Why I Became an Entrepreneur (the Long Story)

<i>I had never before felt bounded by social class, by economics, by mother fucking money.<p>I remember when it hit home: I was taking a graduate seminar on Afghan Politics. After class one day, I struck up conversation with a girl sitting next to me. She asked about my background. “I used to fight forest fires,” I explained, thinking I was so cool.<p>Her forehead crinkled. She stopped for a second, then responded: “Oh. I didn’t know they let people like that, you know, in here.”</i><p>Wonderful. And Columbia has a $6 billion endowment[1] on which they pay absolutely NO TAX. They also recently used eminent domain to seize a portion of Harlem.[2] Columbia, Harvard, and every other elitist, non-profit-for-tax-purposes-only private university should have its tax exempt status revoked.<p>1) <a href="http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/new-york-ny/columbia-university-2707" rel="nofollow">http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/...</a><p>2) <a href="http://news.google.com/news/search?q=columbia+eminent+domain" rel="nofollow">http://news.google.com/news/search?q=columbia+eminent+domain</a>

I studied at Columbia and I have to say his tales of class snobbery are a bit over the top. Me and a lot of my friends were poor and did not feel ostracized about it.<p>And although there were some rich kids and Saudi heiresses in class, the displays of wealth were more likely to be subject of jokes than the other way around. I remember people made fun of one girl because she took a cab to school every day (we would usually walk to school or use the subway).<p>In general the students in my class considered themselves progressive and enlightened so any snobbery towards poor people was very unlikely to be popular.<p>I think the writer had some bad luck in that he joined a program witch was considered to be a cash cow for the university so he ended up with a lot of rich kids. Although now that I think of it, my program was also to be considered a bit of a cash cow.<p>If there is anything wrong with the way the school treated him, it is the fact that no-one pulled him aside to tell him something like "hey kid, this program is for rich kids and financial aid will be harder to come by, so try to find something else."

The line that seemed most weird:<p>&#62;&#62; In 2007, I acquired a girlfriend

This is the most incredibly self-indulgent piece I've read all month.

As impressive as the story is - it sounds very typically American. A boring American has the normal story you know. An interesting American has this story or some variation of it - maybe immigrant parents, maybe poor childhood, maybe doing something social, maybe struggling to get into college, maybe rich friends one is jealous of. Lots of American movies I'm watched have this story.<p>Everyones story has a narrative that is a lot more interesting, but all the magazine reading and the movie watching you do forces your narrative into a typical down-up-down-up scheme, because it seems like that's the right story to tell.<p>There is that story of those African boys who ran across the savannah and some of their friends were eaten by lions. that is a non-traditional and interesting narrative. Being top in Columbia is just about standard for an american narrative.<p>I'm not hating on the story - but I just think that it's not that different from many stories I've read.

I have been an entrepreneur for over fifteen years, with one mild success and a few spectacular failures. And I must say I enjoy this article more than the rest of the articles combined in terms of explaining why entrepreneurs become entrepreneurs. The reason has nothing to do with hardship, wealth or upbringing. Anyone can become an entrepreneur. You must first possess a demon deep inside that needs to get out. The author clearly has one and my own experience is that entrepreneurship is his only cure. Good luck.

don't give up on journalism, it's only dead to those who aren't great writers, and this guy is a great writer.

Good read.

Very impressive story. Would love to hear others' stories on why / how they became entrepreneurs.

I think Matt would have made an <i>fucking</i> great investment banker. ;)