What Does “Entrepreneur” Mean?

heathero on 07 20, 2009

EtagI have been working for several months now on a conference for young
entrepreneurs. There are a number of sites and resources devoted to
“young entrepreneurs” and most of which define them as “20-30 year
olds”. I have discovered that not only are there many younger than
that, but the magic age of “beginning to show interest in
entrepreneurship” or starting their first business seems to be age 9.
I don’t know why, but that age kept popping up! (I’m that could be a
whole conversation in and of itself!)

In any case, as I have worked on this event, I am more convinced every
day that it is really important for young people to receive
entrepreneurship education. The first challenge was picking a word.
Many people said that “CEO” is a dirty word these days, and I was sure
that there are many out there who don’t identify with the word
“entrepreneur”. I have a friend who is a very successful artist, and
has very successful businesses. But she calls herself an artist, not
an entrepreneur.
So, for now I’m going with that word for lack of a better one, but in
order to find one, or determine in there is a better one, I wanted to
first explore it and get some feedback.

So,what does “Entrepreneur” mean?

According to Wikipedia:
“…first defined by the Irish economist Richard Cantillon.
Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to the type of personality
who is willing to take upon herself or himself a new venture or
enterprise and accepts full responsibility for the outcome”

According to Google:
“The earliest definition we found was from the 13th century, where we
learn the words root. The origin of the English word entrepreneur
comes from the French word entreprendre, which can be translated to
mean to do something? or to undertake.”

MY definition of entrepreneurship is ” creating an entity from
nothing, with the intent of providing something of value to the world,
and the assuming the risk and responsibility for it’s outcome. ”
I define it this way because entrepreneurship (in my opinion) is
primarily about creativity and being willing to take a risk. Many
people think about “business, making money, etc” but the reality is
that we all have different perceptions about all of that!
Many people don’t think of “non-profits” as making money (ha!), others
think of business as “corporations” and not restaurants, boutiques,
art galleries, etc. So I believe that this definition more clearly
defines today’s “sense” of the word.

I recently asked “what one word best describe the characteristic most
necessary to be an entrepreneur” and received only a few, but
nonetheless interesting responses.

I posed the question on twitter and all of the answers were the same
word, sort of…
Those who are employees said “risky”
Those who are entrepreneurs all said “Risk”

Hmmm…interesting, since the words sort of are the same, but the
meaning and interpretation is quite different!
The “risky” response reflected a more negative view of that word, and
that being an entrepreneur is somehow “scary”.
The “risk” response, upon further questioning was viewed as a fact,
but not a negative one. Being “willing to take a risk” was viewed by
the entrepreneurs as a “positive thing”. The point was also further
made that lots of people like to think that they are entrepreneurial,
but they aren’t because they don’t take risks.
This made me think of a blog post that I recently read on
entrepreneurship. The writer commented at the end that she “goes to
work every day, and then is an entrepreneur at night”.
(I’m not here to say that she isn’t an entrepreneur, but can bet that
many would!)

I do agree that risk in a vital component. (I also believe that in
most cases in life “rewards are directly proportional to the risk
taken” but we’ll talk about that another time!).

I have asked others about this word, and will share their thoughts as
I receive responses. I also welcome yours!

  • Wow Nancy! Thanks so much for the time and energy in your comment! I can tell that you are as passionate as I am about this! You should be a cheerleader for our YES Seminar!
    I would love to connect with you sometime!
  • nknettell
    Hi Heather,

    This is a wonderful blog post and one that is near and dear to my heart. We are all taught from first grade -- yes, first grade -- to be a member of a compliant work force. We believe that this mitigates risk. But I think is it extremely risky because it leaves us very vulnerable when there are big shifts in the economy like what we are experiencing now, and we don't have the skills to follow them. We sit at a desk and listen to an authority who stands up in front of us. We go from desk in grammar school to desk in high school to desk in college to desk in company. Early industrialists supported this form of education with open arms back before the civil war. They not only had an educated work force they could rely on, they had one that would not question their authority. This has not changed for over 150 years.

