

Are You An Entrepreneur or a Wantrepreneur? - mollylynn
http://www.infochachkie.com/are-you-an-entrepreneur/
To what extent do you share the list of entrepreneurial characteristics outlined in this post?
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lethain
This article buys into the idea that entrepreneurship is hard, and most people
can't do it. Beyond being an exercise in self-love, this is the perspective
that the 'big dumb companies' crave. Whether we say "damn, I'm not good enough
to leave" or we say "damn, I'm one of the few that is good enough to get out",
we're still buying into the vision that industrialists wrought for us a
century ago.

Pre-industrialism, essentially everyone was self-employed (if we want a
specific example, lets take the USA 150 years ago, rather than regressing into
feudalism or Egyptian slaves); despite the posited inability of non-elites to
be entrepreneurs. The barriers to entrepreneurship are not inherent flaws in
the majority of humanity, but intentionally manufactured barriers to promote
the industrial model of production and consumption.

Whenever you're cribbing euphemisms off of eight year old 50 Cents' songs,
then you're probably driving the wrong way down a one way street.

~~~
thomasmallen
> Whenever you're cribbing euphemisms off of eight year old 50 Cents' songs,
> then you're probably driving the wrong way down a one way street.

I understand what you're saying, but that's the wrong way to say it. I've
learned more about entrepreneurship from hustlers I've known than anyone else,
and hip hop usually captures that spirit better than any other music.
Entrepreneurship takes balls, and your stones have to be massive to flip dimes
and quarters under the noses of teachers and cops.

~~~
fallentimes
You're right. Few things are as entrepreneurial as drug dealing or even ticket
scalping :).

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fallentimes
Is the person who coined the term Wantrepreneur the same person who coined the
term Web 2.0? Did Godin have something to do with this?

You're not an entrepreneur unless you own/owned a company (the rest of the
details are very debatable). I hate sales jobs that describe themselves as
"entrepreneurial" in nature. You're still taking orders from someone else.

~~~
rokhayakebe
I respectfully disagree.

An entrepreneur is anyone who can see an opportunity or an idea and turn it
into hard cash. If you can do it through someone else's business then even
better. You are simply reducing the calculated risk.

A few years ago several bartenders and waitresses went out and bought
investments properties because another bartender had done it and made lot of
money. They had a few properties, incorporated their business and rolled over
the taxes, and got loans easily. That did not make them entrepreneurs. Those
business owners helped to drive house prices all the way up, then all the way
down taking the economy with them along the way.

On the other hand, take Google. A great search engine, a good amount of
visitors who love the product. But someone outside the founders came up with
Adwords and executed it pretty well. That s an entrepreneur.

~~~
fallentimes
It's funny, one of the original details I left out and put "debatable" for
instead was "profitability".

IMHO I still don't think the Adwords guy is an entrepreneur; he's an employee
- a damn good employee.

~~~
13ren
adwords came from overture/goto.com - a separate company. Actually, google
_stole_ it, and got their pants sued off.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahoo!_Search_Marketing>

note that "adwords" isn't just the idea of putting ads next to search, but
mainly the auction aspect of it (so google always gets the highest price
possible; and advertisers never pay more than needed - the idea is it's a
little market), and linking it to search.

Overture/goto.com was basically adwords alone (no search results), and was
quite profitable I believe.

Unfortunately, my little correction doesn't contribute to the topic of the
debate... um, departments can certainly be entrepreneurial, also, in some
companies, with skunkworks and so on, you are certainly doing _all_ the things
an entrepreneur does: funding, new products, marketing. The only difference
(and perhaps a key difference, according to fallentimes) is that it ain't
their money. Entrepreneurialism certainly has a gut-test component... and
maybe that risk/reward of ownership is essential.

Otherwise, you're gambling for matchsticks. Using all the same skills, but you
ain't gambling.

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tc7
I wonder why it's _necessary_ to write articles like this... Are there a lot
of people out there who may have _thought_ they were entrepeneurs, but needed
to be convinced they're not via a list of traits they need to possess?

