If you’re an engineer at a large company (you know, a “corporation”), your job is most likely so specialized that I’m not quite sure how beneficial a blog on marketing will be to you. There, I said it.

Now that we’ve possibly weeded out one or two subscribers, it’s time to focus on the entrepreneur in you. What is it that drives you to leave a cushy job with a nice salary and discount membership at the health club in order to break out on your own, to blaze your own trail? Passion is the most common answer, but I suspect there’s more to it than that.

I recently read a quote from a very enlightened mind who said that the minute he mastered something is the minute he became bored with it. I suspect that this is true for all people, but what makes an entrepreneur tick is the nagging, irresistible temptation to push past that comfort zone–to boldly go where you’ve never gone before.

And there we have it: the source of that “passion” hinted at by the masses. One of the fundamental concepts of Eastern philosophy is the idea of harmony: for every yin there’s an opposing yang. So while being a successful entrepreneur requires steadfast dedication, it also requires major sacrifice.

What’s puzzling to me is why many so-called entrepreneurs strive for a greater “work-life balance.” To adopt this mentality is to ignore the fundamental requirement of what you’re trying to accomplish. Why is it that work and fun have to be mutually exclusive? Even more perplexing is that this idea has its roots in America, the land of opportunity, where hard work pays off.

My theory is that the whole work-life balance movement is perpetuated not by entrepreneurs, but by those with jobs they detest, those who choose not to follow their dreams. This is not to say that entrepreneurs are the only people who follow their dreams. That would be horribly inaccurate. But what I find most evident about entrepreneurs is that they truly love what they do–enough to endure all the risk, rejection, doubt, challenge, and long hours that come along with it. And if that isn’t harmony, I don’t know what is.