Being an entrepreneur is a high-risk, high-reward endeavor, but a new study suggests one of those rewards may be a longer life.
A team of economic researchers from the Stevens Institute of Technology uncovered the potential link using data from the Health and Retirement Study. This longitudinal study monitors the health of Americans aged 50 and older, along with related lifestyle factors like employment. In this investigation, the team relied on data from more than 27,000 people recorded from a period between 1998 and 2020.
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Surprisingly, they found that those who reported their jobs as “self-employed” had a 10 percent reduced risk of mortality during the study period (compared to those who worked for a wage). Additionally, the longer someone was self-employed, the greater the mortality benefits they saw.
It’s a bit counterintuitive. After all, entrepreneurship tends to be associated with stress—a notorious killer. So why might bosses live longer than employees?
The secret could be self-reliance and a sense of purpose. (A previous study found that those with a greater sense of purpose in life showed a reduced risk of stroke.)
“Most people think of entrepreneurship as extremely stressful, and it certainly can be,” Cristiano Bellavitis, associate professor in the School of Business at Stevens Institute of Technology, explained in a statement. “But entrepreneurship also gives people a high degree of autonomy and the opportunity to pursue something they genuinely love or care about. Our findings suggest those benefits may have lasting effects.”
In fact, the apparent benefits of entrepreneurship were mediated by mental health. According to the team, self-employed individuals tended to score better on measures like loneliness and depression, two psychological factors linked to reduced longevity. However, these mental health benefits only explained 3.7 percent of the mortality benefit.
In a much less counterintuitive finding, the team discovered that opportunity-driven entrepreneurs—those who ventured on their own because they wanted to—got the bulk of the benefits. Necessity-driven entrepreneurs, who likely self-started after a job loss or labor market restructuring, didn’t see the same increase in longevity. According to the team, this wrinkle fits with a sense of individual agency driving the mortality benefits.
“What seems to matter is not entrepreneurship alone, but the circumstances under which people enter it,” Bellavitis said. “When entrepreneurship reflects greater choice and opportunity, the autonomy and sense of purpose that can come with it may provide psychological benefits that extend beyond financial rewards.”
Of course, there are plenty of caveats. Because this is an observational study, the researchers can’t say for sure which way the arrow of causation points. It’s entirely possible that healthier individuals are also more likely to start their own businesses. The team tried to investigate this possibility using data from a study on monozygotic twins, and they found a similar pattern (reduced mortality for entrepreneurs partially mediated by mental health), but stressed that it only examines genetic and early life effects, not health per se.
Additionally, the Health Retirement Study doesn’t include data on what kinds of enterprises these entrepreneurs are engaged in (or how successful they were). While they did control for income, the study treats a S&P 500-beating day-trader the same as a failed restaurateur.
But the main takeaway, according to the team, is that independence and purpose should be considered important longevity factors, regardless of whether you sign a paycheck or cash one. “Whether you’re an entrepreneur or an employee, finding ways to have ownership of your work and a reason to be excited about what you do every day is important for long-term well-being,” Bellavitis said.
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