---
title: "The Executive's Dilemma: Keep Working or Start a Business?"
description: "Since the advent of the mobile internet era, a wave of 'mass entrepreneurship and innovation' has swept society. Recently, I met with a group of middle-aged executives, and when asked to write down their biggest current confusion and vote, the top vote-getter was: 'At midlife, should I continue working or start a business?' Middle-aged entrepreneurship has different advantages and challenges compared to young grassroots entrepreneurship. Continuing to work feels like hitting a ceiling, unable to realize life's value; choosing to start a business brings fear of failure and loss, creating a dilemma."
author: "王泉庚"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
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published: "2017-03-27"
language: "en"
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# The Executive's Dilemma: Keep Working or Start a Business?

> Since the advent of the mobile internet era, a wave of 'mass entrepreneurship and innovation' has swept society. Recently, I met with a group of middle-aged executives, and when asked to write down their biggest current confusion and vote, the top vote-getter was: 'At midlife, should I continue working or start a business?' Middle-aged entrepreneurship has different advantages and challenges compared to young grassroots entrepreneurship. Continuing to work feels like hitting a ceiling, unable to realize life's value; choosing to start a business brings fear of failure and loss, creating a dilemma.

**Since the advent of the mobile internet era, a wave of 'mass entrepreneurship and innovation' has swept society. Recently, I met with a group of middle-aged executives, and when asked to write down their biggest current confusion and vote, the top vote-getter was: 'At midlife, should I continue working or start a business?'**
Middle-aged entrepreneurship has different advantages and challenges compared to young grassroots entrepreneurship. Continuing to work feels like hitting a ceiling, unable to realize life's value; choosing to start a business brings fear of failure and loss, creating a dilemma.
Confucius said, 'At thirty, I stood firm; at forty, I had no doubts.' But now, many feel 'great confusion at forty.'

**01**
**The Dilemma of Working vs. Entrepreneurship**
Both working and entrepreneurship have pros and cons. What exactly is the dilemma?
The core benefit of working is 'security': a relatively stable income and the ability to release mental pressure, adjust jobs if unsuitable, and spend weekends and holidays with family. The downside is 'lack of autonomy': having to defer to others, facing authoritarian bosses, lacking participation and achievement, unable to control work, limited wealth, and unable to realize personal dreams.
The core benefit of entrepreneurship is 'autonomy': doing things your way, making independent decisions, full of passion, and realizing life dreams. The downside is 'risk': the process is full of hardship, setbacks, anxiety, and pain; relationships may be reshuffled; mental pressure is immense; and there's the risk of bankruptcy and losing everything.

**02**
**Evaluating the Choice Between Working and Entrepreneurship**
When facing the dilemma of whether to continue working or start a business, ask yourself five questions from within, and you may find clarity.

**Question 1**
**Who Am I?**
In 1942, Freud's student Jung first proposed the concept of personality types, believing that people have essential differences. By the mid-20th century, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) categorized personalities into 16 types. In the 1990s, applied to business needs, various personality assessments based on the FFM 'Big Five' model, such as the HOGAN Leadership Inventory, were used for employee and management selection and development. Most Fortune 500 talent management systems are based on these systems.
A significant portion of personality (about 50%) is genetic, present at birth; the other 50% depends on environmental influences, especially family, school, peers, and the era during childhood, which greatly shape character, values, and behavior patterns.
Successful entrepreneurs need innate traits and drives: strong ambition, aspiration, and dreams to remain unsatisfied with the status quo and work hard long-term; high intrinsic motivation to stay passionate and move forward; a never-give-up attitude to persevere through failures; a risk-taking spirit to challenge the status quo and innovate; and strategic thinking and creativity to foresee the future and seize opportunities.
These traits are products of genetics and early environment, relatively stable and hard to change unless faced with intense emotional or environmental conflict. Through long-term disciplined effort, some change is possible. Personality is neutral; what matters is matching it to the right work. The same trait can be both a strength and a weakness, depending on degree.
So, the first question is: Who am I? Are my personality traits suited for entrepreneurship?

**Question 2**
**What Can I Do?**
Middle-aged career changers need to analyze past work results: what did you do well, demonstrating strengths? What did you do poorly, revealing weaknesses? Have you led projects independently? Have you experienced intrapreneurship? Do you prefer external socializing and client interaction, or solitary thinking and technical work? Do your abilities show more skill in conquering or defending? Or both? These can be assessed through self-reflection, feedback from others, or objective tools like DDI assessment centers.
For early-stage entrepreneurs, from 0 to 1, you need more pioneering and creative abilities, entrepreneurial innovation, business acumen, and customer orientation. After scaling, from 1 to 3, you need Liu Chuanzhi's leadership: 'build a team, set strategy, lead the troops.'
What is ability? **Ability is the key behavioral habit of successfully accomplishing something.** Each role can define 3-5 core competencies, each broken into 4-6 key behaviors. With consistent practice, you can develop these abilities. **Ability is trained through practice, not just reading or training.**
Clearly understand your strengths and weaknesses, and how to develop them.

