Dude, you are shifting goalposts. You literally mentioned to @hienyimba that you envy people with alternatives - right after he mentioned he could be a lawyer. You could blame yourself for misleading everyone from the very beginning.
Also, your description of yourself which you have used in a latter post describes all the values you would want to be in an early employee of your startup. That means you could be an employee in a startup yourself. You have done a very poor job of defending your choice, which only highlights a bigger problem that pervades the ecosystem at large.
I never wanted to work in a large corporate organization for reasons just like the ones you highlighted. First, for some reason I detested the rigidity of corporate 9-5s. I also wanted to have some sort of ownership (iâm talking emotional stake) in my work, where I know I am absolutely responsible for the success or failure of what I do, on a technical level while being proud to see it work in the wild. My entire professional career, starting back in 2006 with a management consulting firm on the island (where I built a product that helped them track the performance of their sales people in the field) to what I do today has been defined by that drive.
Actually, thatâs not the point. In my experience, I didnât really work with great companies as such but I was afforded the opportunity to consult within large organizations, and learned a lot doing so. It also helped that I worked with a number of small companies that struggled and failed in that period because it all came together to form a glossary of things to not do at my own endeavors.
Now I am not saying everyone has to go through this convoluted 10-year path I went through before starting something of their own, but saying you have no choice but to own a startup (with the reasons you provided) is atrocious. There are a lot more employee options that fit just right than youâd imagine. Besides, we stand to gain nothing if everyone and their dog runs mediocre startups with the inevitable stories that touch further down the road.
This might be corrections to some notions earlier mentioned.
i. Seriously speaking, Startups are cool, especially those in the tech world. With all the Silicon Valley thingy weâve heard, seen and/or read; who doesnât/wouldnât want to own a startup. But itâs not all about being the founder of a startup that matter, itâs being the founder of a SUCCESSFUL startup, and this just doesnât happen overnight.
ii. According to the title of the thread, Iâm in full agreement that âWe must not all do startupsâ.
iii. You build a project and milk it to Jeruselem or wâever, bottomline is âyou made a startup (and milked it)â [quote=âhienyimba, post:1, topic:8133â]
Why donât we build products that people want and milk it to Jerusalem?
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iv. Nairaland, LindaIkejiâs blog, etc, are all startups (that are successful).
v. Different strokes for different folks, Just as some or majority of persons would prefer being the founder of startups, some are satisfied being employees only, and they consider it to be the best feeling ever. They just donât want to be entangled with all the fuss and stress found with startups.
We must not all be founders of startups, it is satisfactory and also pays being part of a startup. I am a founder and a co-founder, and I know how it feels and what it entails (at least to a large extent).
I donât get this âwhy we must not do startup thingâ, you guys are making startup look like some almighty thing only a super duper human should be doing. why i agree not everyone should start a business(startup), i still believe anyone who wants to start a business should go ahead and start one, in fact thatâs what makes him a true entrepreneur(one who is ready to take all risks of uncertainty even when you think he/she is been foolish).
The fact that someone starts a business(Startup) and fails doesnât make him a failure or doesnât mean he shouldnât try starting another. Donât be fooled with success stories of people like Mark, Bill Gates, Sergy Brin and others who succeeded at their first business, try to look at others who didnât succeed at their first business(Startups) and went ahead to great other very successful Businesses.
[EDIT] Also you noticed i used âbusinessâ then âstartupsâ in bracket, this is because startups are really business so drop the fancy word and call it what it really is and stop mystifying it like something only people with a Stanford/Harvard/(Any Ivy League College) degree or aliens from mars should be doing. its just for people with Heart, so if you got one then do startup if you must.
Helping Nigeria build a sustainable economy - Economic analyst at the Fed Ministry of Finance
Designing currency simulation modules for the Central bank of Nigeria.
Developing modules for sustainable crude oil recovery at OPEC
Research, Development and Engineering at Exxonmobil & Chevron - Unlimited/Big budget pursuit of safer energy alternatives.
Impacting knowledge - Teaching maths in a secondary school and providing guidance for the future generation of scientists.
Are these the 9-5 jobs you left for your startup?
I am thinking of how your startup can provide more value(or solve more problems) than these 9-5 jobs.
Well, it may look barren; but I donât think youâre right either. I believe youâve heard about personalised learning that Bill Gates and Chan Zuckerberg Initiative have been campaigning for, in which the high school curriculum is designed and incorporated into a software designed by Facebook to meet and adapt to each studentâs unique learning method, enabling their teachers to approach their instructions using these unique methods. Now what if someone decided to carry out an extensive research on how students learn Mathematics in secondary schools in Nigeria and other African countries to gain the most effective methods employed by different student groups, and then use the insight gathered to build a software that specifically patterns the Maths curriculum to these unique effective learning techniques, such that if any student wanted to be a nuclear physicist or cancer biologist, for instance, the software would draw up the secondary school maths objectives and desired learning technique to achieve this. Imagine how disruptive this could be if proven to be effective; and how schools and even parents across Nigeria and beyond will flock to subscribe monthly or yearly for this. This could probably lead to Nigerian secondary school students winning this Globa Science Prize that just started last for year high school students.
Then you hear there is an acquisition or a merger or a recession and staff are going to be âlet offâ, then you start running from pillar to post.
Let people do what they enjoy doing best. Whether it is caused by condition or intention let them be. There is no given formula for life. Some like to take control of life and run their business, others like to be part of a team and run a partnership. Thereâs those who prefer to be led and told what to do, they work as employees. Nothingâs wrong with these. Just the beautiful variety of life and they all have their ups and downs.
Even that multinational corporation with 1000 staff strength may have once been a âstartupâ with 3 people working from a shed.
