A Mathematician starts a company

When I did my Ph.D. in Mathematics Dilbert was just becoming popular. I was a great fan and strongly believed in the basic concept that the people who “do the work” - scientists and engineers - are the only people who were really useful for society. My friends considered me as hooked in academia - a Ph.D. in Mathematics (working in combinatorics) and a second recidivist Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering (working on helicopter navigation). Even when I carefully considered my strengths (quantitative science computers) and what fields they could be used in and decided upon biochemistry I returned to Stanford University to do it. So how did I move to the Dilbert dark side of running a company and all that implies?