Venture Adventure

About once every six months or so, the meme So You Want to be a VC hits the VC blogs that I follow. As usual, the VCs post wonderful things about both being a VC and how they got there.

What seems to be lacking is an understanding of the motivation. Why does the implementor want to be a manager? Why be a VC? Why does the founder want to be CEO?

As I talk to people, I’m always curious as to their motivations. I have many friends in the engineering world, and most don’t want to be managers. Most that are managers are their because that’s the only career progression to them. And those that really want to be managers usually understand that management is not just a step on the career ladder, but is a jump to a completely different job, with different requirements, tasks, risks and rewards.

I’ve also talked with a number of people, primarily while at SCU B-School, about why they want to be a VC. We even had some VC alums come and talk on that specific topic. The consensus seems to be that VCs get rich quick, and that they have first access to cool toys. But, of course, getting rich quick is not a job description, and most of these people are motivated by the money rather than the job.

The same goes true for many of the Founder/CEOs I’ve talked to over the years at the plethora of entrepreneurial/startup events I’ve attended. The typical founder/CEO is motivated to be a CEO as the path to wealth. But gaining wealth is really an insufficient motivator for the CEO role.

The CEO is responsible for many things – balancing risk/reward; employees concerns vs. customer concerns vs. board concerns; resource allocations; ROI; etc.

But, ultimately, as the Founder/CEO, I’m the father of the business. I give birth to the business through my ideas. I gather the resources required to help my baby grow. I work with my team, so that we all have the same goals for our child. I help our child to grow. Eventually, we have built a business that is successful and can stand on its own without my help.

There is a beauty and creativity to this that I cannot really express, nor can I find in any of my other activities. It’s this creativity and beauty that really motivates me.