~~~
krschultz
I bet a good percentage of the people reading entrepreneurial blogs have great
ideas, but haven't actually leaped into the void. I'm in a startup, but its
not MY startup, so I don't consider myself an entrepreneur .. yet.

~~~
fallentimes
That's a lot better than being a bitter cuber/red taper who criticizes
everyone's startup while not having their own. I believe many of them hang out
on Techcrunch.

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13ren
The differentiation between inventor and entrepreneur is helpful for me. It's
not about technology, but usefulness. Not one brilliant perfect insight, but
iteration. Not money, but creation.

 _most entrepreneurs iterate on preexisting ideas to the point that the
inventions represent marketable value propositions upon which sustainable
companies can be created._

 _...obsession is the father of innovation. Innovations are often sussed out
by entrepreneurs who cannot let go of an idea ... compelled to succeed by
creating something from nothing, not by the lust for money, power or fame._

He didn't say this, but the thing about "marketable value propositions" is
they are about problems or needs. It's frightfully easy to invent a "solution"
without a problem.

Joel said "Where there's MUCK, there's brass". He meant unpleasant work is
rewarded. But I interpret it as: for a solution to really make a difference to
people, it has to be a solution to a problem/need they have. The worse the
problem (i.e. the more ugly, confusing, complex, frustrating, painful,
horrible and MUCKY it is), the more worthwhile the solution. No problem means
no solution - by (my) definition. A "solution" without a problem isn't worth
anything. Therefore, MUCK is a pre-condition of a worthwhile solution: where's
there's muck, there's brass.

Arguably, inventors (of products) create solutions; entrepreneurs (marketers
of products) connect solutions to problems. Most powerful when combined e.g.
Wozniak + Jobs, or unified in one person: Edison.

------
tptacek
I normally really like this blog, but this post is puffy and superficial. You
could replace "Entrepreneur" with "Eagle Scout" and, apart from TJ Watson, the
post would still make sense.

~~~
mollylynn
Your point is well taken. Not every post on the site is a "How To", which I
tend to like better as well.

Some are more inspirational. I do agree that this one has less 'meat' than
some of the others, but I still like the description of the characteristics
shared by many successful entrepreneurs.

Maybe there is a strong correlation between Eagle Scouts and Entrepreneurs?!

Thanks for the feedback.

~~~
tlrobinson
_"Maybe there is a strong correlation between Eagle Scouts and
Entrepreneurs?!"_

For the record, I'm an Eagle Scout, one of my co-founders almost was, and one
of my other few friends who is also starting a company is also an Eagle Scout.
Anyone else out there?

~~~
13ren
I don't know much about Scouts, but isn't the idea to be useful and effective
in serving the community, with an emphasis on initiative, and getting done
whatever needs to be done?

Isn't that pretty much what a successful entrepreneur does?

~~~
13ren
Scout Oath is similar: <http://www.scouting.org/Media/FactSheets/02-503a.aspx>

The "BRAVE" one differs, because the article talks about such confidence and
optimism that one doesn't experience fear. Courage requires fear, as the
article says.

The Motto reminds me of: "One word sums up probably the responsibility of any
Governor, and that one word is 'to be prepared'"

------
skmurphy
This is a horoscope: Sincerity, Humility, Honesty, Naivety, Impatience,
Optimism, Influencer.

Sincerity, Honesty, Optimism would be pre-requisites for any legitimate
profession (perhaps internal auditors need to be pessimists).

Naivety if it means ignorance is dangerous: you can ask fundamental questions
but that's different from being naive. He doesn't give the full quote from
Orville Wright on audacity, it continues "Yet faith in our calculations and
the design of the first machine, based upon our tables of air pressures,
secured by months of careful laboratory work, and confidence in our system of
control developed by three years of actual experiences in balancing gliders in
the air had convinced us that the machine was capable of lifting and
maintaining itself in the air, and that, with a little practice, it could be
safely flown."

They clearly contemplated failure in selecting a location for test flights
with strong headwinds that didn't force them to build up a lot of ground speed
to take off (making landings safer).

"We realized the difficulties of flying in so high a wind, but estimated that
the added dangers in flight would be partly compensated for by the slower
speed in landing." Orville Wright in "How We Made the First Flight"
<http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/6000/6100/6126/flight.pdf>

------
henning
Does this mean if I want to be my own boss that I can't just work on something
for 5 minutes and then spend the rest of the day on Twitter and playing video
games?

