In a candid interview with Betty Liu, Scott Galloway makes a number of insightful observations. The key one is that the requisite for being an entrepreneur is a willingness to sign the front of the check–not the back–for the pleasure of working their ass off in their own company. Most people understand that theoretically, but very few are actually willing to do it. https://soundcloud.com/radiatepodcast/scott-galloway-writing-the-entrepreneurial-check
Scott Galloway: Entrepreneurs Sign the Front of the Check
Predictions are useless but predicting is valuable, it helps to catalyze your thinking on a subject.
In American society today we romanticize and idolize innovators too much.
being very boring can make you very rich
http://www.businessinsider.com/being-very-boring-can-make-you-very-rich-2016-7
Scott Galloway
https://www.l2inc.com/daily-insights/no-mercy-no-malice/ssquared
I have struggled my entire career with the difference between being right and being effective. I have create a lot of controversy and agita when I should have handled it more elegantly and more generously. I am a fairly combative and confrontational person. When you are young you think that as long as you are right things will work out. But there is a difference between being right and being effective.
People romanticize entrepreneurs: the primary reason that I am an entrepreneur is not because I have special skills but because I don’t have the skillset to survive in a big company. For me, being an entrepreneur is a defense mechanism.
Working in a big company I had a lot of unproductive anxiety. Do they know how hard I’m working? Am I going to get a good bonus? Am I going to get fired? Are they going to fire my boss–in which case I will be fired the next day.
As an entrepreneur I have a ton of anxiety, but it’s productive anxiety. Where am I getting my next dollar? How do I finance stuff? People look at me as an entrepreneur and say, “Wow, he must be special.” Here is how I am special: I cannot survive in a big company. So to make a living I start my own company.
The majority of entrepreneurs have two traits in common.
- You are too stupid to know they are going to fail. Whenever you start a company it never makes senses, if it made sense it would already exist.
- You are willing to sign the front of a check to go to work, not the back. For the pleasure of working your ass off, you put your own money into the company. People understand that theoretically, but very few are actually willing to do it. It’s a requisite for being an entrepreneur.
“We romanticize entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship,” he said. “It’s not nearly as cool and as rewarding as people would like to think. If you have a choice between being an entrepreneur and going to work for a great company, ask yourself: Do you have the skill set to be part of a big company? If you have those skills, on a risk-adjusted basis, you’re better off at a big company. They are incredible platforms”
https://www.facebook.com/BettyWLiu/videos/10153922818432762/