Start-Up vs. Big-Corp Pace

A quick weekend thought I wanted to jot down. I often read or chat with some degree of bemusement the stereotype that "start-up types work really hard round the clock" and "big-corp types just look for the 5 o'clock".

In my own experience of decades operating in both worlds (*), I've found more often than not the opposite is true. The folks with big-corp experience tend to be the most self-motivated, hardest-working, and hardest-charging bunch, wherever you find them. Perhaps it's because they've internalized and instinctively know how competitive the world is out there. Those without experience or only smaller start-up are more liable to use work-life-balance as code for slacking off, which they don't think of as slacking off because they haven't seen anything else.

Also, it isn't true that it's OK to punch out early before the job is done in a large corporation. Certainly you're more likely to be able to get away with it, in a larger jungle, but that doesn't mean it's OK, and you'll eventually pay for it. In today's world, in Silicon Valley, in this global economy, the prize goes to the earnest and the swift and the fruit-bearers, not the clock punchers, start-up or big-corp.

If you're building a start-up, think about that the next time you worry about hiring someone "with only big-corp experience". You might be pleasantly surprised when s/he pushes you to get some real work done!

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(*) my data is limited to the following industries: academia, IT systems integration, investment banking, and Internet services.