What Is An Entrepreneur?

Business Entrepreneurship
1

I’ve been looking for a better word than Entrepreneur recently, partly because many people seem to think that it’s all about making money. I’m looking for something denoting “someone who solves problems and gets things done,” but that doesn’t seem to impress anyone. (I’m looking for a name to use in describing an event teaching the first steps towards that goal, possibly to people who are not aware they want to become that person yet.)

Someone reminded me that Seth Godin talks about business as “art,” and this resonates with a great quote from Steve Jobs: Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask a creative person how they did something, they may feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after awhile. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things. And the reason they were able to do that was that they’ve had more experiences or have thought more about their experiences than other people have. Unfortunately, that’s too rare a commodity. A lot of people in our industry haven’t had very diverse experiences. They don’t have enough dots to connect, and they en up with very linear solutions, without a broad perspective on the problem. The broader one’s understanding of the human experience, the better designs we will have.

In addition, I got some great comments from students:

In my opinion Taiwanese student are more trained to be “critical” instead of being “constructive”. (The education we provide in systems)
When some people says it’s not attractive to solve problems and get things done.
You can actually ask them :“So what is attractive?” (I guess they may not know )

and

I am a 21-year-old university student who is going to attend the event on coming Sunday. I wanna share some personal idea with you. From general viewpoint, I might be classed as the group of people who are not attractive to “solving problems and getting things done”. However, I think the exact truth is more than that. I think I simply don’t have enough confident and sufficient experience dealing with this kind of issue so I keep myself away from this kind of issue instinctively. I don’t have confident that I can do it successfully so a little voice came out from my heart saying that “I don’t like it”. I can say it may somehow related to the education in Taiwan which cause this result. Our education doesn’t teach us the importance and necessary of being ignorant and being not the best one.

And I really like this English-teacher-friendly comment from a friend in a major sporting goods company: Digital sport is a big topic around these parts. My stance is/was/will be we aren’t in the technology business. We can partner with the best in the world on that. What we are in is the “making athletes better” business. Inherently, any verb/adverb is a service. That’s a good place to be in a world where the nouns are changing every 18 months. We could give the technology away if it didn’t corrode our brand position. We should be focused on monetizing the data and creating a premium service. Apple didn’t become the most valuable company in the world with the iphone alone. It did it by creating a marketplace for applications… Unfortunately, we are hung up on the noun. Not the verb. We execute a lot of cool nouns here, so I understand why we would be hung up on it. And most of the strategic planners couldn’t quite get what was wrong with that.

If you’re free on Thursday evening, and in Taipei, come to Urban 45 and we’ll talk about it some more with the Entrepreneur Society of Taiwan.

Mods: I put this in open, because it’s not about business. It’s about perceptions.

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“Social hacker.”

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In English i use the term “self-employed” together with any of these terms: “planner”, “consultant”, “culture translator”, “information broker”, or “instructor”, as the situation demands - i don’t use the word “entrepreneur” for the same reason you describe. :slight_smile:

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Solutionizer

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I really don’t understand why the term “Social Entrepreneur” doesn’t work for you. There’s already a LARGE community of people who use that term. Why reinvent the wheel? It’s the term Muhammad Yunus uses. What embodies what you’re trying to describe more than his suite of services under his umbrella organization Grameen.

Ashoka uses the term. Skoll uses the term. Perhaps you aren’t familiar with the term social entrepreneur and I’ve just assumed you were this whole time… :stuck_out_tongue: Every time I get an email I ask myslef “What the hell is wrong with social entrepreneur?”

Here in the US there is legislation in the works to create a business entity designed to support Social Enterprises/Business (it’s called the L3C). There is debate as to whether another entity is necessary, but one thing is certain, there needs to be a clearer path to creating a social business.

I’m almost solely interested in is “social entrepreneurship.” I essentially want to create nonprofits that are self-sustaining (I don’t like nonprofits). Anyhow…

I think social entrepreneur is what you’re looking for. Making money/being profitable is an important part of problem solving/getting things done that a person is going to want to embark on. Otherwise they’re creating a nonprofit (yuck!)

Note: You can create profitable/self sustaining nonpofits and not all nonprofits suck.

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Enterpeneur…aim is to make stacks of cash while setting up their own business. Don’t get the other stuff quoted above. The sporting goods nouns and verb allegories…arrggchhh. Sporting goods companies get away with a lot. What verb should we use to cover buying something from a Taiwanese/Chinese/Indian sweatshop and selling it at an inflated price somewhere else?
The ‘Apple make money from the data’ is wrong…they make most money from gadget sales although they do make money from the data. It’s no secret to anyone these days that data means money, it’s just who gets to own it. Apple doesn’t hand over it’s data to the content providers even though they pushed like hell for it because they haven’t got an alternative platform yet, wait for Amazon or when they get their act together with their own platforms.
The platform is the key, the technology is the key. No technology, no Apple iPhone, no customers, no overpriced sports goods! We can ‘partner with technology leaders’. Huh? Why would a technology leader do that? They can just do it themselves. Just do it!

