Re:You’re Not an Entrepreneur
by Confusion on Friday October 01, 2010 @04:56PM
(#1748698)
Why do people have this bottomless need to claim to be
things they're not?
I could counter that with the question: why do you have this bottomless need to claim guardianship over the word 'entrepreneur' and chastise everyone that uses it in senses different from the rather strict personal definition you have attached to the word?
My girlfriend just wrote a thesis on a subject related to entrepreneurs. Her definition of 'entrepreneur' definitely does not contain 'having a staff' and 'having received outside investments'. 'Being solely responsible' is a common characteristics of a starting entrepreneurial firm, but isn't a defining characteristic. Established firms, with management and all that, can be entrepreneurial in nature, if they have proper innovation processes in place. 'Having a product' is also extremely common, but there are entrepreneurial firms that render only services. Finally, claiming someone doesn't become an entrepreneur until he has a 'legally recognized firm' is ridiculous. At some point you have to have a firm, but you can be an entrepreneur long before that. An official government stamp for abiding by the law does not confer the status of 'entrepreneurship' (supposing the other items in your list all applied).
It would be nice if I could provide a short list with the defining characteristics of 'entrepreneurship', but unfortunately there simply is no such thing. Like the traditional philosophical example of 'game', what falls under the denomination is fuzzy and debatable. If people can call 'dating' a game, the people you seem to be addressing can call themselves 'entrepreneurs'.
My girlfriend just wrote a thesis on a subject related to entrepreneurs. Her definition of 'entrepreneur' definitely does not contain 'having a staff' and 'having received outside investments'. 'Being solely responsible' is a common characteristics of a starting entrepreneurial firm, but isn't a defining characteristic. Established firms, with management and all that, can be entrepreneurial in nature, if they have proper innovation processes in place. 'Having a product' is also extremely common, but there are entrepreneurial firms that render only services. Finally, claiming someone doesn't become an entrepreneur until he has a 'legally recognized firm' is ridiculous. At some point you have to have a firm, but you can be an entrepreneur long before that. An official government stamp for abiding by the law does not confer the status of 'entrepreneurship' (supposing the other items in your list all applied).
It would be nice if I could provide a short list with the defining characteristics of 'entrepreneurship', but unfortunately there simply is no such thing. Like the traditional philosophical example of 'game', what falls under the denomination is fuzzy and debatable. If people can call 'dating' a game, the people you seem to be addressing can call themselves 'entrepreneurs'.