~~~
dgordon
Unfortunately not. What kind of boss lets their employees do that? :-P

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Brushfire
I don't know about anyone else, but self-applying the word entrepreneur gets
really old, really fast. I've done it myself out of necessity (and brevity),
but it still feels wrong.

~~~
unalone
When would you ever have a chance to _say_ something like that? "Hi, my name
is Bob, and I'm an entrepreneur?" It seems so silly.

When people ask me what I like to do, I say "Make things." It's quicker,
easier to comprehend, and lends itself to what usually gets called
entrepreneurship.

~~~
Brushfire
Resumes, Social networks, lots of places. Its not good, but it is fast. Trying
to explain to people my career path takes more than 20 seconds.

'Make things' is good, but it isnt specific enough for most people. They would
say "What do you make?" thinking some sort of art/craft/machinery.

Dont get me wrong, I still like 'Make Things' better than entrepreneur, but
they are both pretty bad. I usually end up telling people I'm self employed
and that I do lots of things and am currently between projects.

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callmeed
"They often have a naive view of the future - not Pollyannaish, but one in
which failure is just not a potential outcome ... Entrepreneurs have the
audacity to believe that the odds do not apply to them, because they know they
are going to win."

This sort of hubris has always bothered me about some entrepreneurial types. I
understand "looking past limitations", "going against the odds", and "taking
risks". But, I think: a) There _are_ outside forces which you cannot control
and which can drastically affect your business (even to the point of failure).
To ignore them is foolish, IMO. b) I think failure is a _key part_ of being an
entrepreneur. It's how you learn and grow. Failure happens sometimes.

Also, I wish his points on humility were a little more thorough (and included
points on failure). I'm not sure W. Churchhill and John Lennon even qualify as
entrepreneurs.

~~~
13ren
"success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing
enthusiasm"

But focusing on the possibility of failure doesn't work as well. One must be
fearless, and fail fearlessly; then fail again and again.

You get more information from failure than trying to anticipate failure.

------
steveplace
Another blog post dealing in platitudes and absolutes.

Don't really care if I fit into your mold of an entrepreneur.

------
Alex3917
_Interview Question Exercise_

 _Draft five interview questions that you would ask someone in order to
determine if they are an entrepreneur_

1) What's the most interesting idea you've had or thing you've thought about
in the last week?

2) If you had to write The Great American Novel, what five themes would you
consider essential to touch upon?

3) What books have influenced you the most? Who are your favorite bloggers?

4) What's an example of a time you've hacked some non-computer system to your
advantage? (paraphrased from the YC app.)

5) What's an example of something you've made that people have wanted.

~~~
mollylynn
These are Great questions.

I especially like the "Great American Novel" question. If answered
thoughtfully, it would provide a nice window into the soul of the interviewee.

The "favorite blogger" question is good as well, as it also helps the
interviewer understand what motivates and excites the interviewee.

~~~
Brushfire
Sure these are good for young entrepreneurs. Of course, I know dozens of
people who are totally entrepreneurs but dont spend any time reading blogs,
ever.

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thomasmallen
It's scary how many of the items on that list match me as a kid (except for
lame stuff like yard sales. I found better ways to turn a buck).

------
dshah
I like the term "Wannabepreneur" better. It better captures the essence of the
issue at hand.

------
azharcs
A writer is someone who writes, not someone who goes about telling their
friends that they are “a writer”. The same is true of entrepreneurs.

~~~
tlrobinson
The comments section is for your comments, not copy/pasting portions of the
article verbatim without quoting...

