Why do you want to be an entrepreneur?

A question asked on the Founder Institute application.

I realized early on that I wanted to create things. It’s exciting to solve a problem in a new way, and it requires you to think outside of the box. It’s very rewarding when users find value in your product or service. There is a sense of ownership that is rewarding. For these reasons, I find myself more invested in entrepreneurial ventures.

In college, I attempted a number of these ventures. From harebrained schemes to a couple semi-successful businesses. Me and my business partner, the same person I work with today, first started reselling TI-83 calculators when we noticed a local electronics store had purchased too many and was selling them for $25 each. We resold almost 300 of them for an average of $83.44. After that, we purchased laptops from the University of Washington surplus store. Many were broken and required repair. We’d repair them and sell them at a 200% markup. When stores began selling new laptops for as little as $300, our market went away. While none of these were long term business ideas, it was enough for me to learn I’d rather work on an entrepreneurial venture than at the law firm I was interning at.

After graduating, I took that job at the lawfirm. It seemed like the next logical step. I was paid well, but wasn’t passionate or excited about the work. I ended up quitting the law firm to build a location based service mobile application (imagine if Twitter and Google Latitude had a baby). Ultimately, we were too slow to market. The space was competitive, and we were learning object oriented programming languages for the first time. I lived with little money, and found bills and many other aspects of my life stressful. The excitement of working on this venture outweighed any of those pain points.

Ultimately, I want my work to have intrinsic value. For some, a job is a means towards an end. Time is our most valuable resource, and I hope to spend mine on problems and ideas I’m passionate about.