I have a sense that I'm one of these people. I'm risk-averse, perhaps anxious by nature, and I like the structure that corporate entities provide, despite being well aware of how challenging it can be to exist and thrive within that structure at times; and, despite what PG writes in "You weren't meant to have a boss":<p>http://paulgraham.com/boss.html<p>It's appropriate, given his audience, that most of what PG writes is very encouraging of the idea that people should just get out there and get things going by themselves.<p>But, not being familiar with all of his essays, I wonder if someone could point to any that are a little bit more ambivalent about the whole endeavor.
You know, there is absolutely nothing wrong with not wanting to do a startup.<p>You'll find that a lot of people here have something crazy in their genetics that makes them <i>know</i> that they have to do a startup. Like, they could be really happy doing whatever they're doing today, but they'll never stop thinking about how they are going to do their startup. Those are the people that pg is talking to in his essays.<p>If you ask me, it's about doing what makes you happy. If you prefer to have a job at an existing company, or if you're risk averse, there's absolutely nothing wrong with that.
Although I had posted it earlier and been trashed for it I will point to "We Don't Encourage Individuals to Form Startups" at <a href="http://www.skmurphy.com/blog/2008/12/04/we-dont-encourage-individuals-to-form-a-startup/" rel="nofollow">http://www.skmurphy.com/blog/2008/12/04/we-dont-encourage-in...</a><p>My thesis is that most entrepreneurship is involuntary (either due to fundamental personality characteristics or lack of opportunity to do anything else). If you like the structure corporations provide, embrace it. My only caveat is that most have done away with a commitment to lifetime employment, give some thought to what you might do if you were not able to continue to work in a corporation. I think the best book on the psychology of entrepreneurship is "You Have to Be a Little Crazy" by Barry Moltz <a href="http://www.amazon.com/You-Need-Be-Little-Crazy/dp/079318018X/" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/You-Need-Be-Little-Crazy/dp/079318018X...</a> who concludes:<p>"Entrepreneurs start businesses because..they have no choice. Passion and energy drive them on good days and sustain them on bad days."
I'm actually innately risk averse but I wind up looking wildly devil-may-care to some people because my life circumstances have consistently put me in a position to choose between the safe, secure path of certain doom or the risky, unexplored path of possible doom. Given that scenario, "possible doom" is the conservative risk-averse choice.<p>I think public school and other bureaucratic institutions help shape people in the direction of expecting bureaucracy as the "norm"....I mean, it seems to me it's a culture and a mindset and a lifestyle and if you grow up with it, it's more comfortable than being out on a limb by yourself. My sons were homeschooled for a long time and they are a lot less intimidated than I am about plans to become entrepreneurs. I have long been torn between wanting to strike out on my own and wanting more conventional success. I'm wired (and probably also trained) to want the perceived societal approval that goes along with making it in a large bureaucracy (big company, federal government...etc) But I just don't fit in.<p>I currently have a corporate job and that has given me some degree of satisfaction that "Yes! I <i>can</i> make it on those terms!" But I've also been languishing in an entry-level job which doesn't begin to compare to the kind of recognition/success I've had in other (non-monetary) endeavors. I've been very torn between wanting to pursue a career at the company and wanting to strike out on my own. But recent events at work have convinced me that striking out on my own is the more risk-averse path. I can't control what the folks in charge at the company are doing and recent developments concern me. I've also seen that working a regular day job doesn't buffer me from the vagaries of the market as much as I thought it would. It just gives me less control over how to meet the latest challenges than I would have if I ran the show.<p>So I believe I will end up out there on my own. But I believe it will be a logical progression, step by step, rather than a radical departure.
That would be a rather negative essay and it would not be any productive. Instead of talking about people who should not, we can keep talking about people who should or skills to acquire prior to starting a startup.<p>In the end, no one knows.