And then for the last 10 years I've seen my father move from job to job, fear for his employment constantly, and right now is batting down the hatches because his PHB-dominated company is going through another round of restructuring because they can't build a product if their lives depended on it. Yay.
I look at this and wonder how secure a "real job" really is, and given how little security there is in a job these days, is there a good reason to take one?
Yeah, you get an automatic paycheck. Entrepreneurs can go months or years without making any money at all.
Large technology companies have increasingly outsourced innovative product development to small start-ups. It turns out this delivers better ROI since even though acquiring a successful start-up is expensive, there is much less risk. Cisco in particular has been consistent and open about following this strategy. They have partially funded several networking start-ups, encouraged key Cisco staff to join them, and then purchased the ones the succeeded.
Also, big companies do have a lot of resources that they can bring to bear on problems that startups will never have. Think of all the cool things created by ATT and IBM, for instance, in decades past. However, I think those days are gone, as I am not sure even big companies have the budget to keep around too many "pure" R&D types any more.
> For me, entrepreneurship isn't cool -- it's the only rational option.
I think I agree with this, but sort of grudgingly/sadly... I'm not sure I am or really want to be an "entrepreneur". I like to build cool stuff, not run companies, sell things, bargain with people, and all the businessy things. I think I can learn those to some degree, but I'll never be someone who lives for that part of things. So in some ways it's sort of limiting to feel that "it's the only rational option". I hope that makes sense:-)