Terrible advice - quitting your job to be a founder does NOT instill you with the necessary skills and mindset to be a successful founder. The skills required to succeed as a founder does not appear just because you call yourself a "founder". Things like negotiating with difficult co-workers, identifying what defines good team work chemistry, charming your boss, charming your underlings, etc., are all challenges better encountered in your current work environment than when you start your company (and screw it up due to lack of experience).
Jumping into the water before learning how to swim because somebody said "hey, the best way to learn how to swim is to just do it - that's how I did it!!"
The most difficult challenge for young adults inexperienced in the adult world of employment/business (corporate politics, backstabbing vendors, non-paying customers, unscrupulous business partners, etc.) is separating the noise. I believe this post (although well meaning) is "noise" that will harm more than help.
"quitting your job to be a founder does NOT instill you with the necessary skills and mindset to be a successful founder."
I don't think I advised anyone to quit one's job and become a founder in the strict sense. Dorsey redefined what it means to be a founder (someone foundational to an organization, regardless of when they joined) and I advised that the skills founders possess are valuable as an employee and founder alike.
> I don't think I advised anyone to quit one's job
You should change the title to "Why you should be a founder" (or "Why you should think like a founder") rather than "Why you should quit and be a founder". Just as I suggested that changing the title is something you should do, your article title suggests that quitting one's job is something one should do.
I had a modest exit on my own startup, then ended up joining an existing company that I like a lot just so that I can learn some of these skills for the next time around. It's been extremely hard to maintain that perspective day to day though, because the experience has spoiled me and made me hard to work with.
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Terrible advice - quitting your job to be a founder does NOT instill you with the necessary skills and mindset to be a successful founder. The skills required to succeed as a founder does not appear just because you call yourself a "founder". Things like negotiating with difficult co-workers, identifying what defines good team work chemistry, charming your boss, charming your underlings, etc., are all challenges better encountered in your current work environment than when you start your company (and screw it up due to lack of experience).
Jumping into the water before learning how to swim because somebody said "hey, the best way to learn how to swim is to just do it - that's how I did it!!"
The most difficult challenge for young adults inexperienced in the adult world of employment/business (corporate politics, backstabbing vendors, non-paying customers, unscrupulous business partners, etc.) is separating the noise. I believe this post (although well meaning) is "noise" that will harm more than help.
Jumping into the water before learning how to swim
The trouble with your argument is that many highly successful founders did just that.
Much of what people learn inside existing companies is toxic.
"quitting your job to be a founder does NOT instill you with the necessary skills and mindset to be a successful founder."
I don't think I advised anyone to quit one's job and become a founder in the strict sense. Dorsey redefined what it means to be a founder (someone foundational to an organization, regardless of when they joined) and I advised that the skills founders possess are valuable as an employee and founder alike.
This is very true.
I had a modest exit on my own startup, then ended up joining an existing company that I like a lot just so that I can learn some of these skills for the next time around. It's been extremely hard to maintain that perspective day to day though, because the experience has spoiled me and made me hard to work with.