Why Entrepreneurs Start Companies Rather Than Join Them
This does not consider the fact that only a small segment of the population is capable of being entrepreneurs - at least in tech, in the first place. In order to leave a cushy job and start a startup you must:<p>1)Be born in a country that's rich with local talent that you can hire. Or have the ability to move to such a country.<p>2)Be free of debt, either from student loans or mortgage<p>3)Have affluent friends or families(the paper rightly notes that most early funding comes from friends and family) - so affluent that they are willing to invest in something they know will possibly fail, as most startups do.<p>4)Be the right age - if you're starting a family or paying off a mortgage, it would be completely irrational to abandon a stable job.<p>When you consider all this, there are perhaps a few hundred thousand people for whom it would be wise to become an entrepreneur - and by this I don't mean a local store, but with ambitions to scale up.<p>All these factors could explain the charecteristics: Immigrants from Asia and Europe tend to be richer than the average population there much more educated. They are young and largely free of undergraduate debt. Similarly, people who grow up in affluent families(relative to the median family) probably already have seed money, fall-back options and security that failure doesn't mean homelessness. Not everyone has that luxury.<p>Looking at the most popular entrepreneurs in the world - Bill Gates, Zuckerberg and Spiegel all grew up in very rich homes, while Jobs grew up right in the heart of Silicon Valley. Kalncik lived 3 years without a salary and moved into his parents house for a long time.