Entrepreneurial Motives
People land in the entrepreneurial world for many reasons. In analyzing what ends up driving these entrepreneurs, researchers and observers find 4 particularly strong motives: control, freedom, impact and wealth (in alphabetical order.)
Some or all of these motivations may be important to you as an entrepreneur. There will also be some overlap between various motives in various contexts. It is important, however, to know which of these are most important to you at this point in your life, as there are clear decisions that reinforce the different motivational paths.
Motive Assessment
After reading through the various motive elements, rank these 4 overall categories from most (1) to least (4) important to you.
Control
• To be the final word on important decisions in my business
• To develop and shape my business as I see fit
• To be the ultimate boss reporting to no one
• To insist on a different approach when I feel staff are making critical mistakes
• To choose if and how I want to expand the business
• To be able to engage and disengage company advisors as I see fit
• To personally shape the public image of my company
• To personally select that staff I prefer
Freedom
• To be my own boss
• To set my own working hours
• To avoid office politics
• To work independently
• To follow my own creative inspirations
• To avoid having to report to someone whom I disrespect or dislike
• To do elements of my work when and where I want to – home, coffee shop, out of town..
• To escape certain company rituals that I find futile – e.g: endless meetings, office parties, company bonding trips..
Impact
• To build an innovation that will change the way people do key tasks
• To bring about positive social change
• To create jobs for people
• To help people who are at risk or disadvantaged
• To make certain tasks more efficient or enjoyable with my product or service
• To be remembered for inventing something long after I’m out of the workforce
• To build products or services that people can’t wait to rave about with others
• To be a pioneer in my industry
Wealth
• To accumulate much money over my lifetime
• To never have to worry about having enough money
• To be able to buy what I want when I want it
• To have a fancy house/vacation house and other high ticket items
• To be able to travel the world without worrying about costs
• To build a business that I can sell for a huge profit
• To retire with great wealth I have earned in the business
• To bring in solid strategic partners who can help grow the value of the business
Motive Ranking
A. Rank how important these entrepreneurial motives are to you right now, with #1 being the most important and #4 being the least important.
1.
2.
3.
4.
B. What are some implications for how you build your business, based on this motive order?
Exploring Motives Further
See the link below for a more detailed Wealth vs Control motive survey from our text author, Noam Wasserman.
https://blogs.ubc.ca/e101/founders-dilemmas-survey/