An idea whose time has come: Entrepreneurialism has become cool

An idea whose time has come: Entrepreneurialism has become cool
economist.com

"Meg Whitman grew rich by developing an online marketplace, eBay, where people could buy and sell without ever meeting."

I recommend the book Paypal Wars. It was written by one of the "Paypal mafia." The book goes into quite a bit of detail about the early Paypal-eBay story, with an epilogue covering events until 2006. The reality is exactly the opposite of what the article claims.

Under Pierre Omidyar, eBay was a nimble start-up, and by the time Whitman came in, had established such a lead that the network effect was sufficient for them to retain their monopoly in the online auctions space no matter what. Whitman brought a culture of suits, endless meetings and powerpoint presentations into the company and quickly transformed it into a beast that moved at a fraction of its former speed. The new eBay took years to effectively integrate the payment system BillPoint which they purchased; if they had moved quicker, Paypal couldn't have survived, since they depended very heavily on eBay at the time.

The corporate culture-shock that the Paypal employees experienced upon being acquired by eBay, and their consequent mass exodus is now famous. If there is one positive thing that came out of the Whitman years at eBay, it is the fact that the Paypal people dispersed and went on to do great things and truly change the world :-)

Ironically, it was only around the time Whitman finally departed last year that it became clear that eBay was ripe for disruption. It amuses me that most of the business world, knowing none of the back-story, will think of the Whitman years at eBay as a glorious success.

I don't think it's that starting a business is "cool"; I mean, I guess it is, in some sense, although paying for your own health care isn't very cool. For me, this quote was apt:

"People’s attitudes to security and risk also changed. If a job in a big organisation can so easily disappear, it seems less attractive. Better to create your own."

It's not just about job security. After spending two years in a large corporation, I firmly believe that these shops provide less security, less on-the-job learning, less valuable experience, less opportunities to improve society, and in many cases less pay than ambitious young people can achieve otherwise. IMO, working at a large corporation, now more than ever, is an excellent way for you to hide, duck for cover, and defensively draw a paycheck. And mediocre people who take this posture are very clever indeed about ensuring they won't be laid off.

But if you actually want to do something meaningful with your life and happily spend your days working on a project you believe in, big corporations will rarely satisfy your needs.

Although I had a relatively good experience in my two years at my behemoth corporation (my last day is today, incidentally), the best thing I learned is how I'd rather not repeat the experience. I also look back on the two years and think that my most memorable moments (even technical achievements) happened outside of work.

With the means of production well within my grasp as a software engineer, and with big corporations going into a holding pattern and nixing interesting projects just to "keep the lights on", it seems like a no-brainer. For me, entrepreneurship isn't cool -- it's the only rational option.