There’s more to life than money. Autonomy, mastery and purpose. Those are the textbook three dimensions of intrinsic motivators that lead to job satisfaction, a

There’s more to life than money. Autonomy, mastery and purpose. Those are the textbook three dimensions of intrinsic motivators that lead to job satisfaction, and it’s often much easier to find those in a startup. Working in a more established company can be soul sucking. Sure, you make more and you don’t have to worry as much about the whole thing failing and needing to find another job, but you’re in a position where you can meaningfully move the needle on the company’s success. You’re not a cog in a very large machine. You’re going to be given more freedom on how to accomplish things. And the mission of a startup can often feel much more compelling. To some extent, it can feel very different depending on whether you’ve got a family to support. Having a family as a sense of purpose makes you want to choose something more solid in service of that. But to those without kids, finding purpose in work can feel more appealing and compromising on security and pay to get that freedom and sense of purpose can be much more compelling than trying to find purpose in money, which is just a losing proposition for most people.