Exactly two weeks ago I walked out of my steady, comfortable full time job as a web developer to go full time into launching my software start-up, Rizer. Rizer, like every other software start-up right now, or so it would seem, makes iPhone apps. I’m hard at work on the first one, and it’s going great! It’s an exciting project and the end result will be something I believe every iPhone user will want.

I’m going to be blogging more about the app and talk about the development as it happens in future posts, but I thought it would be good to start off by explaining why I’m doing all this. Why take the risk of not knowing where the money to pay next months mortgage is coming from? Why work your butt off to make it happen? Why not just have a comfortable life?

I’ve heard a lot of indie developers talk about how the lifestyle is great, and that’s very true. Being your own boss and working on whatever it is you want to do that day is awesome! I love it! But for me, that’s not the main reason.

I want to be rich. Seriously rich!

Before you dismiss me as an arrogant fool, just bare with me while I explain why. To start with it’s not about big houses and flash sports cars, although I don’t deny that could be nice. But really it’s about being equipped to make a difference in the world. So most of what I make, I want to give away. I guess you could call it philanthropy, but it’s different to the way it’s so often done because it’s not an after thought; instead it’s the motivation for my entrepreneurialism.

“But it’s not all about money!”, you say? I never said it was, but let’s be honest, there are many good people doing many good things working with poverty, human trafficking, homelessness and drug addiction to name but I few, but what so many of them need, what they appear on TV to ask you for (like the UK’s Children in Need tonight) is more money.

“If a person has nothing and they see a need, then materially speaking, there’s nothing they can do. If they have a little, they can help a little and if they have a lot, there’s a whole lot they can do.” – Brian Houston

I think we can so often look at ourselves, but we need to get the bigger picture. If I die without changing the world, or at least somebody’s world, then I don’t know what the point of my life would be. So that’s why I take risks, that’s why I work hard and that’s the reason I have to wake up in the morning – to make this world a better place. Maybe you think I’m just a software developer with delusions of grandeur, and I’m sure there’ll be lots of doom and gloom stories about the App Store sent my way; but the app’s just a means to an end. I believe I can make it happen.