Who leaves a $254, 895 job at Microsoft | Marlowe Fox

Who leaves a $254, 895 job at Microsoft to start their own tech business?

by Marlowe Fox,
Legal Consultant

Adam Herscher recently published an article on LinkedIn’s Pulse describing why he left his lucrative job at Microsoft to launch his own tech start up.

Call me a cynic, but I don’t buy it. And here’s why...

Herscher's narrative is filled with clichés

Adam Herscher claims to have left a lucrative job at Microsoft for tech start up and personal fulfillment.

Imagine you were asked to write a story about a guy who quits a high paying job at a major Seattle tech company to start his own business. You may have never been to Seattle (or even the West Coast) and would have included: an unfulfilling job at Microsoft, money hungry coworkers, a possible move to Amazon, a clever tech start up, a kayaking excursion, and an epiphany.

Herscher’s narrative is hackneyed and would leave a Channing Tatum movie blushing; its filled with gems like “create your own destiny; no limits or constraints.” This is by no means dispositive that his narrative lacks credibility; but we're not off to a good start.

Homo Economicus is still alive

Contemporary economics is somewhere between reviving the neoclassical idea of “economic man” and completely destroying it. However, I still think it is safe to assume that most individuals rationally act to maximize their own welfare (even while attempting to account for attributes like self-fulfillment). Herscher’s actions clearly do not indicate such behavior and instead his story seems like an after-the-fact narrative.

According to Forbes Magazine, Bloomberg reports that 8 out of ten businesses fail within the first 18 months. So for the next 18 months Herscher is going to forego a salary of approximately $375,000 to start up a company which has an 80% chance of failure? Estimating modestly let’s say his start up only needs $50,000 in capital for the first 18 months –multiplied by the risk probability this puts Herscher $40,000 more into the red. So over the next 18 months, Herscher is willing to take a $400,000 gamble for a chance at inner fulfillment?

Just a Midlife Crisis?

Herscher laments that “[his] ambitions in life were slipping further away with each year that went by.” I’ll take him for his word at this but these sort of midlife lamentations are still so trite as to be contemptible.

Herscher’s brand of institutionalized disenfranchisement is nothing novel and has been explored in literature from the Lake Poets (e.g. William Wordsworth) to the Existentialists. Literature and philosophy provide a good dose of humility for our metaphysical meanderings, namely, much smarter and more talented people have encountered, explored, and accepted institutional mores. While Herscher’s longing to “change the world” is sublime, it is completely undercut by its lack of pragmatism. The Greek philosopher Longinus said “sublime impulses need the curb of stability as often as they need the spur of inspiration.” Everyday, many professionals deal with quixotic notions of living in a log cabin but curb these impulses with a weekend mountain biking excursion.

Herscher does not strike me as a Christopher McCandles type (remember the movie “Into the Wild”). Herscher boasts alleged dialogue with his boss that he said “I just want some time to clear my head, travel for a while, and figure out what’s next for me in life.” Herscher appears to be setting himself up as some sort of contemporary folk hero and attempting to segue this persona into increased brand awareness for his new business venture.

Why Burn a Bridge with Microsoft?

Lets say that Herscher is acting rationally. Herscher believes that the loss of income at Microsoft will be offset by his startup’s future revenue and his increased self-fulfillment. I accept that Herscher places significant normative weight on a difficult to quantify attribute like personal fulfillment –this is not necessarily irrational. Even assuming his decision based this sort of Benthamian calculus in which personal fulfillment wins the day, why bite the hand that previously fed you? Why not maintain the optionality of returning to Microsoft if the business venture fails to realize any profits? By Herscher’s own account he seems to be a vaunted employee and Microsoft was chagrined to lose his valuable services. Instead Herscher describes Microsoft employees as a bunch of unfulfilled, money-grubbing engineers and otherwise paints life at Microsoft as unfulfilling. Why burn this bridge?

Herscher draws a specious dichotomy between startup risks and big company risks; he argues that the former can be controlled and not that latter. I would contend just the opposite. It is much easier to make your services invaluable to a strong company with market share, brand equity, and capital for growth, than create (and maintain) these things on your own.

Herscher’s narrative effectively utilizes the focusing fallacy which inspires the audience to hyper focus on an highly improbably scenario as opposed to a more probable, less favorable situation. After reading this article, I imagined myself running my own business from the Himalayas and doing million dollar deals over fermented yak’s milk after a long day of teaching Tibetan youth how to speak English. Instead, I would much more likely be quitting a well-paying job and declaring bankruptcy in eighteen months.

You will not become a self-fulfilled, kayaking, millionaire entrepreneur

After reading this, (both of you) may wonder why I would write right such a critical piece? Its quite simple, I don’t like noise. More specifically, I don’t like misinformation and it’s the duty of a discerning public to be critical of suspect information. In this situation, I find it unpalatable to think that an employee of a major company would quit their stable job (especially in this economy) to pursue a startup company with huge risks. Or worse, that upon reading this article a valuable company employee would in anyway feel less fulfilled by their position because they are not kayaking every morning, wearing a hoodie to work, and beginning their own startup.

In my opinion, Herscher left his position (or was facing termination) for other reasons and his narrative is a “false alarm”. Signal Detection Theory posits that in this age of information, decision-making requires us to parse out the “signal” (credible and actionable info) from “noise” (non-credible, non-valid, or irrelevant info). A ‘false alarm’ occurs when there is only noise (no signal) but a signal is detected. The purported signal in this case is to quit your stable job at Microsoft and become a self-fulfilled, kayaking, millionaire entrepreneur. This misinformation is a disservice to other individuals similarly situated and may lead them to quit their jobs. Even if it only affects their workplace fulfillment, it will negatively impact their creativity and productivity which is unfair to them and their employers.