Open Letter to Entrepreneur Wannabes
When I left American Express at the beginning of this year to join Brilliont, many expressed to me their desires to do something similar – leave the corporate giant and start something of their own. Unfortunately, the majority of people who make such a statement have no serious intention to do so. I know because I was one of those people until recent years. It sounded nice, but why take the risk?
Now with what’s happening in the market, risk has become a relative term. When I graduated Columbia Business School, I went the small company route instead of joining a McKinsey or Goldman Sachs. This is not exactly unheard of for a Columbia MBA, but certainly not the popular option given 1) the MBA price tag and 2) the school’s proximity to high-paying finance jobs. Fast forward a few years: of my four closest friends from business school, two of them have already been laid off, with a third waiting in the wings. Without mentioning company names, my friends’ employers were large financial and real estate institutions with much lower perceived risk profiles than that of my small business employer of choice.
The entrepreneurial life is not for everybody, but the element of risk in one’s decision-making is overrated. The recent downturn drives home that point. If you have an idea, and you can somehow secure adequate seed funding to provide decent runway, your job security is actually better than if you work at a large financial services company. That’s right - it can actually be safer to control your own destiny with the benefit of limitless upside versus the alternative where you simply collect your paycheck and consider yourself lucky to have one.
Although the market is down and many will lose their jobs, I am encouraged by the fact that many talented people will recognize opportunities in self-employment. Funding standards will be more stringent than they have been in recent years (see Benchmark Capital’s memo to startups), but I am cautiously optimistic that this downturn will spur positive innovation.
Entrepreneur wannabes: don’t be a victim of the downturn. If you lose your job, see it as an opportunity to do what you wanted to do for years, but haven’t had the guts to do under the security of a salary. Otherwise you may find yourself repeating this vicious cycle numerous times in the future.
