All investors have a choice of investments; they can invest anywhere in the range from low-risk, low-return to high-risk, high-return. When they decide they want to invest in start-up companies, they are taking extremely high risk. In fact, the probability is high that they will lose their entire principal. No matter what you say or do, your company is a high risk venture. Therefore it had better have a corresponding high return for the investor. After all, if it offered a lower return, the investor could easily find lower-risk investments that returned such lower returns. To make matters even worse, as a founder/officer of the company, you have control of the transformation of the idea into a success. On the other hand, the investor has almost no control; they are for the most part, a silent partner. They are at your mercy. In short, they are taking total risk and have almost no control. The least they deserve is a high return on their investment.

Some first time entrepreneurs express the opinion, “I'm doing all the hard work; all the investors are doing is putting up the money. I deserve the big returns; they don't.” This is a bad attitude to have and will often result in getting no investors. An entrepreneur interested in attracting investments should understand and appreciate the typical investor's attitude: “I am putting up all the money. I am taking all the risk. Entrepreneurs only risk their time. I have almost no control. The entrepreneur has complete control over success or failure.”