"Starting your own business and making it successful is extremely hard and risky work. "
And, in fact, while it might surprise many people on HN, there are many people who are quite satisfied with working for someone else and collecting a paycheck without all the worry and uncertainty that comes with owning a business. (And I'm excluding the people who talk a good game and say they'd like to be their own boss but would never even come close to actually taking the chance or pulling the trigger..)
"If ownership decreased to be a proportion of direct contribution, apart from the fact that it'd be very hard to measure that"
I'd say it would actually be near impossible to measure that actually. And even if you could measure it if it diluted the owners equity to the point where it didn't pay them to operate the business it wouldn't even matter.
I'm reminded a a guy, quite valuable, who worked for me many years ago in another business. After working for 3 months he walked in and asked for some ownership. Although I viewed him as quite valuable I said no, that I'd pay him more but I wasn't going to give him ownership (various reasons for this). Part (and only part) of my logic was that first he wasn't going to pay in for the equity (he just wanted it) and also if the business failed he could just walk away and get a job elsewhere. So he could afford to take risks and chances that I couldn't take.
For a very short period (between businesses) I worked for another company and remember how I couldn't believe how different it was than being the owner. All sorts of things that I had worried about as owner didn't matter anymore as an employee. It was almost like being on a vacation it was that easy.
And, in fact, while it might surprise many people on HN, there are many people who are quite satisfied with working for someone else and collecting a paycheck without all the worry and uncertainty that comes with owning a business. (And I'm excluding the people who talk a good game and say they'd like to be their own boss but would never even come close to actually taking the chance or pulling the trigger..)
"If ownership decreased to be a proportion of direct contribution, apart from the fact that it'd be very hard to measure that"
I'd say it would actually be near impossible to measure that actually. And even if you could measure it if it diluted the owners equity to the point where it didn't pay them to operate the business it wouldn't even matter.
I'm reminded a a guy, quite valuable, who worked for me many years ago in another business. After working for 3 months he walked in and asked for some ownership. Although I viewed him as quite valuable I said no, that I'd pay him more but I wasn't going to give him ownership (various reasons for this). Part (and only part) of my logic was that first he wasn't going to pay in for the equity (he just wanted it) and also if the business failed he could just walk away and get a job elsewhere. So he could afford to take risks and chances that I couldn't take.
For a very short period (between businesses) I worked for another company and remember how I couldn't believe how different it was than being the owner. All sorts of things that I had worried about as owner didn't matter anymore as an employee. It was almost like being on a vacation it was that easy.