There are many great reasons to do a start-up — career advancement, (sort of) being your own boss, doing something new, creativity, etc. etc.
But I wonder if it’s really a handful of brief moments of True Wonderfulness than makes start-ups so distinct from the BigCo Fortune 500 world.
Most start-up work is more tedious than you’d get in a fancy corner office. Â It’s far more stressful. Â And probably, you won’t ever make any more money working at a start-up than a BigCo.
But there are those moments. Â The day of the IPO (the next day – back to business. But that one day, see Trulia above). Â That one huge deal, and the party after. Â That one time you built something in your product that was simply – bitchin’. Â That no one else had ever done before. Â The moments of true magic.
It’s those few and rare moments of True Wonderfulness that just don’t exist in VP life in the Fortune 500, I don’t think. Â They keep you going.
Let’s all remind each other to cherish them when they come.