What is your motivation?

If working a startup is so bad (as Wil points outthen why do we do it?

I mean, yeah, there's that big potential upside and all, but it's not highly unlikely that you won't be massively diluted (like some people at Zantaz) by the time you get there.

I remember a series of points from one of my favorite books, Free Agent Nation, practically a manifesto for independent consultants, that talks about freedom, authenticity, accountability, and defining your own success.

Freedom
Man, I really want to go Braveheart here, "They may take our lives... but they will never take our FREEDOM!". And alas, this is the impact corporate America has on the heart of mankind. I think it will be interesting the day that the cubicle dwellers unite in a massive revolt against the executive borg collective. Strangely, being a part of a startup actually takes away your freedom, at least in terms of having time available to do anything you want and things you might potentially enjoy. It would seem to me that the "freedom" related to being in a startup rests not so much in the time that you have, but in your perceived ownership of that time. Kiyosaki says it best, at the first stage, you basically "own" your job, ultimately trying to create a business that doesn't require you.

But it's the allure of freedom that keeps us going - our ability at least to own our job does have some value.

Authenticity
Be You. Being at a startup, at least in some fashion, allows you to be yourself. Many people, after years of hiding behind the corporate facade, finally end up imploding through some form of compulsive behavior. That's not to say that the folks at the startup don't implode through some form of compulsive behavior, it's just that the source of that implosion is different. At startups I've been involved in, you actually relish in your differences, in your candor, in how you get things done. To be involved in a part of a story that you're writing... now that's the stuff of startup legend.

Accountability
I don't know how many of you have ever been there... but there's a weird spot in the world where employees are "trapped". They can't move up, or over, or anywhere - and it's an awful feeling. You begin to feel like you can't get out of the existing circumstances and that any change is dependent completely on someone else. What's worse is when that someone else is a complete imbecile. One major component of startup motivation is accountability - the fact that I can make my future, I'm not dependent on any one else (well, mostly) and I can make it happen. Folks in startups love to bear their own burdens and will often use those burdens to beat non-startuppers over the head: "When's the last time you had to make payroll?"

Define Your Own Success
A major disparity between the entrepreneur and the corporate junkie is that of vision. "There's something better out there" the entrepreneur will say, and there's a very fast way to do it. Likewise, there's a huge difference between a $6M company and a $2B company and people at every level exude that difference. Success for one maybe simply to learn a new programming language, build a blog following, to revenue targets like $10K month in sales, all the way up the value chain. I find it increasingly interesting the comparisons between Wal-Mart and my startup, as one author states we all need to build a "World-Class Company". I don't particularly agree that that is the success notion of everyone who starts their own business - a major reason for starting your own is to define what it will be!

Freedom, Authenticity, Accountability, and then Defining Your Own Success are the foundation of an entrepreneur's motivation. Anything outside of this, at least where founders are concerned, just makes life difficult. For example, at one point in the journey we ran into a rather massive entanglement that brutally exposed all of our collective weaknesses in a matter of minutes. The resultant conversation led us to a "Why are we here?" moment. We came up with the following:

• To have fun,
• To serve people,
• To make money

But what I've noticed over the last 2 years is that these things are great - as long as they don't impact Freedom, Authenticity, Accountability, and Defining Your Own Success. Once you begin to sacrifice some of this core, in one way or another it affects you. You may begin to lose passion, you might begin to just slog through days, weeks, months, years - without really figuring out why you feel empty. Don't fall for it - you need to have those 4 core items. Any decision you make that will impact those items you should consider carefully, because eventually you'll want out or want some dramatic change.

I've found that with different folks there are different levels of the 4 core values. Be cognizant of what yours are and make sure you elevate any constraints around them.