Why do people envy entrepreneurs?

Here are some notes from what others say:

1. While normal, boring corporate men and women are forced to be in at 9 a.m. and out by 5 p.m., hard-driving entrepreneurs can get in as early as they want—and stay as late as they like. They don't have to wait for the cleaning staff to open up in the morning. They've got the keys!
2. The entrepreneur is respected for a level of dedication that might, in other settings, appear excessive. Bob may be scraping down a day-old doughnut at midnight, but if he's an entrepreneur, nobody's going to say, "Boy, what a wonk Bob is for letting his life decay to the point that he can't allow himself a decent dinner." The lucky entrepreneur has the freedom to work 80 or 90 hours a week, and nobody's going to think less of him.
3. Busy entrepreneurs don't get depressed by the monotony of 5 percent salary increases. Their lives are far more adventurous! Yes, while the rest of us are making do with tedious, regular wage increases with no significant upside potential, they can dream about going from, say, $5,000 today to $1 million in the blink of an eye! In fact, with economic growth in the future almost a sure thing, a double-digit salary increase for the lucky entrepreneur is practically guaranteed.
4. The hungry entrepreneur isn't forced to endure those interminable business lunches, eating rich food and drinking outlandish beverages, while business acquaintances massage one another's already plump egos. A sandwich at your desk? Delicious!
5. Speaking of meals, entrepreneurs don't have to suffer through the tedious task of filling out expense-account forms upon returning from lunches and dinners. Their private funds are their expense accounts, a convenient arrangement that eliminates whole levels of paper work.
6. Entrepreneurs don't have to waste a lot of office space on such frivolities as big, fussy executive bathrooms. In fact, every place they go immediately becomes the executive bathroom—just because they're in it!
7. Organizational types who carry beepers, portable faxes and cellular phones everywhere like strolling gypsies are widely viewed as weenies so terrified of failure they need to be in touch with their superiors every single minute. Not so for the crafty, high-tech entrepreneur. Just watch him set up his entire office in your outer office, while he waits for his unscheduled appointment with you. He's on the ball!
8. Entrepreneurs can concentrate on what's on their plate at the moment, and not get diverted by a lot of incoming calls. No frivolous bleats from importunate vendors, inquisitive headhunters or obnoxious customers ringing up out of the blue. They can work in peace for hours on end.
9. Most of us don't have the time to stay in touch with former business friends as much as we would like. But entrepreneurs suffer no such deprivation. They stay in constant touch with the folks they once knew on the inside.
10. Once or twice a year, corporate drones have to pack up informal clothing and haul themselves off to some remote location—like Bermuda or Marco Island or Hilton Head—and indulge in days of eating and drinking and retreating. Thrifty, practical entrepreneurs are never forced to indulge in that kind of foolishness. If they want to get together with employees for a little no-agenda interfacing, they can invite them over to the house for a nice, festive barbecue. Nobody has to fight over the tennis courts, the burgers are delicious, and when people start bobbing for apples, things go nuts. And there's no chance that anybody from sales, marketing or even public relations will drink too much and make an inappropriate remark to someone of the opposite sex—not when everybody has to drive home in a couple of hours without smacking into a tree or something.
11. The organization person has precious little time to spend with the family, doing things that really count. The happy entrepreneur can literally mint quality time, bringing his or her brood together on a toasty evening to help build value wife and husband stuffing envelopes with promotional fliers, while the kids are having the time of the lives learning to type and input spreadsheet data. On a sunny Saturday, when most young people are out wasting time at malls and pizza joints, the entrepreneur's offspring are learning project-management skills. What more precious asset can a parent bequeath?
12. Entrepreneurs are able to develop a visceral feeling for the value of each and every dollar that passes down the pipe to the bottom line, a quality that is most valuable in the 90's. Every time they write a check, no matter how small, every time they buy something, no matter how insignificant, it means more to them personally than any purchase—no matter how large a corporate vice president will ever approve.
13. The entrepreneur never has to deal with petty, incomprehensible changes in the company's health and retirement benefits not to mention tons of other dumb, bureaucratic stuff. Come to think of it, it's a rare entrepreneur who even thinks about a retirement package at all. No, there's too much going on right now for the entrepreneur to worry about such bogus and non business like concepts as "the future."
14. The entrepreneur rarely has to worry about downsizing, about laying off loyal people who have been with the company for years and years. There are no such people! <
15. In big institutions, you never get to do anything for yourself. There's always somebody in the way who insists on performing some crucial function. Entrepreneurs, free, from layer upon layer of inefficient support staff, are blissfully free to answer their own phones, make their own reservations, butter their own muffins, and fill out their own magazine renewals.
16. In short, entrepreneurs are the masters of their own fate. If it runs, they made it walk first. If it ain't broke, they don't have to fix it. Talk about a feeling of mastery normal people can only dream of! Go ahead! Talk about it! Then do it!