

You’re Not an Entrepreneur - jasonlbaptiste
http://jolieodell.wordpress.com/2010/10/01/youre-not-an-entrepreneur/

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jbail
An entrepreneur is someone who takes risks to start a company. That's the
definition I've always used. If you assign more weight to the title than that,
that's up to you, but I don't see anything wrong with someone calling
themselves an entrepreneur because they start a company. There is risk, even
small, in every venture. Failure, for one. Loss of time, for another.

More annoying to me are people who call themselves "President/CEO" when they
have no employees or not enough employees to even have a corporate hierarchy
where "President/CEO" would carry some swagger.

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nostromo
"Founder."

"Lemonade Stand Founder", "Google Founder" -- note how it puts the emphasis on
the enterprise, not on the person. Problem solved. :)

But yes, people don't seem to understand that CEO implies that there are other
executives, of whom you are the chief. It's not just a startup issue, I've
also worked at large companies where Managers don't manage and VPs don't
report to Ps. It makes sense; titles are the cheapest form of compensation.

Of course it leads to title inflation. By 2050 everyone will be a CEO, and
they'll report to the CECEO.

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jbail
I agree. I've been "Lead Developer" on development teams of one - and I didn't
give myself that title. That's what the corporation gave me and printed onto
business cards.

For me, I felt most uncomfortable when I first got hired as a "senior
engineer." I was 25 and only ~2 years out of school. I told the HR person, I
don't think I'm senior. Didn't matter. They were tasked with hiring senior
level talent, so that's the level I needed to be. Turns out, I was more senior
than I thought and did great in the post. It just was weird at first because I
felt as if I hadn't earned it.

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mcknz
Next in the series: You're Not a Webmaster.

If people want to call themselves entrepreneurs to give themselves
inspiration, confidence, or ambition, I have no problem with that. I doubt the
term is going to suffer much dilution.

+1 for Inigo Montoya, though.

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dennykmiu
Before I was an entrepreneur (and I believe I am one), I had spend nine years
as an untenured Assistant Professor at UCLA. And I remembered my colleagues
used to spend a great deal of time and efforts subdividing their disciplines
and making sure that everyone inside and outside academia classifying them
exactly as they wished to be classified. This was a puzzle to me until I read
the following quote from Henry Kissinger (after he had left the government but
was turned down by Columbia University), "The reason why there are so much
politics in academia is because the stake is so low." I believe the stake is
very high in entrepreneurship and I think no one benefits from spending too
much time worrying about what we should be called. However, I think the
article is a very good one, in the sense that there is indeed a whole lot of
work in being a "successful" entrepreneur. Good luck everyone.

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teaspoon
You're misunderstanding the meaning of "acting as intermediary between capital
and labor". "Capital" doesn't mean money; economists use that word to refer to
durable goods that can be used to produce other, salable goods. Most goods
require some mix of labor and capital to produce, and Say is identifying
entrepreneurs as the people who coordinate that mixing.

Even if "capital" were intended in the sense that you're imagining, it's not
clear why it would need to be "startup money in a round of funding" or any
other kind of loan. Plenty of entrepreneurs, in the 19th-century sense of the
word, provide both financial and physical capital out-of-pocket.

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ryanholiday
Entrepreneur is a great example of a word, to quote George Trow, that is an
"abandoned shell." It used to have great meaning as being an entrepreneur was
incredibly difficult and rare and then technological changes came along and
made it mean something totally different. The reason people are so attracted
to [self-descriptively] using it is because they get the status of the old
meaning with the lower barrier to entry of the new changes. You can't really
fault other people for wanting the best of both worlds...but you can resist
the temptation to delude yourself with it. At least that's my opinion.

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davidu
There are many entrepreneurs who exist within companies and absolutely fit the
definition and spirit of the term Entrepreneur.

Good post, and I understand the motivation for writing it but it's wrong. If
you think you're an entrepreneur, most likely, you are one and nobody can tell
you differently.

For me, I've been an entrepreneur since the 8th grade. And yes, I'm a hustler:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rhYch48fPg>

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jolie
"...and nobody can tell you differently."

Yup. Pretty much. That's ego, though, not entrepreneurship.

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davidu
A key piece of being an entrepreneur is faking it until you make it. It comes
out in many forms:

1) Minimum viable product

2) Acting bigger than you are

3) Creating industries and markets that don't exist.

Without that ethos and world-view, which you call ego (it isn't), one would
not survive as an entrepreneur.

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jolie
I know I'm going to get a ton of shit for this post, but seriously, I
meet/talk to/write about/help entrepreneurs all the time, and this phenomenon
has me completely fed up with the tech "scene."

Why do people have this bottomless need to claim to be things they're not? Why
can't they just revel in and promote the wonderful things they already are?

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davidu
Society has always had people claim to be the things they're not. That's human
nature Jolie.

You call yourself a journalist and student of computer science. Who am I to
say you aren't? Sometimes your dreams become reality when you work to make
them so, but for a while, you have to fake it till you make it. :-)

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jolie
I call myself that because that's what I am, dude.

I don't call myself a programmer or a hacker -- I'm simply a student.

And "faking it" is despicable. How about "be what you are, and become what you
want to be."

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davidu
If you think "faking it" is _despicable_ then you're right about one thing --
you are not an entrepreneur.

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lzw
You're such a douche that I am beginning to suspect that OpenDNS is not
trustworthy.

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davidu
Sorry you feel that way. Upvoted you anyways. :-)

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joeag
An entrepreneur is anyone who has to make payroll, even if the entrepreneur is
the only one on it.

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talvisota
If you engage in discussion about the definition of entrepeneurship, you are
probably not an entrepeneur. Like I just did.

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fleitz
Instead of calling people out, why not out offer to help?

If they lack capital, point them towards VCs, Angels, Super Angels, etc, or
useful resources on how to get off the ground with out much capital, Google
App Engine, Dreamhost, etc.

If they have capital point them towards sources where they can get labour,
craigslist, rent-a-coder, etc.

If they still have a job point them towards people who talk about the
transition, etc.

I think according to jolie's definition until recently patio11 would be
considered not an entrepreneur. Yet, he's a prolific poster, has his own thing
going on, etc. (Not sure if he describes himself as an entrepreneur, but I
definitely appreciate his business and tech insights).

Simply put instead of chastising people for using the wrong term, help them to
be 'entrepreneurs'. A post on how to transition from 'wantrepreneur' to
'entrepreneur' would be far more helpful. It's a difficult transition from FTE
to entrepreneur, and I don't think we should be kicking people when they are
down for having the dare to dream.

