Fifteen years of entrepreneurship

"How do I start my own business?" is perhaps the most common question I have been asked at B-Schools.

Profit is remuneration for risk, not for effort. A certain minimum appetite for risk is therefore a must-have characteristic. But risk taking ability alone does not an entrepreneur make. A few more ingredients are required for the magic stew. More importantly, these have to come together in the same person at the same time for him / her to seriously consider entrepreneurship.

1. Most entrepreneurs are driven by a sense of ambition. It is crucial that this level of ambition be high. High enough that it cannot be met by employment even in the C-Suite. This ambition need not necessarily be about making money. One entrepreneur I know is driven by creating sustainable employment for thousands of people.

2. A number of entrepreneurs are pained by some facet of the employment paradigm. Some might believe that corporate jobs are paying them way short of what they are worth. Some might find the money quite appealing, but see their work as drudgery. They hate Mondays. Others might find their bosses insufferable. It is crucial, again here, that this level of pain be so high that the person not just considers quitting his or her job - but considers it seriously and plans to do it as early as now.

3. Most entrepreneurs are driven by a desire to change the world in some way.  Bill Gates wanted to make computers simple enough for his grandmother to use. Larry Page and Sergey Brin wanted to make internet search more efficient. Purely the desire to make more money is not enough to make an entrepreneur.

Put all three things together at the same time in the same person, add a dash of risk taking and you might just have the primordial soup. What happens if one of the ingredients is missing?

If the ambition is missing in a person who wishes to change the world and is pained with corporate life, you have the makings of a social worker or an NGO type.

A person with ambition and a desire to change the world who is comfortable in the corporate setting makes for a procrastinator, someone in the 'n+2' mode. "Two hundred thousand dollars more and a couple of years later, I will start my own thing."

Look around you and you will find a number of people are possessed of items 1 and 2. These are the job hoppers.