Without trying you’ve succeeded in convincing all your employees to never try to start their own business

You might be an entrepreneur if…without trying you’ve succeeded in convincing all your employees to never try to start their own business.

This isn’t a 100% true statement. I actually do have employees who have left my company to start their own businesses. However, if you include those employees who ran their own businesses prior to working for me and who have never returned to running their own business since, then I think I can still claim to have personally contributed to a net loss in the number of entrepreneurs in this country.

Ironically, I started my company in part as a result of watching two young entrepreneurs, Josh James and John Pestana–founders of web analytics firm Omniture, who I worked for briefly in 1999. They went through hard times as I have, but when I worked for them they seemed to be having quite a bit of fun, and I couldn’t wait to graduate from college to start my own business. I mean that literally–I couldn’t wait, so I started my business over two years before I graduated.

But I don’t think I’ve had the same effect on my employees thus far. Perhaps I’ll have the opportunity in the near future to be an inspiration to budding entrepreneurs, but as long as they keep reading my blog they’re probably going to be a bit more cautious, which may not be such a bad thing if it saves them from going through what I’ve gone through.