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June 12, 2005
MYTH: Entrepreneurs are Special People
REALITY: The term “Entrepreneur” has been rendered useless through massive over-use, misuse, and bizarre mystical veneration.
I have always felt very very uncomfortable using the terms "entrepreneur", "entrepreneurial", "entrepreneurship" etc. And I have always felt acutely uncomfortable when I've been called an “entrepreneur” in the past.
I believe the term "entrepreneur" has become so vague and almost "mystical" that it has ceased to be a useful term for drawing any significant distinctions.
Remember: "entrepreneur" is a French word meaning "builder" (in the construction industry sense of the word) (it also means "undertaker" — it is probably this meaning which rings truer than most feel comfortable admitting)
Meanwhile, in common parlance, I've heard the word "entrepreneur" used to describe a wide range of people (from self-employed consultants, shop keepers, kids mowing lawns, boys with newspaper routes, etc. all the way to turnaround CEOs in large publicly traded corporations)
The word "entrepreneur" seems to imply an odd "nature vs nurture" issue —
Only certain people are endowed with the special gifts or talents of "entrepreneurship” (a somewhat depressingly elitist concept).
As opposed to the concept that "entrepreneurship" is learn-able by almost anyone with the will to achieve (a much more positive and democratic notion in my book).
When VCs talk about entrepreneurs, we are really referring to — founders of companies which we like to invest in — Meaning
Entrepreneurs are founders of companies at the "right stage", in the "right market", with the "right growth characteristics", etc.
We are talking about a very specific situation -- NOT A SPECIFIC TYPE OF INDIVIDUAL. It's not at all clear, or even relevant, whether or not these individuals really have much in common with each other anyway.
I believe much of what we VCs like to see before we invest can be generated by almost anyone — anyone with certain basic intelligence, market insight, personal drive, communications skills, “street smarts”, etc — Nothing too “fancy” or “constitutionally different” than anyone else (although it’s always a bonus if they aren’t completely psycho).
In summary,
I don’t think anyone should ever feel too comfortable about labelling themselves, or anyone else, with the term “entrepreneur”. Far from being a badge of honour, it’s really more of a marker for sloppy thinking, self-worth inflation, delusional thinking, or pure face-saving.
But then, it always sounds a lot better to tell the kids, and your in-laws, that you are an “entrepreneur” rather than the truth:
You are really just an “unemployed and unemployable person with a pipe-dream who remains in complete denial about the world around you and your ability to change it.”
[This is a revision of an entry originally posted on GCAC here http://www.ecademy.com/module.php?mod=club&t=251816#endm — cgm]
Posted by cmayaud at 02:27 PM | Permalink| Comments (2)
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| Posted to Business Strategy | Entrepreneurship | MYTH of the Week | Venture Capital Process
Comments
I suppose we are always playing word games, and often the truth hurts.
Thanks for the blog.
Terry Finley
http://workwithfinley.blogspot.com/
Posted by: Terry Finley at June 12, 2005 10:34 PM
hey chris, the link at the bottom of your latest article is broken .. the HTML is bad.
This is a revision of an entry originally posted on GCAC here http://www.ecademy.com/module.php?mod=club&t=251816#endm — cgm]
rsd
Posted by: rsd at June 13, 2005 04:25 AM
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