One usually invest quite some saving in these endeavours. Say 10 years. You have three years of runway before getting resounding success or having to pack. At t

One usually invest quite some saving in these endeavours. Say 10 years. You have three years of runway before getting resounding success or having to pack. At the end of these three years you have to compare your gains against what you'd have gained saving some more. If you start your thing, the initial years will be in the red. If it works out in the end, you are looking to gain your saving back, plus the years of missed gains, plus the interest you'd matured having money When you start grtting enough money to hire someone to maintain the company and start gaining passively you aren't actually passively gaining from the beginning: you are still a lot in the red. So it's moral to me wanting to keep a share of the company earnings, so I'd be able to sustain another venue. Also it doesn't seem so bad to profit from an idea one had to enter a new market, niche or otherwise. Others are free to build their alternative after all but they didn't, so all the value from the idea is yours until challenged.