My parents always told me that the only way to live comfortably is to do what all the smart kids do, meaning, to get a university degree and then find a well-paying job. S-T-A-B-I-L-I-T-Y, they said. I listened. In fact, I am pretty sure I have not once heard them speak about any option other than working for someone else. So as you can imagine, I followed their advice.

In a way, I was conditioned to believe that business is only for the “chosen” ones. This meant that either you would need to be born in an already wealthy family or be extremely lucky, which in my opinion, makes little difference. The idea of taking risks and working hard towards personal success in the context of business, in my mind, did not exist… until I got my university degree.

Maybe you are here because you are thinking of starting your own business and you are curious, or maybe you are here because you have already started one and you are looking for that extra bit of motivation. Either way, you’ve come to the right place. Let’s take a look at what motivates an entrepreneur to start a business over living a “comfortable and stable life”.

What motivates an entrepreneur to start a business?

The 9-5 rat race

Leaving the 9-5 rat race is arguably the most common cause what motivates an entrepreneur to start a business.

As a teenager, I had plenty of jobs that were physically demanding. I would go after school helping to deliver alcohol to bars and pubs. We would load tens of kegs into a truck, each weighing over 30 kg or 66 lbs, and then ride around the city, getting them to the locations. The problem with this job was that, despite having a trolley for the kegs, most of the bar storage rooms were located in the basements. This meant that I needed to carry those kegs by hand down the stairs. I quickly got the taste of why education is so important for my bright future.

Later on, I began delivering furniture. Sometimes this meant delivering a single chair to a private house yard, but mostly, it meant delivering 3 tons of Ikea kitchens on pallets, piece by piece, to the 6th floor using the stairs. It was.. fun.

Then I worked on construction sites, mostly carrying bricks on roofs with no shade on a hot summer day (30°C or 86°F). And finally, for my last physical job, I became an apartment mover.

Honestly, I really don’t like moving even my own furniture from one place to another, but as a professional and proud mover, I got to do a new house every single day, for a minimum wage, by the way. I was basically doing something I hated for almost no money. Saying that I hated this job with all my heart is to say nothing. But I did it anyway because I needed to eat food.

Nevertheless, one thing that kept warming my heart was the fact that I am about to start my university degree, after which I will get a well-paying job, and all of my problems will be gone forever. Oh, how wrong I was.

First of all, after completing my Bachelor of Business Administration degree, majoring in IT and software development, the only job that I was able to get was one that paid me again.. here comes the drum roll… the bare minimum! I could hardly afford the cheapest possible apartment that I was at the time living in. I won’t even mention the study loan that I was supposed to soon start paying back.

Secondly, on my very first day, I came to work, sat at my desk, looked at my computer, and smiled, since I realized, that for the very first time in my life I was not doing anything physical at work. I could just sit and relax. I was happy. Unfortunately, though, I was happy only for an hour.

I very soon realized that even though there was nothing fundamentally wrong with my new job, I just couldn’t accept the fact that I needed to do something that I didn’t want to do at the moment. I hated getting told what I needed to do. That was the day when I understood that regardless of how much someone pays me or how many benefits I get from the firm, as long as I work for someone else, taking orders from them, living from paycheck to paycheck, mindlessly trying to climb the corporate ladder, I will be miserable.

After the second day of work, I came home, opened google, and began to look for business opportunities online. I found plenty. I had no idea why I didn’t think of doing this earlier. It felt like I wasted so much time taking the wrong turns.

In retrospective, though, I realize that it was the only way for me to understand what I really want in life and, no less important, don’t want. As the saying goes, better late than never. Needless to say, I also understood what motivates an entrepreneur to start a business.

Helping others

It’s not a surprise that so many successful entrepreneurs are philanthropists.

In my opinion, helping others is one other big cause what motivates entrepreneurs to start a business. In my case, this particular cause has always pushed me to keep going no matter what. Regardless of what obstacle comes along the way or what mistake I make, I keep reminding myself that if I can be successful, then I am able to do more for the world. When I focus on wanting to help others, challenges are easier to overcome.