    The problem is, contrary to what most people believe, companies are not in the business of providing jobs. It is only serendipitous that they do. In fact, the two things that most companies do not want are customers...and employees. I say customers because they always want better service and better quanlity than a company can ever afford to provide. But, companies really do not want employees. Yes, they need them, but they just as soon get rid of them if they could. And they are doing that in this country in droves.

    I come from the IT business and my job that made over six figures and gave me a good life is now being done by someone making $10,000 a year. I saw this happening ten years ago and planned for it.

    But, everyone else is still in the mindset of get a good education and get a good job. Well, it is going to be harder and harder as more of the third world becomes educated and competes with us. There is nothing that we or any government can do about it. In fact we shouldn't want anyone to do something about it. This is because the other side of the world does compliance so much better than we do. It is miserable to work in a job where you absolutely have to do what you are told and have no autonomy or respect. And that is what most companies are going to become. Compliancy is so much easier to manage than messy creative adults who think for themselves. But high levels of compliancy produce a type of stress that is deadly. There is no wonder there is high levels of obesity and other stress related diseases in this country as jobs have been draining out. Let the rest of the world experience it. We have had enough of it.

    But part of the legacy of what most of us has experienced in our lives is the fallout from this compliancy education. We actually believe the messages we are told as part of our education as if they are gospel or part of our DNA. For example we are told sales people are bad... we all read Death of a Salesman. Who would want to be a loser like that. Yet a good sales person is usually a pretty nice guy. Yes, there are slimy ones, but there are slimy teachers, and slimy doctors. We are just told that all salespeople are slimy because if we were to find out the power of knowing how to sell we would no longer want to be a compliant worker, we would create companies that are in competition with those out there already. Even the very word "Entrepreneur" has been hijacked. There are so many aspects of our culture that strip us of our ability to conceive of working for ourselves. Did you know at the turn of the last century it was considered a failure to work for someone else?

    As long as money, and how to make it kept taboo and off limits for "polite society" only those people who know how to make money will control it and us. Who are the majority funders out there for schools and universities. You got it! Big Business.

    So, I think the answer to your question is not knowing more about Entrepreneurship is more risky than not having the skills to be an entrepreneur. If you start a company in grade school, well, selling lemonade, and fail you still have a home. You learn, you fail, you learn, and by the time you are out on your own in your twenties, it is not risky for you to be an Entrepreneur. You know how to do it.

    I believe the very fabric of this experiment we call democracy requires that everyone learns about Entrepreneurship too.. Firstly because their might not be enough jobs to go around to maintain our miraculous lifestyle. Secondly, to compete with what is going on in the third world we are not going to be able to compete with compliancy. They do that totally better than us and let them. In the meantime us messy creative singular entrepreneurs will bite at their ankles like fleas and create a more powerful new world for empowered people to flourish. That is the gift that our democracy gives us. It is also the gift that the Internet provides for us as well.

    That is why I do business shyness. I take people who do not realize that they have been practicing shyness for decades to the point they will not question authority even if it is ultimately detrimental to them. Business shyness is about overcoming fear of aksing for money, selling, public speaking, networking, etc. I think you will find this video gives you a rather interesting view of the subject.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7aL4LJiPJo

    I would also be interested your thoughts as well. Great to connect with you on Twitter.

    Best,
    Nancy Knettell
    The Shyness Queen
    America's Foremost Business Shyness Expert
    CEO and Founder of iWoman Network International
    International Speaker
    Radio Host of Entrepreneur Energy Radio
  • bsaunders
    I define an entrepreneur as a person who stakes his/her compensation on a result rather than an activity, thereby taking the risk that if the result fails, there will be no compensation.

    Ann - I do not like being in the "leader" role directly. (If I lead, I'd rather do it with my words than with my authority or the influence of my person.) My desire to be an entrepreneur is actually connected to this desire to live the way my introversion demands - by designing and putting in place a system that doesn't require so much of my social energy, that can be activated while I sit by myself in a private room.
  • So interesting because I have been working on a blog post about how being and entrepreneur means being a leader, to me they are in many ways the same. But when I work with entrepreneurs they do not want to think of themselves as a leader!

    Ann Evanston
    The Warrior is Within You
    http://Warrior-Prenuer.com
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