Why do poor people prefer to work for others rather than start their own businesses?

It's not that poor people don't like to start businesses; it's that in the world they live in, they need someone to demonstrate this way of life.

From my observation, starting a business or working for someone else is a shift in mindset, and the environment plays a decisive role in shaping that mindset.

If, in your circle of acquaintances, there is someone who has successfully started a business, you will find that there are likely many others who have also started businesses.

On the other hand, if your circle of acquaintances is dominated by a mindset focused on working for others, trying to break away and start your own business would be extremely challenging.

To put it bluntly, an entrepreneurial mindset isn't innate; it's nurtured by the environment.

Here's a real-life example from my own upbringing:

I grew up in a rural area of Hunan Province. In the 1980s, rural areas were truly poor; we rarely ate meat, and we called it ‘teeth-cleaning.’

In primary school, I wrote essays praising how the spring breeze of reform and opening-up was nourishing the vast land of China. Looking back now, it's quite amusing. Back then, there was no internet, and people hadn't even left the town. How would they know what the vast land of China looked like? The only three sources of current events were newspapers, television, and the elderly at the village entrance.

It wasn't until the early 1990s that I truly felt the nourishing effects of the spring breeze of reform and opening-up. Everyone in the village was talking about how much money one could earn by going to Guangdong to work. Any young person in good health went to Guangdong to work.

At the time, I was still a student and was responsible for distributing the postal money orders sent back by the migrant workers to the neighbours. Seeing the amount of money sent back by the neighbours increase steadily, to the point where they could earn in a month what it took a year to earn in the countryside,

Postal money orders became the most tangible symbol of wealth in the village, and ‘working away from home’ became the default option for young labourers.

The village's ‘entrepreneurial boom’ originated from the first ‘ten-thousand-yuan household’ that appeared in the village in the 1990s, known as ‘Lao Liu.’ He had originally worked in the canteen of a factory in Guangdong. Due to his diligence, he gradually rose to become the canteen manager. Later, he negotiated with the boss and took over the canteen.

After making money, ‘Lao Liu’ built the first mansion in the village. Villagers would visit his mansion to admire it, and he was happy to share his story of how he became wealthy.

The idea of ‘being your own boss’ was first planted in people's minds, like a seed for a new way of life, which took root and grew.

Influenced by him, many young people who went out to work were no longer content with just earning a meagre living. Those involved in construction and renovation became contractors, those in furniture and hardware opened factories, and those selling clothing and toys started their own trading companies...

Even some families who were extremely poor, with no room for error, pulled a small cart to sell Hunan-style braised dishes and could still earn several dozen yuan a year.

Today, when you return to the village, there are countless big and small business owners.

Thirty years ago, these business owners were either still in diapers or poor people forced to work odd jobs and send money home to support their wives and children.

Their entrepreneurial mindset wasn’t innate; it was shaped by the influence of their social circles.

Seeing people at a similar level to you succeed in entrepreneurship is the most important signal for opening up your mindset.

Some people say, ‘The poor can't afford to lose, so they dare not start a business.’ But what about those who pull carts selling braised dishes? Can they afford to lose? In reality, ‘tolerance for failure’ is not just about money; it's about the safety net in one's cognition and mindset.

‘Lao Liu’ quietly rewrote the villagers' perception of ‘entrepreneurship = risk’ into ‘entrepreneurship = visible opportunities’ through his personal experience and results.

It's not that the poor don't like entrepreneurship, nor that they lack the margin for error to start a business,

but rather, people's fear of risk lies not in the risk itself, but in the uncertainty of the returns.

Some people feel discouraged and helpless after a business failure, while those with an open mindset become excited, because at least they now know ‘what doesn't work.’

Those who say ‘the poor have no room for error’ fail to see the most critical point: those who dare not take risks out of fear of failure are not because they lack room for error, but because they have never analysed what the worst-case loss would be—and what the potential gains would be if they succeeded.

They are not afraid to take risks because they are poor, but because they simply do not know how to observe and analyse opportunities. They come up with a superficial reason to scare themselves, then comfortably stay in their comfort zone, calling themselves ‘poor.’

Breaking through the boundaries of one's own thinking and cognition is no easy feat.

However, when someone with a similar starting point takes actual entrepreneurial action and earns a lot of money, this effect is like lighting the fuse of a powder keg. You can no longer contain your passion for taking risks and refuse to remain in the safety of poverty. Of course, the prerequisite is that you are a ‘powder keg.’

In psychology, there is a concept called the ‘anchor effect,’ where successful entrepreneurial cases within a social circle inspire others to start their own businesses. Essentially, this demonstration effect shifts the cognitive anchors of those individuals.

For example, even if there is just one ‘successful’ entrepreneur in your circle—a neighbour who runs a breakfast shop and earns 20,000 yuan a month, or a classmate who does e-commerce on the side and earns tens of thousands of yuan a month—their existence acts as a ‘cognitive hammer,’ helping you break free from the misconception that ‘entrepreneurship is only for the wealthy.’

Returning to the question: Why do the poor ‘prefer’ to work for others? In reality, no one inherently enjoys working for others; it's just that, in the absence of better options, working for others is the safest choice.

Cognition is like a mobile phone system—if you don't actively update it, it remains stuck in its default settings. But once someone helps you press the ‘update’ button, once your thinking and cognition are enlightened, endless possibilities open up.

An individual's career choices are influenced by strong social connections in their circle of acquaintances by 80%.

Thinking determines action, and cognition determines destiny.

The environment and people in which an individual lives largely determine the extent to which their thinking and cognition are enlightened.