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I need a better word than entrepreneur.
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.)
I'm really struggling to find a word that celebrates the passion and results-oriented nature of entrepreneurship, whether in a social venture or a business or a project in the workplace.
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."
Shokrullah Amiri 10+
I would like to suggest developing the meaning of the term “entrepreneur" rather new word. The key in a word is its meaning, not its letters.
Referring to the meaning, I have seen many entrepreneurs working for & not for profit, even both.
Autumn Frisco 10+
Charles Faraone
I share your distaste for entrepreneur, but the word does accurately describe a specific type of individual better than any other word I’ve come across. I’m not sure it always implies making money but if the label is tainted for you, then it probably makes sense to avoid it.
If you’re a real innovator or entrepreneur, you’ll probably be able to invent a unique word to describe yourself. (The trick is that, like a joke, it has to “work” without being explained).
Decades ago I spent two weekends at an informal event called a “School for Entrepreneurs.” There were a lot of extremely interesting individuals. Ironically, one of the attendees with an idea that totally flopped went on to a fairly successful career by helping corporations learn how to work with entrepreneurs.
His theory was fairly simple. Entrepreneurs tend to exhibit the determination required to get from point A to point B without worrying about potential obstacles. For most entrepreneurs, obstacles only add to the challenge. The corporate mindset prefers concrete plans with verifiable results along the way.
Back then, businesses were hiring entrepreneurs to help them explore new markets. The problem was that upper management tended to lose faith in their new employees as soon as the obstacles started showing. Management’s attempts to shackle the entrepreneurs backfired because entrepreneurs thrive on the freedom of finding their way.
The guy helping corporations and entrepreneurs work together came up with the name “Intrapreneurs” (not sure of the spelling) for entrepreneurs working with corporations and went on to build a very successful consulting business.
Good luck.
lynn eschbach 30+
But after that, appreciated your comment.
Charles Faraone
Perhaps “distaste” is too strong a word.
Oddly enough, it doesn’t bother me when people call themselves entrepreneurs and (for lack of a better word) I refer to myself as an entrepreneur. For some reason the word tends to leave me feeling a little uneasy. Probably because I’ve always felt it was a little pretentious.
Anyway, thanks for the kind words.
Charles
Chris Ke-Sihai 200+
Chris Ke-Sihai 200+
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.