While watching a fascinating lecture by Robert Sapolsky called “The Uniqueness of Humans” last night I couldn’t help but see a strong correlation between the behavior of chimps in a certain experiment, with that of my fellow entrepreneurs and artists. During the section on the pleasure In anticipating and gratification postponement the following chart was presented. It indicates the surge of dopamine levels, ie. chemical happiness, happens not during the reward phase (eg. receiving salary or accolades) but during the anticipation and performing the work itself. We are most happy while we build our companies, write our songs and perform our concerts, more so than during the “afterwards” we so often work towards for so so long. The post-concert depression is a well-known phenomenon, as is the post-IPO/sale phase for an entrepreneur.
The second interesting link I was able to make between monkeys and entrepreneurs/artists was that during the experiments where the likelihood of a reward was only 50%, the dopamine levels during the anticipation and work phase effectively doubled compared to the cases where rewards were given 100% of the time. You see where I’m going with this. Entrepreneurs and artists both knowingly operate in a risky environment and ride the high waves of success and fall into the deep depths of failure in a constant undulating motion. Compare this with your average cubicle dweller, where rewards (ie. salary) are predictable and constant, and you’ll often see a much more temperate experience of career related happiness. Entrepreneurs thrive on the uncertainty involved in being on their own and receive a lot of gratification off of the insecurity of their being a reward at the end of the ride. There you go. We’re still all monkeys. Especially entrepreneurs and artists. (PS Watch this fascinating lecture here in full.)
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