[blackhole]

This article has the right idea, but is obsessed with money. Money is not the fundamental motivator for all entrepreneurs. There are plenty of people who would rather work for themselves and barely be able to pay rent for the rest of their lives rather than work for a large company simply because they will be more happy doing what they love and barely managing to feed themselves than they will doing something they hate and having all the money they ever wanted. They don't care about the money, they care about doing what they love to do. So long as they can feed themselves and find a roof to sleep under, being able to work on something they love to do will trump everything else.

[shurcooL]

That's _exactly_ right, you nailed it. At least for me, that describes my motivations perfectly.

[trevor99]

I didn't intend it to be about money. I also said that entrepreneurs want a 1% shot at ruling the world (king vs. rich). It's really about perception of control and perception of fairness around hard work.

[michaelochurch]

A 1% shot of ruling the world is pretty useless. That's a 99% shot at failure. Also, who wants to rule the world? All taken, it's a pretty fucking ugly thing and it has some awful people in it. I know some people have that ambition, but not me.

A 75% shot at never having to take goddamn orders, on the other hand, is something I'd do things I can't put in print for. That's what I'm aiming for. I don't want to be some despot or extortionist telling others what to do, nor do I want to be told what to do. I want to have the opportunity to lead, if others will follow, without entitled and artificially empowered jackasses (i.e. typical corporate management) getting in the way of that.

[hpcorona]

I belive the 1% example is referring to trust your heart even when people discourages you but you know your idea should work...

Also i belive, being able to take orders is very valuable to the team, even if you are the ultra master chief... Closed to not taking orders? Then you are starting with your left foot in being a leader...

Just my thoughts...

[michaelochurch]

Actually, I think part of being a good leader is not ordering people around, but inspiring, guiding, and teaching them.

I don't mind taking direction, but traditional management turns me off.

[hpcorona]

Yeah, you're right, that's a better approach

[debt]

both an engineer and an entrepreneur are compelled to solve a problem, it seems though that difference is the entrepreneur is also compelled to profit financially from the solution.

[nostrademons]

Engineers profit financially too. Anyone that's acqhired is leaving entrepreneurship for engineering for the promise of a big financial payoff.

I'd say the main difference is that an entrepreneur "shifts resources from areas of low productivity to high productivity", while an engineer comes up with the most viable technical solution to a problem. In other words, an entrepreneur's job description includes opportunity costs, while an engineer's job description leaves that for an executive or product manager to worry about. Profit is a natural consequence of that, since if you are successfully shifting resources from areas of low productivity to high productivity, the difference can be captured as profit.