reasons to start a business.
The escapers are not a lesser class of founder. What the evidence says is narrower and more useful. People who never separate escaping from building tend to arrive somewhere smaller than they intended. So the issue is direction, not worth.
Why the motive matters now, not later.
Once the business works, your original motive probably does not matter. Right now, though, the motive is choosing the business for you. Wanting distance from a manager quietly selects for working alone. As a result, that decision gets made without you.
When the right column is empty or borrowed.
An empty right column in a resented job is a measurement taken in bad conditions. It rules out resigning this month on a feeling. Also, if your idea is your job sold freelance, return to chapter 1. Finally, autonomy is something to buy, since you cannot sell it to a customer.
Separate escape from wrong reasons to start a business.
Write your two wants on one line each: what you want to leave, and what you want to build.
Then answer which of them survives if you get the other one tomorrow.
From the book.
I'm not, and I need that understood, because this is the chapter most likely to be read the wrong way. Adidas came out of unemployment. The escapers are not a lesser class of founder. What the evidence says is narrower and more useful: escape gets you moving and does not tell you where to go, and people who never separate the two tend to arrive somewhere smaller than they intended.
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 wrong reasons to start a business.
Are escape motives wrong reasons to start a business?
No. Escape gets you moving, but it does not tell you where to go.
Is my idea valid if it is my current job sold freelance?
Yes, it is a real business, but it is the first animal with the earnings pattern attached.
Can autonomy be the thing I build?
No. Chapter 4 priced autonomy as something to buy, because you cannot sell it to a customer.
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.