So Aaron Hillegass who started Big Nerd Ranch got the entrepreneurial community all in an uproar with his post "Don't Start A Company, Kid."
The article is directed toward soon to be college graduates that BNR is trying to recruit. And while I disagree with the rationale that Aaron presents I actually agree with his conclusion. For the vast majority of college graduates the best thing to do is get a job. Get some real world experience. Pay down those college loans. If starting something is your thing look for some opportunity in the marketplace that your company or client is not willing to execute against. The insider idea.
The biggest issue I have with Aaron's logic is this statement:
Having Enough is awesome. How would I define “Enough”? Enough means that you can take a friend out to a nice lunch and not have to worry about how much it costs. I have hung out with a couple of billionaires—my experiences indicate that being a billionaire is just incrementally better than Enough.
Thus, as you look at your future, the question should not be, “How can I become a billionaire?” You should ask, “Where can I get Enough?”
I am calling BS.
For many people, myself included, having enough is not awesome. It is not going to help me achieve my goals. For some it is. Not me. And not for most entrepreneurs. Having enough to me sounds a little like being mediocre. And if you want to create wealth having enough is not going to do it. You can not create wealth from personal income.
Last night I was reading The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon
“I knew when I was eighty that I would never, for example, think about why I walked away from my 1994 Wall Street bonus right in the middle of the year at the worst possible time. That kind of thing just isn’t something you worry about when you’re eighty years old. At the same time, I knew that I might sincerely regret not having participated in this thing called the Internet that I thought was going to be a revolutionizing event. When I thought about it that way… it was incredibly easy to make the decision.”
So go to work for Aaron or some other company. Learn. And when the time is right. If it is right for you. When you find that thing that you might regret not doing when you are 80. When you find your revolution. Go do it.
Or you can have enough. I hear it is awesome.