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What is an Entrepreneur?
hello.jiamin@foxmail.com
missbowtie.com
You can read the entire book for free at Amazon.com, or here on Medium.com. A complete chapter list is at the bottom of this article.
Here we are. The end of the book. Honestly, I’ve been here for quite some time, revising and re-revising, and then, because I can’t leave well enough alone, revising again ad nauseum.
You see, after all this writing about entrepreneuring I realized I had never defined what an entrepreneur is. I’ve danced around the definition and dressed it with analogies, but never defined it. That bothers me, and I’d like to do something about it.
Let’s start by asking Merriam-Webster.
Entrepreneur: one who organizes, manages, and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise.
First, what’s the difference between business and enterprise, other than perhaps scale? Second, assumes the risks? Clearly, the lexicographer who wrote that definition doesn’t know how common it is for many so-called entrepreneurs to make out like bandits, while investors are left holding bags full of empty stocks. (WeWork much?) Lastly, organizes and manages sounds redundant. Organizing is a part of managing.
