Java Entrepreneur

On Starship Troopers and Entrepreneurship

The title of this may sound strange but trust me I'll wrap it up nicely. I'll start by saying that yesterday I had an opportunity to speak to an Angel Investor. Who and why is not something I'll share here. I will say that the conversation was not something I was expecting and for that matter was not prepared for either.

I'm well aware that I'm generalizing here but I'm going to go out on a limb and say that individuals that are Angel Investors are not your average people and view the world slightly different from the rest of us. I don't mean that in a negative way at all. This is just something I've found to be after having had the opportunity to interact with a couple of them.

During the course of this conversation with this man I made it clear that I was not able to walk away from certain things I've been doing and jump into a new opportunity completely. Needless to say things didn't go very well from there but he was nice enough to continue with the conversation anyway and give me some advice. That was when I was schooled on what this person thinks it means to be an entrepreneur and in my opinion he did a pretty good job of explaining himself.

He proceeded to ask me If I've read the book or seen the movie Starship Troopers. I said that I had seen the movie. He then describe the philosophical belief in the book that in order to be a "citizen" a person needs to join the military and serve the society. That person in effect is willing to risk everything, their life, for what they believe in an in turn can become full citizens in society because of that willingness. Those people who do not want to take this risk can still live in the society but never be able to take advantage of the full benefits of or the ability to make the decisions in the society. They are in effect on the sidelines and there by their own choice.

The parallel, and the point of this, is with entrepreneurship and the willingness of an entrepreneur to devote themselves to what it is they are doing (As an aside, it was this point in the conversation that I wanted to share with this man that I had spent 5 years serving in the U.S. Military but I figured that might be taking his analogy a little too far and I didn't mention it). He continued to tell me that I should commit myself to what it is that I believe in and jump into it with both feet. If not than I should give up now and save the energy I'm wasting. Accept who it is and what it is I am and allow people to tell me what to do for the rest of my life. Without that willingness to risk everything I can never be a sucessful entrepreneur.

Every once in a while someone enters your life that changes the way you think about things. This was one of these people for me. I'm not sure if I agree with everything he said but I've been thinking about it ever since. Are there certain responsibilities a person should not simply walk away from? I believe there are and I cannot turn my back on those things. I soldier on and do what it is that I think I need to be successful but I can't get this conversation out of my head.