[no_future]

There is a miasma of fakery and posturing in the startup world about making money, everyone pretends as if they are so passionate about what they are doing and not interested in money at all, even though they are almost certainly interested in money to some degree. I guess they feel that being at all motivated by monetary gain cheapens their image. Reminds me of an article I recently read about attitudes surrounding money in French culture, pretty interesting:

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/12/12/no-exit-3

You can be passionate about what you are doing and interested in making money as well, it isn't either or. Personally I have no shame admitting I would be delighted to make an obscene amount of money in a short period of time, because to me money means freedom. I could spend time with people I love and do things I find interesting and enjoyable, rather than living for the next paycheck and having money end up owning me and my life as is the case with so many people who pursue high stress, high paying long term careers to "provide for their family" and end up miserable and distant. Another reason is that, call me entitled and selfish, but I don't enjoy the idea of working for someone else, likely doing something I'm only marginally passionate about, and having them take majority of the value of my efforts while giving me a fixed salary, though for many people I'm sure the stability of this is perfectly acceptable.

However, I do agree probably nothing good will come of you if you are motivated purely by profit with 0 interest or passion in what you are doing. I select projects that I am personally interested in simply because I find it extremely difficult to work on things that I don't get excited about.