nonmonetary payoffs to starting a company

I actually haven’t seen anyone write down my favourite things about running a company:

• You get to choose what you work on 1 (equivalent value to me, $300k)
• You get to choose everyone you work with ($200k)
• No boss ($50k)
• Refuse or cancel most projects or meetings at any time 2 ($50k). Subcontracting at will ($50k).
• Being able to make cool side projects happen with minimal friction by putting people on it ($50k)
• Full geographical freedom ($50k)
• Unlimited paid leave ($30k)
• Alternatively, unlimited work (without being viewed as a tall poppy or tryhard). ($20k)
• Minimal restrictions on speech 3 ($10k)
• No performance review ($5k)

4

Obvious enough, but together worth more to me than money. The options to do the above are sometimes as important and satisfying as the exercise. Overall you can summarise them as control over environment, internal locus of control, and returning a smooth piecewise tradeoff between freedom and money.

Many entrepreneurs are instead seeking their great Exit - want that generational wealth - and thus forfeit the spiritual advantages above. So I’m not talking about the debt financing and burn and scaling type of company that the media obsess over. But anyway most companies aren’t chasing that dragon.

So why isn’t this the default move for the smart and lucky? Most obviously, few people have the savings to buy plant and ride out the dry periods. Then there’s risk aversion and hatred of variance. Maybe something about the so-called “tyranny of choice” for some people: you do have to make a lot more decisions. Some probability of failure (zero money); income variance; 3% of clients are unreasonable and aggravating; serious paperwork with severe penalties for screwing it up; reduced feedback (power dynamics; no mentoring; no positive management; no performance review to actually help you).

So probably 80% of people would be unhappy with these “perks”. In the median case, they are things you think you want but end up suffering more from.

See also

• Against investor-ridden hyperscaling Valley startups