Entrepreneur Meaning

Entrepreneur Meaning: Here is a rather acerbic definition of entrepreneur for you and I think the guy has a point.

“Entrepreneur + Capital = Products + Customers = Business.”

I would take the liberty of adding ‘Service’ alongside his ‘products’. I do think he is correct in saying that if there is no work, you are not an entrepreneur. If you take no risk you are not an entrepreneur. If you have no customers and make no profit then you are not an entrepreneur. The post also references these descriptions of an entrepreneur:

“a person who starts a business and is willing to risk loss in order to make money” or “one who organizes, manages, and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise.”

“Entrepreneur” is also not a job in itself, it is a style of doing business. When I read such words as’ risk’ and ‘loss’ in a business context, my stomach actually contracts with fear. To me, risk and loss are high-stakes and have frightening consequences. Entrepreneurship seems to have different motives in reality. Entrepreneurship is not, as I assumed, about overly risky, irresponsible money-making ventures. Entrepreneurship is about authenticity. Entrepreneurship is having enough guts, passion, convictions, and purpose, to face all the fears you have and do it your way. Entrepreneurship refers to those of us who overcome the negative criticism we face, in order to do something that’s just a little bit different, because something inside us tells us it’s important.

In this manner, it is not that entrepreneurs are natural risk-takers or thrill seekers. I begin to see there is more a case of our passion having more pull than the fear that anchors us.  Many of the entrepreneurs I have worked with are actually remarkably risk-averse. When engaging with career coaching these people say things such as “I would never risk my money “and “I am too conservative for enterprise” and “I am too tight with money to go self employed.” or “It all looks too frightening.”

So it is these people who DO know the value of money, it is those of us who CAN identify risk, and, who DO usually play it safe, that make very good entrepreneurs. It is when these personality types find themselves in a situation where they cannot NOT follow their idea through to the end the there is sustainable entrepreneurship.

There are a couple of etrepreneureal traits that are essential and they are perhaps unexpected. Firstly they need to be able to read people well, they need to be the kinds of people who join the dots quickly and conclude that there is a need for something that is not currently being met. They will also be creative in their solutions and problem solving. These people are lateral thinkers. Read the need and identify a solution and you have your “sweet spot”: That meeting place where customer need meets exactly with the product or service you love providing.

What all entrepreneurs do have is oodles of authenticity and also of courage. Those who make most success of their entrepreneurial endeavours are not those not those who are reckless, but those are the risk averse who take the risk despite their doubts and fears.

So that’s the real entrepreneur meaning for me: an individual “who organizes, manages, and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise” IN SPITE of their reservations, because it serves a purpose greater than than the provider, the product and the recipient all put together.

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