**Question 3**
**What Have I Done?**
By your 40s, you've worked nearly 20 years. Objectively review: what types of work have you done? Back-end manufacturing with workers and machines, or front-end sales and expansion with customers and competitors? Innovative product R&D and brand marketing, or back-end management like HR and finance? Which jobs did you excel at, showing core talents? Which did you do poorly and unhappily, hitting your weaknesses?
Business, management, and leadership are practical disciplines; your long experience has validated your talents and abilities.

**Question 4**
**What Do I Have?**
What resources have you accumulated? Networks, talent teams, project resources, financial strength? Which do you have, which lack? What resources does your chosen venture need, and how will you prepare? What is your bottom line if you transition? Take stock and be clear.

**Question 5**
**What Environment Am I In?**
Know yourself to choose a suitable environment. But often, circumstances force choices. Half of us are shaped by genes, half by environment. There are four person-environment fit scenarios.
In economic downturns, companies adjust strategies and organizations, even lay off staff to cut costs. Employees must either adapt their mindset or seek a better environment. Some can't find one and create their own, through partnerships, solo ventures, or freelancing.
Generally, midlife transitions shouldn't be for the sake of change, shouldn't follow trends, shouldn't start from scratch in unfamiliar fields. Prioritize familiar areas where you can leverage core talents.
For example, Yu Minhong taught at Peking University after graduation, then resigned after being disciplined for off-campus tutoring, and founded New Oriental. Some, with savings, choose not to work or start a business, but spend time on things they missed: learning, spiritual growth, family, travel, golf, outdoor activities.
Whatever the environment, like nature, first survive, adapt, then develop. Those who master their fate anticipate change and act decisively. 'Seeking death' still has a 50% chance of survival; 'waiting for death' is certain. Stay positive, challenge the status quo, and find a new self in new environments.

**03**
**Strategies for Choosing Between Working and Entrepreneurship**
How to choose? First, look inward to find your true self, core talents, and core needs. Second, look outward to assess your environment, understand trends, and determine the necessary path. Four strategies emerge:

**Strategy 1**
**Professional Manager**
Employment is a well-paved but crowded road, full of opportunities and competition. If you have leadership and ambition, strive to become a team leader. If not, be a core team member.
General Electric (GE), one of the world's greatest companies, with nearly 1 trillion yuan in revenue in 2013 and nearly 130 years of history, was built entirely by professional managers. Jack Welch, called the world's No. 1 CEO, was GE's eighth. Fang Hongbo of Midea Group rose from a fresh graduate to chairman and president of a hundred-billion-yuan group. Tang Jun, former president of Microsoft China, known as the 'working emperor,' had a transfer fee of 1 billion yuan.

**Strategy 2**
**Intrapreneurship**
If you want to start a business but reduce risk, consider intrapreneurship. If you have resource integration and leadership, lead an internal team. If not, be a core member. Haier's 'employee maker' model, Fenics's 'fission entrepreneurship,' and Handu Yishe's 'small group and brand incubation platform' are examples of organizational innovation.

**Strategy 3**
**External Entrepreneurship**
External independent entrepreneurship suits only a few; the road is unknown and full of pitfalls. Harvard Business School research shows a 23% success rate for first-time entrepreneurs, but 34% for successful entrepreneurs starting again.
Successful employees don't have higher success rates; often lower, because past success becomes a mental burden, and entrepreneurial skills differ. Those who succeed are hailed as heroes.
If you seek greater achievement and can bear risk, choose external entrepreneurship. If you have entrepreneurial traits, resource integration, and leadership, and can withstand failure, lead a team. If not, be a core member.
Alibaba's Ma Yun's 18 Arhats and Fosun's Guo Guangchang's five-person team are examples of team entrepreneurship.

**Strategy 4**
**Freelancing**
Freelancing is a more personalized and diverse path. If you want freedom, pursue interests, control time, avoid office politics, balance work and life, and don't want full-time employment or full-time entrepreneurship, consider freelancing. Freelancing requires first having a profession, then freedom; you need at least one skill to sustain yourself, being an 'expert' in your field.
If you have unique talents and networks, be an independent freelancer. If not, join a freelancer alliance to leverage platform strengths.
In the U.S., 53 million people freelance, 34% of the workforce. Many Fortune 500 CEOs become CEO coaches, directors, advisors, or investors after retirement. Europe has nearly 10 million freelancers; in the UK, 87% of top graduates see freelancing as ideal. China has over 50 million freelancers, growing, especially among the post-80s, and the mobile internet era will create more.

**Often, the root of painful entanglement, anxiety, and confusion is not knowing oneself, misreading the environment, wanting everything, and fearing loss.** In reality, nothing is perfect; perfection is imagined. It's imperfection that allows existence and development. Once you choose, accept both the benefits and drawbacks, and you'll avoid entanglement, anxiety, and confusion.
**Whether you choose working, entrepreneurship, or freelancing, maintain an open, learning attitude and full responsibility.** Everyone's situation is different; the best path is the one that suits you.
Keep learning and adapting to the times for more opportunities!

Author | Wang Quangeng, Chairman & CEO of Shilang Enterprise Development (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., founder of Shangyouhui Fashion Elite High-end Community Platform, mentor at Lingjiao Gongfang Private Board, former President of Metersbonwe, former Executive Director & CEO of Goodbaby.
Source | Shangyouhui SLU
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