NYTimes has an article which has some echoes my career:
Serial entrepreneurs thrive on the high-pressure excitement of starting a business from scratch, but invariably, whether they stick with the business for one year or 10, they depart, only to start another.
It is all about building toward the thrill of opening night; staying till the 200th performance is beside the point. “Serial entrepreneurs get a visceral charge out of taking an idea to market and making it happen,” said Tarby Bryant, who runs the Gathering of Angels.
What distinguishes serial entrepreneurs? “They are more attached to starting something up than to the actual concept,” said Geoff Yang, a partner with Redpoint Ventures, a venture capital firm in Menlo Park, Calif. And unlike mainstream entrepreneurs, they resist the idea of sticking around with a reduced role in the company they founded.
“As soon as the risk is over, they want to go back and do it again,” said Dick Strayer, a Los Gatos, Calif., psychologist and a partner with Joyner Strayer.
Probably the most common reason for leaving is boredom. After the start-up phase ends and a company becomes more stable, the job of the founder naturally changes to be less hands-on and more supervisory.
It is the thrill, the excitement of starting and creating something new, bringing about a revolution, making a difference. Success and failure are both learning experiences. The key is to innovate, create a future which does not exist.