As for the stuff talked about above that’s something else that may or may not go with entrepeneurship. It is great when there is a benefit to society component but it’s often overstated or just a marketing pitch. I think there needs to a realignment of expectations from companies towards the societies they operate in, that needs to codified into law to push them to do that. Otherwise taxes!

EDIT- Should take more time to read, anyway the question is very fuzzy. Solving problems and getting things done…ENGINEER.

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:bravo: :bravo: :bravo: :bravo: If nothing else, I have today achieved the return of Miltownkid to forumosa.* I can go to bed happy tonight!

Perhaps I’m not being very clear. Let me try again.

I need a word to use in promoting an event. Not a word to describe myself or any real person. It’s the idealised “person you could be” if you’re a Taiwaneser heading for, or trapped in, a mind-numbing career being told what to do.

There is a tremendous hunger in Taiwan right now for an alternative career path. Most people realise that job security is an illusion and nobody has ever pretended that most Taiwanese bosses are not arseholes. Many people want out, and there is a tremendous amount of creativity on this island just waiting to be unleashed.

I had a bunch of people at an event a while ago, and even the ones who were being dragged there by someone else told me afterwards that they enjoyed it. But there were not enough people there to break even. I need to bring more people in, by presenting them with a vision of what they can be/do.

The word “entrepreneur” is just too scary. Social entrepreneur, or innovator, or any of those words from the thesaurus, all have basically the same meaning: you have to take risk and responsibility in order to get loads of money, or save the world and die poor. The point is that risk is manageable can be approached intelligently, responsibility can be liberating, and being this “mover/shaker/entrepreneur/innovator” does not have to be a scary dangerous proposition.

But nobody is going to read that if you ask them to look at a webpage about becoming an entrepreneur. They have already decided what an entrepreneur is. So I need a different, less-challenging word.

Does that help? I can be appallingly bad at explaining these things sometimes, which is why I’m not a millionaire yet.

  • MK, I thought you were going to buy this site?
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I am! Everything seems to be right on schedule. :wink: It takes time to build a barter exchange, martial arts school, personal development system and consultancy all while being a bipolar wizard that struggles with focus (getting better though! :smiley: lol )

I see your dilemma. My vote still goes towards using the term “social entrepreneur” and stepping up the marketing efforts to rebrand the term.

Or maybe don’t use any label and get them in the door with things like…

“Tired of…”

“Looking for…”

“Want to know how to…”

Or maybe… Starter, Igniter, Doer, Lifestyle Designer (Taiwanesers would like that one), Dreamscaper… Maybe intrapreneurship would be something more enticing to Taiwanese. That might be something you could sell to bosses and employees.

That did help. Let me know if I’m on the right track. I’m on a mission to help you “solve” this problem. And EXCELLENT WORK on organizing the TED events. I’m working with someone who wants to organize one for Milwaukee. Any tips and tricks you picked up? (A simple yes, will prompt me to email you about it directly. :slight_smile: )

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Freebooter.

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Am I missing something here?
Not only did you quote from one of the biggest business scoundrels on planet earth, Steve Jobs, who likes to run real entrepreneurs into non-existence with patent wars and lawsuits, but you are asking the wider community for a word which isn’t entrepreneur, but which in actual fact, means exactly the same thing.
And the reason you are asking for this is because the people who you want to give a presentation to can’t face the word entrepreneur because it sounds too scary for them.
If the (in this case) Taiwanese characters who you want to attract to your event can’t get past a simple word because it sounds frightening, then I doubt that they would have the mentality, or any of the proverbial testicles, to eventually become entrepreneurs.
What is more likely is that you will attract people who dream of becoming entrepreneurs. They will come to your presentation and listen politely. Then they will leave, totally in awe of your Power Point skills and aurora of confidence, but feel good about themselves and empowered to change their life.
Then they will go back to work.

For the next 30 years.

Meanwhile, the real entrepreneurs will be busily getting on with what they need to do to become successful. Because to be an entrepreneur, you need to be born that way. It’s a gift. It’s something that can be developed naturally, with the correct environment and the correct encouragement.
The problem is, the real entrepreneurs create the environment themselves, and they find supportive people who can encourage and empower.

So the word you are looking for is entrepreneur. No euphemism is going to disguise what they eventually dream to become.

Or maybe I’ve completely misread what you are asking for here? If so, my apologies.

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Who knows? :wink:

Is that how you translate this:

[quote=“Loretta”]I’ve been looking for a better word than Entrepreneur recently, partly because many people seem to think that it’s all about making money.[/quote] ? Why?

