Following up from our previous post ‘How The Definition of Entrepreneurship and Start-Up Can be Confusing‘, now that we have clarified that entrepreneurship is not only for licorne-type exponential growth startups, the next issue is what is the objective of creating a company, and more specifically, what the objectives of the founders are.
Objectives can roughly be a mix of the following:
- working on something the founder is passionate about,
- provide a solution that is missing on the market, creating value for customers or more generally for stakeholders, putting one’s mark on the world through the leverage of an organization,
- providing opportunities and livelihood to employees and other contributors involved,
- making money.
The weight mix of these objectives can vary, but generally there is a definite mix, and my view is that all of them need to be part of the mix.
It is important to have all aspects covered because:
- passion is the only way the hard work will be provided on the long run
- putting one’s mark on the world is about recognition and satisfaction
- providing opportunities to employees and contributors is essential to have their full contribution and as a responsible business owner
- making money is part of the motivation and just compensation for the value created, and provides with opportunities for creating more businesses and activities.
As a note, those founders that create companies only with the objective of making money exist, but their companies are generally not exciting when not quickly involved in inappropriate accounting issues. Making money can be one respectable objective, through the leverage provided by an organization, but the main objectives should be different.
