“It’s more fun to be a pirate than to join the navy.” -Steve Jobs
The routine of the military has appeal for many. The need to follow orders, to subsume the ego into a larger organization and remove the individual choice and responsibility for the decisions and consequences does serve a particular type of person, and without these people we would have a society that deteriorates into lawlessness and chaos. The regimented thoughts and lifestyle of the military, the hierarchy and procedures of the company machine work for the majority.
But not everyone is like this, nor should they be because it is the rebellious spirits that advance the society which the uniforms protect.
Some are destined to challenge the waves and the mores, to question and pursue adventure and revel in the risks and rewards, even if it leaves them temporarily adrift.
Counter thinking, unbound by rank or the normal niceties is what a corsair counterculture encourages because it gets results by breaking rules. This is the reason why small companies that are trying to scale up and hire someone with the great resume in sales from a large organization inevitably mutiny and jettison these corporate suits because they are too far removed from the fast moving, ever changing new organization figuring out sales on the fly and creating procedures after the fact instead of a top down dictum of the big, established groups.
The corporate pyramid is not bad. It’s just not for everyone.
The call to adventure, the desire to win treasure by their own hand and wit, the need to feel the breeze and chase the horizon, these are the traits of a pirate and entrepreneur.