The grass is rarely greener, but it's always different

Startup Nugget #2: Motivation and Personal Investment

One can't expect employees or freelancers to have the same level of investment as you have in your own startup. It might happen, but one cannot assume. There are multiple dimensions to this.

It’s not realistic for an employee (less a freelancer) to have the same level of dedication and nurture you exert. A certain level of motivation can be instilled in a person, and that varies depending on the kind of work, the project, the person's personality, etc.. that merits a whole blog post on its own.

You can incentivize via promotions (prestige, pride), salary increases (monetary), stake (sense of ownership, monetary), or a sense of accomplishment.

The latter seems to be a common strategy to attract talent amongst startup job offers. In early stages they tend to lack the economic power to match their corporate counterparts.

And it does work, myself included have chosen to work on what I considered a rewarding project yet not handsomely paid than in a duller but more comfortable one. Still, that doesn’t mean everyone working on a startup is necessarily motivated, and you can't get frustrated when you care deeply about the future of it and someone who is not a founder doesn’t.

That is because for a founder there's an emotional attachment to it and a much bigger economic stake.

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