What Do We Entrepreneurs *Really* Want?

Also notions on “true” entrepreneurship vs “vain” entrepreneurship.

What we don’t really care for

I am convinced: the true entrepreneurs don’t really care for money. Money as a means to the end, not the end in itself. The question you must ask yourself:

Do you see money as a tool, or as a self-esteem quantification measurement thing?

True entrepreneurs

True entrepreneurs include Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Kanye West. “Crazy” individuals who truly want to make the world a “better place”. Money as a means to building great things, money as a social tool to get people moving and building.

Also the best entrepreneurs seem to be able to thrive in poverty. Note Elon Musk feeding himself on $2 USD a day on spaghetti and hot dogs in his early days and also sleeping in a sleeping bar in a shared office with his brother as he was building his first company, x.com. How Elon showered at the local YMCA.

Steve Jobs as essentially a weird yogi hippie who was able to subsist on beans and rice.

Kanye as the more fiscally “irresponsible one”, but was able to make it work.

Vain entrepreneurs

Vain means “empty” (‘vanus’ in Latin). An empty entrepreneur is someone who likes money for the sake of money and this is what they do:

Package companies to look all pretty, then strive to IPO the company and sell it for a tidy profit.

Vain entrepreneurs don’t care to create real or true or deep value. They just care to make money and move on.

Why does the difference matter?

If you want to learn real business, don’t go to business school. Be scrappy, and do it yourself. Trial and error. Bootstrap yourself. A real business venture doesn’t require venture capital— this is only for the highly risk averse cowardly individuals who don’t have enough insane self belief. I think the only real companies which require deep VC funding is probably biotech or hard science companies, or heavy industries. But everything else can just be done via you (solo entrepreneurship).