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I’ve found that nearly everyone nowadays calls themselves an entrepreneur, is interested in other entrepreneurs, and strives to be considered a successful entrepreneur.
I must admit that when I hear the word (which inundates conversation and — more interestingly– the personal summaries of seemingly everyone over the age of twenty on my two favorite social networks), a little voice in my head channels Inigo Montoya in The Princess Bride, and I say to myself in a nerdy accent to the entrepreneur in cyberspace, “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”
After tweeting about the loss of affect that the word has on me as a user of social media, I had eight new twitter followers within two minutes. I think it was because I’d just used the word entrepreneur (and consultant– another word that I admitted was losing its awe-factor to me). The interesting part about my twitter follower story? About four of those eight followers have become great resources for me. In fact, we share similar goals and have the same kind of ambition and willingness to take charge and create change. With the rapid onset of social media, does the word entrepreneur mean less because we are all entrepreneurs? Is generation Y an entire generation of entrepreneurs? We certainly seem to be. The generalization is that a Gen Yer’s ideal job is a self-building job, which explains why we may have a strong desire to classify ourselves as entrepreneurs on social networks.
With every other professional describing themselves as an entrepreneur, the word has changed its meaning. I suggest is that we acknowledge the widespread use of the word, and adapt to it’s changing meaning.
I’d argue that sometimes young professionals call themselves entrepreneurs when they mean to call themselves entrepreneurial. Perhaps this is because the word has come to represent an ambitious mindset, instead of a person who has founded venture XYZ.
The power of personal branding has played a large role in our ability to classify ourselves as entrepreneurs. We value the branding of ourselves as a move for professional advancement. While I agree that personal branding is a worthwhile venture, I’ve seen blogs of several young professionals touting the label just because (from what I can tell) they set up directions on how to contact them for consulting purposes. This is not to say there aren’t great 23 year old consultants. This is simply to say that there sure are a lot of them, and regardless of whether they are good consultants or not, how do we know who is the real thing?
The title of entrepreneur– especially when said in description of oneself– is losing its meaning to me and I wonder how long it will be until the word has virtually no meaning at all. Perhaps my scope is skewed, and this is an issue among all social network users, regardless of generation. When I read entrepreneur in a person’s description, I think, “I need to learn more.” Do you find yourself thinking something similar? Please share your own associations with the word. I most certainly cannot speak for everyone when I say that the word is a lot like eating only peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for a month: at first bite, it’s lovely- but after a while, it’s just a thing to eat.
Photo from nationallampoon.com
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Comments
07.24.09
Hey Colleen, you're right the term definitely gets thrown around ALOT! That said, I think its a good thing. If there are more people thinking of themselves as entrepreneurs, that means there are more people who are driven, hard-working and excited to innovate - exactly what this country (and the world) needs.
Also, as we move into a time where people jump from job to job to find the best fit, people really are turning into entrepreneurs. Reid Hoffman, the CEO of Linkedin, basically says that his whole business model is built on the fact that everyone must think of themselves as an entrepreneur. The days of 30 years in a job are over.
Having said all that, I'm not sure where that leaves those of us who are going out and building companies from nothing. Maybe the new term should be "company-builders," or something a lot less lame, but along those same lines!
Thanks for the post, it was a good read!
-Ryan
07.24.09
This is very similar to the concern about how more and more people are identifying themselves as experts. What defines an expert? It seems to me that experts and entrepreneurs are best able to market themselves as such when other people identify them in this way. Self identification only goes so far.
07.24.09
I think this is an interesting topic.
As an economist, I tend to think of an entrepreneur in the Schumpeterian sense (if you don't know who I'm talking about, he was an economist who created a theory about the entrepreneur). He basically said a free and competitive economy has a more or less stable flow to it and the role of the entrepreneur is to generate disequilibrium through innovation and creating new combinations (of processes, goods, services, etc.). He also believed that once this "new combination" became something a mass of the population, or economy, had access to/could purchase, the entrepreneur ceased being an entrepreneur and instead was a regular business owner.
I think this is an important distinction. So it would follow that yes, we could certainly all be attempting to disrupt the economy with new thoughts, ideas, and goods - but only the successful entrepreneurs can eventually call themselves business owners (which although it doesn't sound as sexy, is where money is actually made.)
07.25.09
What is interesting is that in other countries, owning side businesses is very common. Everybody is their own businessman in many other parts of the world. In developed western countries we tend to have an over-reliance on corporate jobs. It works during the good times, but when times are tough, the number of small businesses actually increases.
07.26.09
The word is zealously overused I agree. As I wrote in a post of mine, I'm an "entrepreneur" now because I started my own company, great! I think it is only necessary to gain credibility in the eyes of those who might pass judgment and sometimes don't know any better. I argue that I have been an entrepreneur or entrepreneurial my entire life. Starting a company is one thing, but being an entrepreneur is a mindset that dictates everything you do.
On the other side though, if someone wants to consider themselves an entrepreneur then by all means, they're one. I see no damage done if someone wants to try and create something from nothing, it's the first step in some direction, support them!
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