Tren Griffin will explain, the entrepreneurs founding startups with the biggest impact are missionaries who are laser focused on implementing the insight at the core of their business. Mercenaries are driven by monetary rewards and fame. Mercenaries seldom have the necessary desire to change the world, a desire that would otherwise enable them to persevere through hardship and create a world-changing business.

1. “Mercenaries are driven by paranoia; missionaries are driven by
passion. Mercenaries think opportunistically; missionaries think
strategically. Mercenaries go for the sprint; missionaries go for the
marathon. Mercenaries focus on their competitors and financial
statements; missionaries focus on their customers and value
statements. Mercenaries are bosses of wolf packs; missionaries are
mentors or coaches of teams. Mercenaries worry about
entitlements; missionaries are obsessed with making a contribution.
Mercenaries are motivated by the lust for making money;
missionaries, while recognizing the importance of money, are
fundamentally driven by the desire to make meaning.”
John Doerr

2. “Great entrepreneurs are far more missionaries than
mercenaries. The missionaries are true to their insight, and
the money is secondary to it. Mercenaries, whose primary
goal is money, fall somewhere on the middle of the
entrepreneur bell curve. They seldom have the desire to
change the world that is required for a really big outcome,
or the patience to see their idea through. I don’t begrudge
them their early payouts. They’re just not the best
entrepreneurs.”
Andy Rachleff

3. Teledesic- “Internet in the Sky”
During its life, the Teledesic
team raised over a billion dollars
at a valuation that was as high
as a $3 billion. Teledesic was a
triple Unicorn in its time.

4. A Dozen Things I Learned Being a Missionary at Teledesic:
• It is more fun to be a pirate than join the navy. Pirates know how to
break the eggs needed to make the necessary omelet. We broke a lot of
eggs.
• Most people are not cut out for the startup life. It is not for everyone.
• Certain periods in your life are right for being involved in an
audacious startup, and other periods are not.
• Flying 500,000 air miles a year for five years takes a big physical toll
on your body. I still pay a physical price for that time in my life.
• Almost everything in life that is technically interesting and important
involves trade-offs. This is especially true in space.
• The more great people you hire, the easier it is to hire great people.
Positive feedback can be powerful.

5. A Dozen Things I Learned Being a Missionary at Teledesic:
• The better the quality of your existing shareholders, the easier it is to
attract new high quality shareholders.
• Having smart, talented and accomplished lead investors is invaluable
in raising funds.
• Space is very big. The distance to a non-geostationary orbit around
the Earth is not so big, but launching any mass into that orbit is still
relatively expensive.
• There are no electrical outlets or power cords in space. This creates
hard problems for systems that need power.
• Since power density of an electromagnetic wave is proportional to the
inverse of the square of the distance from a point source, space-based
communications isn’t easy.
• Billionaires love space and rockets. A rocket launch is like a big very
controlled explosion. Explosions that are very controlled and hurt no
one can be great fun. Billionaires like to have fun.