Does anyone really put their all into a crazy startup just because they want to retire early? I mean, it's a nice carrot, but all the people I've ever known to burn the midnight oil at a startup are passionate about what the startup is actually doing, not the payday at the end. - ⓞnor
I share your incredulity Dan. The startup folks I've always been surrounded with have a genuine passion for making things and getting people to use those things. They choose startups in the first place because the environment gives them the opportunity to focus most or all of their attention on this passion for doing. I don't hear folks talking a lot about how they're going to retire when the big payday hits. More importantly, when the big payday does hit, I haven't seen many folks actually retire... - Kevin Scott
I thought doing the crazy startup was the goal, not the other way around. - Edward Ho
I don't know whether people who go into startups really think like this (can't think of any examples personally, but being in it for the money instead of the passion probably correlates with lower success and therefore lower visibility), but people like Paul Graham sometimes make it sound like early retirement is the goal: "Economically, you can think of a startup as a way to compress your whole working life into a few years. Instead of working at a low intensity for forty years, you work as hard as you possibly can for four. This pays especially well in technology, where you earn a premium for working fast." http://www.paulgraham.com/weal... - Ben Darnell
So you're responding to Graham? Because your post said "the classic argument", and I an unwilling to grant Paul Graham's natterings the automatic status of "classic argument". - ⓞnor
I haven't known too many people I've worked with that were shooting for early retirement, although being in control of your own financial security and how you manage your time is often a goal. I have to admit though, part of the fun of a startup is not knowing if there will be a big payoff. It's like a treasure hunt, and it's not just about money, but also about how big an impact your product might have on others. - Chris White
If anything, the pot of gold is for seeding your next startup, or launching a personal blimp factory, or something -- not for "retirement". - ⓞnor
My guess is that it's probably more about having the financial freedom to choose what to work on than being able to retire in the usual sense of the word. - Jim Norris
I'm not responding to Graham or anybody; I just shared this because it relates to some conversations I've had recently. I do think that striking it rich and retiring early is a key part of the silicon valley mythology (especially as viewed from the outside), although there is less interest in the traditional sense of "retirement". I think the main point of the post still works for non-traditional uses of the "pot of gold" - work on something you enjoy (which may be a startup) instead of seeing work as a sacrifice for a future payoff. - Ben Darnell
