It’s about solving a problem. The money is just a pleasant by-product.
There are lots of myths about people who start companies. They:
- Have total control over their working lives, because they are the boss. (Nothing could be further from the truth, of course, because the entrepreneur owner is in charge of everything.)
- Are lone wolves. (They usual aren’t. It may not take a village to raise a child, but it takes a lot of people to get a company off the ground. The myth of the lone inventor spending days, weeks, months and even years in a garage by himself is just that. A myth.)
- Start their companies to get rich.
The last one may be most pervasive—and I have found it to be almost universal not true. Just about every entrepreneur I know started their company to solve a problem by creating something new. Making a lot of money was not their primary objective—but it was a very pleasant byproduct when it occurred.
This certainly describes my own experience. As grueling as it was to get my first enterprise off the ground, I loved the work of revitalizing a forgotten stretch of the urban landscape where I saw the potential of a revitalized Jersey City waterfront long before other much more experienced developers and government planners did. During the years I ran the development, I almost never thought about cashing out, and I only reluctantly agreed to sell when forced by my partner with few other viable choices.
The point is what most people do not understand is that while money is at the heart of business, it’s far from the sole motivation. What drives many entrepreneurs is the urge to build or create something, to turn around a wreck, or even to change the world for the better.
The money—should it happen—is just a pleasant by-product.
Indeed, if you concentrate on making money you probably won’t end up with much, if any.
There are two primary reasons why.
First, instead of starting a business to solve a problem, you will be tempted to look for a “hot” market to jump into. And by the time you discover it is hot, odds are it will have started to cool off. Remember all those people who started cupcake shops a few years ago. How many are still open?
Second, no matter what business you start, you will be tempted to cut corners and treat customers in the cheapest/most efficient way possible—instead of taking care of them—and again you will have put your focus in the wrong place. You will be concentrating on how much money you can make, instead of trying to solve a problem.
There is nothing wrong with making money. And indeed, at some point, the business needs to be profitable. But that is not the place to start.
There is nothing harder than creating something new. There is also nothing more fulfilling. Passion and purpose are the secrets to entrepreneurship…and to creating a fulfilling life.
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