A big part of my life is entrepreneurship. What do I mean when I use the word entrepreneurship? Well, that is actually a highly debated topic. Is a guy who starts selling life insurance and has his own little business an entrepreneur? Is the student selling rusks on the side while studying to become a doctor an entrepreneur? Is the guy with a website helping entrepreneurs become more successful an entrepreneur?
Yes, the popularised stereotype of the entrepreneur is the mad risk-taker that recklessly jumps out of the plane, disrupts an industry and that society worships as a demi-god. In the last ten years or so I have seen that there is a distinction between someone who is entrepreneurial in endeavour and someone who is an entrepreneur.
The blue-bloods or growth entrepreneurs perhaps don’t even think about the term that much. For them it is the only way of life. Asking them to go and work for someone else is pretty much a death sentence. They start a business with the idea of taking it as big as they possibly can because it’s fun. ..Think Musk, Gates, Zucker, etc. On the other hand you have people who, through opportunity, circumstances or elimination of possibilities, have come to a place where they simply have to become an entrepreneur. Perhaps they make it big or perhaps they cover the bills with a little extra on the side to ensure their freedom.
The bottom line is that the world is better off for those people who have a passion to start something, collaborate, connect, create, infuse and change this world rather than simply accepting the way things are. To me the real spirit of entrepreneurship is found in the ones who dare to challenge the status quo and look for a different, new,creative and beautiful way of working, creating and doing business.
It doesn’t matter how big or how small – entrepreneurship is about creating something beautiful in order to solve a problem and make it a better world.