[rfugger]

Consulting is a job. You have one or a couple clients, and you only have to satisfy them to get paid. You can work during the day, relax at night, take vacations, and generally let work come to you, since there is massive demand beyond supply for your services.

A startup is your whole life. Your job isn't just to satisfy a couple focused business people, but generally thousands or millions of fickle consumers. There is a high probability you won't ever be paid for your work, and if you are paid, it is often way more than you actually need.

[mattdeboard]

> There is a high probability you won't ever be paid for your work, and if you are paid, it is often way more than you actually need.

Way less you mean? Getting paid way more than you actually need is the part of why people start a business isn't it? :P

[alecbenzer]

I think he did mean "more". If you could choose between being more or less guaranteed a certain amount of pay, why take the risk of working and potentially getting nothing out of it? The answer might be because if you do succeed, the returns are much higher, but if you don't care about the higher returns, then you're taking the risk for no reason.

[ruswick]

It getting paid more than you need really an issue?

The average person could sustain themselves on very little income, and yet most jobs pay far beyond than that amount.

Everyone wants nice, nonessential things, and so they want salaries beyond what they "need." It's a standard for people to get paid way beyond what they need so that they can go blow it on thing they don't need.