Yes, it is irrational. You do it because you love it, or because you can't imagine doing anything else, not because it's a better risk-adjusted pay-off than a c

Yes, it is irrational. You do it because you love it, or because you can't imagine doing anything else, not because it's a better risk-adjusted pay-off than a corporate career. If you want to make money, go work for a Wall Street bank. If you're good, you're practically guaranteed to make a very good living as long as the current financial system endures (which seems likely to be for quite a while). Compared to that, starting a startup is a small chance of a big pay-off and a large-ish chance of being fairly close to broke for a very long time. Of course, the corporate career, for some people, has some extra costs built in that they don't want to take on, like your soul, your freedom, and other secondary paraphernalia. Those people typically make the financially irrational choice and start a startup.