Hm… i’d think that depends - for example, i never had a desire to be “an entrepreneur” and i don’t usually use that word to describe myself, but i am sure i can call myself flexible, creative, self-directed, self-motivated, and having a clear sense of what is important to me, and based on those characteristics i have been self-employed for most of my life. :slight_smile:

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MK, yes. Send me an email. (This is not a TEDx event, by the way.)

Hans, and Yuli, thanks. Any criticism is good criticism here, because I’m getting nowhere.

Yes, these people are scared of responsibility, risk, etc., as the result of having been brought up in a system that discourages them from facing up to reality and doing something about it. But that doesn’t mean they are not entrepreneurs in the wider sense of the world.

If, for instance, we were to find ourselves suddenly castaway on a small island, with limited resources, do you think they would all lie down and die without trying? Or would they tap their hidden reserves of creativity and determination, and start figuring out how to catch fish, collect rainwater, build a shelter, survive and eventually escape from their terrible circumstances?

An entrepreneur is simply someone who looks at what they have and figures out a way to get more of what they want from it. In the right circumstances, we are all entrepreneurs. We are descended from a long line of entrepreneurs, because the proto-humans who just said “this is too hard” never made it to the next generation. The ability to be masters of our own destiny is hard-wired into most of us, but in many cases is stifled by social conditioning.

For example, in my regular classes I often do an activity around the idea of being in a sinking ship and looking frantically round your room to decide what to carry as you swim to the little island nearby. I hand out inoccuous daily objects, and they have to figure out ways to use them in a new situation to create useful wealth such as food, shelter, etc. The results are often gratifying.

It’s really just a variation on the “how many uses for a brick can you think of” activity, which always stumps them at first. All they need is a bit of focus, and they’re good to go - but it has to be in the right environment. People have to feel like the task is something they can achieve before they will try.

Going to “Entrepreneur School” is not attractive, the assumptions they make about the requirements create the wrong kind of environment. Yuli’s comment is insightful and pretty much sums things up: “i never had a desire to be “an entrepreneur” and I don’t usually use that word to describe myself” - there is a reason for this which explains my problem.

The event is really more about discovering your inner XXXXX through doing an activity, not listening to Loretta giving yet another motivational speech. That’s what’s scary, even though when they do it they mostly love it.

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You jest, but I’ve met several people (in Taiwan and elsewhere) who, I am 100% certain, would do precisely that.

I don’t see anything wrong with the word entrepreneur, which describes a person with two specific traits: a faculty for creativity and inventiveness, and a personality that can make others believe in his creativity and inventiveness. The former is an inventor, dreamer, or rocket scientist. The latter is a salesman. ‘Entrepreneur’ is pretty much the only word that carries both connotations.

Like ceiling cat?
http://ceiling-cat.com/

14

Given the problem-solving activities you describe, would you get anywhere thinking in terms of character types?
For example: cowboy (trail-blazer, lone gun, self-reliant) vs settler (convoy, collective, mutual support), pirate (think Steve Jobs early on at Apple, running a Jolly Roger up over the building), etc.

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Hmmm, that’s an idea.

Loretta’s Business Ninja School! (For losers.)

Pirates of the Pacific, piracy, crew… treasure. Might be some mileage there.

I saw a quote somewhere about a guy who studied art, and computing and then got a job painting computers. The writer claimed that Steve Jobs also just paints computers.

Finley mentions selling ideas, which Mr Jobs is great at, so same topic but different angle:

There is a book called The 4-hr Workweek, which is nowhere near as popular in Taiwan as it is in western countries. I ask Taiwanese people what they would do if they could earn a decent living by working four hours a week, and the answer is invariably that they would work 100-hours a week and get really really rich. I don’t think they’re really serious about being rich, I think they mostly just can’t imagine any way of living that doesn’t involve long hours of drudgery and no real fun. Obviously there are exceptions, but it’s a general observation, and it’s part of the same issue of how people perceive themselves and the way the world works. The title holds the promise of freedom to me, but the horror of wasted time to ‘them’ in the same way that ‘entrepreneur’ means different things to different people.

Discuss.

16

This is on a tangent to the thread topic, but i recall taking part in smilar thought experiments and discussions with various people in Canada, and it was always clear in our discussion that there was no option to work overtime or hold more than one job in the assumed model situation, since all other jobs were actually taken by other people. Seems you need to spell that out to the participants in your thought experiments. :slight_smile:

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No. I’m looking at Loretta’s post as a whole and also what other people have contributed.

I believe Richard Branson is also self employed, and I think he also has all of the above characteristics. Does being an entrepreneur necessarily require a prerequisite level of perceived success?
Personally, I think self employed plumbers all the way up to the toss-pot at the head of Apple have the traits of the entrepreneur. Or is a plumber just a businessman who plies a trade? Where is the line between the two?