Read on Twitter
The role of safety nets in encouraging entrepreneurship is often underestimated. It's almost impossible to think about building a business that might take years to be profitable when you're living paycheck to paycheck. Hard to invest long-term in yourself in skill building too. https://twitter.com/bencasselman/status/1298981302016778241
2/ the vast majority of entrepreneurs building growth companies have a personal safety net beyond the government's. It needn't be $1m in the bank. It might just be parents you know you could move back in with - no fear of losing shelter and food.
3/ for myself - leaving University of Chicago to launch BlockTower was an extreme financial risk. But...it didn't feel that way. Aside from some small personal savings, I knew my family wouldn't let me go hungry, and I had a resume that meant I could find some job, even if not
4/ as good as the one I was leaving. So while I was taking financial risk as an entrepreneur, I wasn't taking the risk of going hungry, or ending up on the street, or being unable to provide basic support to dependents. That let me think long-term.
5/ Have to wonder how many people smarter and more capable than me have chosen not to take similar leaps because they lacked my safety net. How many would-be Amazons were never created because someone wouldn't give up their family's employer provided health insurance.
