Presumably a lot of business in the hotel and motel industries are simple mom and pop shops with no intention of growing. This is almost never true for "the com

Presumably a lot of business in the hotel and motel industries are simple mom and pop shops with no intention of growing. This is almost never true for "the computer and office equipment industry" Well, I don't think you can assert that without statistics. I wouldn't be surprised if the "median" computer company is a one-person consulting firm -- a services company. Also presumably there there is a significant difference in the capabilities of founders in these two industries. Well, there, I agree -- I suspect that the average grocery store owner has a lot more business skill than the average computer-industry founder. ;) By necessity -- the grocery business is more complex, with literally thousands of moving parts; there's more competition, and the margins are a lot smaller. Having said that, your basic point is correct -- computer startups have a much better chance of making big money, for reasons that have been explored ad infinitum around here -- low overhead, low cost of volume manufacturing, cheap distribution, large and international markets, etc. And that's exactly what this guy is saying when he suggests that you "choose the right industry". His argument isn't addressed to the folks around here. It's primarily addressed to the "average" founder -- the person who founds a corner store, a dry cleaner, a hair salon, or a decorating business. These are the folks who go to "entrepreneurship" seminars (featuring lots of photos of the guys from Yahoo, Google, McDonalds, and Pepsi) and imagine that any chain of hot-dog stands could lead to similar financial success -- whereas, in fact, it's likely to cost them money. Of course, running your own company also makes you much happier, on average -- a point which the author readily concedes.