If you work the typical 9-5 day job, in whatever you do, you can become successful and make a decent amount of money. But the reality is that with most jobs, you cannot become wealthy. This means that there is only so much you can give away and do for the charities.

Moreover, working at a typical day job limits you to how many people you can help. It can be your family members, friends and maybe colleagues, and that’s usually it. If you start a business, however, you can use that business to choose to whom, how, where and when to help. Your circle of influence can be as big as you want it to be. You set your boundaries.

A great example is people, like Jim Rohn, Brian Tracy, Warren Buffett, Richard Branson, Napoleon Hill and Tony Robbins. Through their businesses and wealth, they have been able to aid hundreds of millions of people. There is no way in the world they would have had such a reach if they would have stayed in the typical 9-5 job.

P.S. I didn’t know if this would happen again, but I have something exciting to share with you!

Two people I deeply admire and respect, Tony Robbins and Dean Graziosi – the absolute top experts in the self-education industry are going LIVE together in just a few days.

You have a rare chance to learn about the self-education industry and gain the blueprint for using your knowledge (or other people’s knowledge), sharing it with those who want it, while positively impacting their lives and taking your success to a whole new level. It’s very similar to what I have shared with you in this blog post.

You can attend this training for FREE by reserving your spot with this link here!

Financial freedom

Earlier I mentioned that if you become an employee, chances are that you will never become rich, at least not in the way entrepreneurs do.

The reason why so many people take the standard day job over becoming an entrepreneur is because nothing is guaranteed for people that start a business. There is no guarantee that you will become a success or even make enough money to live through the next month.

As much as any entrepreneur wants success to be the first word of their vocabulary, mistakes and failure will always be the ones coming right after. It’s just part of the game. And that’s the reason why so many people do work for someone else. It’s that “stability” again that comes with a monthly paycheck that keeps them there. As Robert Kiyosaki famously said:

The moment you need a paycheck, you are no longer free. – Robert Kiyosaki

Click To Tweet

On the other hand…

Those who don’t take risks, don’t drink champagne.

Click To Tweet

Yes, it’s not easy to be in business. You will make mistakes and you can fail, but if you are able to overcome it and to be above it all, then you have the option to become financially free.

Being financially free means instead of you working for money, money works for you. It means you can retire and never have to worry about money again. It also means being able to afford a luxurious life for yourself and your family, and have plenty of money left to give away to those that need your help. Financial freedom is also often what motivates an entrepreneur to start a business.

When you have money in abundance, you are able to be as generous as you want to be. Warren Buffett, one of the richest people on the planet, has pledged to give away 99 percent of his fortune to philanthropic causes. That is what business can do for you and others.

Purpose in life

The last but not least in the list of what motivates an entrepreneur to start a business is, of course, the purpose itself.

People that get into business are those that want to change the world in one way or another. They look at the challenges that others are facing, and then create solutions for them.

Essentially, the competition that occurs amongst entrepreneurs and their businesses is what makes life on this planet so much better. Sure, there are things like global warming and pollution, and many others that are partially caused by people, but it is also the entrepreneurs that look for ways to solve these problems as quickly as possible.

Every successful entrepreneur on this planet had a vision, and then used their motivation, ambitions and skills to make that vision a reality. In other words, they had a purpose and they were able to fulfill it.

To conclude, any business has its challenges and will always be more difficult than working for someone else. However, the benefits and the results that you can accomplish with it are also on a whole different level. So if you do decide to start your own business, make sure that you very well understand your vision and what the purpose of it all is for you. Then, failure will not be an option.

He who has a why to live can bear almost any how. – Friedrich Nietzsche.

Click To Tweet

Thank you for stopping by and good luck!

Photos courtesy of Oliver Sjöström.

Please click below to subscribe and to follow us on social media:

Click here to follow us via E-mail!

Click here to follow us on Facebook!

Click here to follow us on YouTube!

Click here to follow us on Instagram!

Click here to follow us on Twitter!

5 / 5 ( 2 votes )