Young and Ambitious: Go All In or All Out

May 16 2026|Written by Slimane Akalië

Social media and Shark Tank made some young, ambitious people working as employees behave in certain ways that are detrimental to their careers without even realizing it.

You decide to join a company but keep saying to yourself: "I'm a slave who works hard so those bastard business owners make the real money, I will be better off starting my own business".

And you either keep jumping from one side hustle to another every weekend or don't start anything at all. Meanwhile, in your day job, you keep wasting time and not working that hard. After all, the business owners are the ones who will benefit the most, so why bother?

And let's be real, business owners make more money (and sometimes all the money) if the business succeeds compared to employees, but to get that privilege, the owners need to pay in financial or reputational risk.

If you are the owner of a business, you will either risk your own money or your own reputation convincing others to bet on you with their money. If you succeed, everybody makes money and you are a genius, if you fail, nobody makes money and you are the one to blame, not the employees. The same way salespeople who are paid by commission get to make more money when they bring in sales (compared to salary-based positions), but they make less money if they bring no sales.

The potential gains come with a risk tax; you can't have one without the other, of course there are some ways to "lower" the risk, but it's always there if you want outstanding gains.

Even as an employee, you have the gain-risk equation with your career choices. You can work for a big stable company and get paid a large salary to do light work and have "work-life balance", or you can take the risk and work crazy hours for a startup that might disappear in 18 months receiving a smaller salary and stock options that are worth nothing, but if the startup takes off, you could make real money on those options (I know that in some "startups" you get the worst of both worlds: you work crazy hours for a smaller salary without getting any real ownership or profit sharing, in that case, it doesn't worth it unless it's the best choice you have or you are building a real skill there that will make you real money in the near future).

When you make a choice, don't spend your time thinking "the grass is greener on the other side"; either make the most of your choice or go to the other side.

When you decide to marry someone, you don't spend your married life thinking "I bet there are more beautiful people out there, unlike my partner", you either appreciate your partner and you do your best, or you get a divorce to go marry one of "the other more beautiful people out there". And when you decide to work at a job, go all in or all out, both choices have pros and cons.

Working at a job really hard gives you a little bit of money, skills, and a network, three things that are beneficial if you start your own thing. The risk: becoming addicted to the salary and social company life (“The three most harmful addictions are heroin, carbohydrates, and a monthly salary.”- Nassim Nicholas Taleb). Starting your own thing builds your character, skills, and network, and it is the most reliable way to become rich and impact a large number of people. The risk: getting destroyed emotionally and/or financially without making any real impact.

Now, should you start a business when you are young? Gates did it at 19, Zuckerberg did it at 19, Jobs did it at 21, Larry and Sergey did it at 25, and Elon did it at 24. Is this a yes? I don't know, it might be just survivorship bias, the same way you can't say that dropping out of college is the secret behind building a successful startup. If you look at the data, statistically, finishing college makes you richer. Of course, some people drop out and build trillion-dollar companies, but there are also a large number of people who drop out and end up working after age 80 to make ends meet.

In fact, research in Harvard Business Review found that the average age of a successful startup founder is 45. But hey, you might be an outlier, don't let the stats discourage you.

Finally, I think it's terrible to confuse net-worth with self-worth. If you are a successful entrepreneur, you are not morally superior to a poor employee, even as you have more money. Capitalism makes you reduce a human being into a number; you are either a billionaire, decamillionaire, millionaire, or you are nobody. Don't fall into that trap.