What I gave up, what I gained.
During this Global Entrepreneurship Week, I’ve spent a fair bit of time reflecting on the differences between my days in the big corporate world and my time in the startup realm. Although I regularly shit on the corporate world, referring to corporate jobs as ‘veal pens’ and ‘cubicle farms’ and posting graphics like the one on the right, there are genuine benefits and drawbacks to both.
Entrepreneurship and Startups are not for everyone, and as your life situations change, your risk profile and tolerance can change as well. Big corporate jobs are the same, sometimes they are the solid foundation for a broader life, and an fulfilling and enriching career.
I’d like to explain this fair and balanced, but my current bias is bound to show through. Apologies in advance.
What I gained in the big corporate world:
I began my career at Baxter Healthcare in Cardiovascular Research and Development. I made a predictable income that allowed me to get my first apartment, go to school at night, get engaged/married, and pay my bills (mostly) consistently.
I also had the opportunity in the intervening 20+ years to work with brilliant people in sales, marketing, engineering, manufacturing and more esoteric roles that only exist in companies greater than 10,000 people. These individuals, and the access to outside organizations that was afforded to me by association with the large employers, provided me with a constant mental whetstone by which to learn and refine my beliefs.
What I lost:
In large companies, the meritocratic nature of seeing the tangible benefit of your direct labor is diluted by all of the other processes and groups that your work has to pass through. You have fractional parentage, at best, of your efforts. Your successes are muted as they have ‘a thousand fathers’. Unless you are in sales, then your successes and failures are solely yours.
I also, and this is hard to explain, lost the intrinsic sense of ownership and connection that you get by running your own company (or being a partner). I have a displaced paternal pride in the products I have built, but I’m sure there are a few hundred other people who claim paternity of those as well.
What I gained in the startup world:
Purity. Hunting. You eat what you kill. You are in charge of what you build, how you sell it, and you live directly and soberly with the outcome of your decisions. All the success is yours, all the failure is yours. There is nothing to hide behind in the event of failure, and no one jumping in front of you to claim credit for your successes. The volume is permanently at '11'.
What I lost:
Predictability. In the initial stages of making a company, a CEO friend of mine once quipped ‘You’d wake up screaming if you could fall asleep at all.’ I have no income, no health insurance (unless I can afford to buy it privately), and no safety net. It’s utter chaos, and if you are easily predisposed to despair, quite depressing. Feast and famine.
In a large company, you are insulated from success and failure, both emotionally and financially, as you are diluted by all of the rest of the company employees and structure. If you have family circumstances, such as a child with a pre-existing medical condition that requires no break in health coverage, or prefer the surety of knowing that your payroll check is going to clear, you are making a decision. There is nothing whatsoever wrong with that decision, it is pragmatic and responsible. You have chosen to limit risk, however that also comes with limiting your upside as well.
In contrast, the startup life has no mute button. In a startup, you know every single benefit and drawback viscerally. If you can live with it, it’s a full-contact adrenaline-filled adventure. And once you get a taste for it, you can never go back.
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