What's an Entrepreneur? The Best Answer Ever

Cyberian · 01-12-2012, 01:55 PM

http://www.inc.com/eric-schurenberg/...ampaign=button

From inc.com

Quote:

What's an Entrepreneur? The Best Answer Ever

This classic 25-word definition pares entrepreneurship to its essence and explains why it's so hard. And so addictive.

By Eric Schurenberg | @EricSchurenberg | Jan 9, 2012
Courtesy company
-----------------------------

As an entrepreneur, you surely have an elevator pitch, the pithy 15-second synopsis of what your company does and why, and you can all but repeat it in your sleep. But until recently, I’d never seen a good elevator pitch for entrepreneurship itself—that is, what you do that all entrepreneurs do?
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Now I've seen it, and it comes from Harvard Business School, of all places. It was conceived 37 years ago by HBS professor Howard Stevenson. I came across it in the book Breakthrough Entrepreneurship (which I highly recommend) by entrepreneur and teacher Jon Burgstone and writer Bill Murphy, Jr. Of Stevenson’s definition, Burgstone says, “people often need to say it out loud 50 or 100 times before they really understand what it means.” Here it is:

"Entrepreneurship is the pursuit of opportunity without regard to resources currently controlled."

I talked to Stevenson about his classic definition this weekend. Back in 1983, he told me, people tended to define entrepreneurship almost as a personality disorder, a kind of risk addiction. “But that didn’t fit the entrepreneurs I knew,” he said. “I never met an entrepreneur who got up in the morning saying ‘Where’s the most risk in today’s economy, and how can I get some? Most entrepreneurs I know are looking to lay risk off—on investors, partners, lenders, and anyone else.” As for personality, he said, “The entrepreneurs I know are all different types. They’re as likely to be wallflowers as to be the wild man of Borneo.”

By focusing on entrepreneurship as a process, his definition opened the term to all kinds of people. Plus, it matched the one demographic fact HBS researchers already knew about entrepreneurs—they were more likely to start out poor than rich. “They see an opportunity and don’t feel constrained from pursuing it because they lack resources,” says Stevenson. “They’re used to making do without resources.”
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The perception of opportunity in the absence of resources helps explain much of what differentiates entrepreneurial leadership from that of corporate administrators: the emphasis on team rather than hierarchy, fast decisions rather than deliberation, and equity rather than cash compensation.

What would you expect, asks Stevenson: When you don’t have the cash to boss people around, like in a corporation, you have to create a more horizontal organization. “You hire people who want what you have and not what you don’t have,” Stevenson says. In other words, entrepreneurs offer their team members a larger share of a vision for a future payoff, rather than a smaller share of the meager resources at hand. Opportunity is the only real resource you have.

Or, as Burgstone puts it:

Every time you want to make any important decision, there are two possible courses of action. You can look at the array of choices that present themselves, pick the best available option and try to make it fit. Or, you can do what the true entrepreneur does: Figure out the best conceivable option and then make it available.

And that, folks, is what makes entrepreneurship so friggin' hard. And so friggin' necessary.

Sounds kinda simple, dont it?

Any real life comments on this?

Peace,
Cyberian

KingDon · 01-15-2012, 09:20 PM

I think this is why curious people turn into domain entrepreneurs, you can lack the capitol, and still make a go of it. $9 to reg a name, then just learning how to build a site around something to sell, and then marketing it.

But even with all the things outlined in the definition, the one thing that is rarely discussed, is luck. Many entrepreneurs start down the same path, but very few make it to the top of their game, and I think it's a combination of being in the right place at the right time, while being prepared, that equals luck to me, IMHO.
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I have found that the guys who really excelled in domaining (guys with no financial backing, no family money, no safety nets/spouses with jobs), really had no other choice but to succeed; they either made it work, or they knew they will be in deeper s**t if their plans fail.

I would disagree with one point in the other 12 start up rules, something about having to love what you're getting into; I think the fear of being poor, can equally fuel ones determination, become equally as strong a motivational factor as loving your vision.

How does the song go, some dance to remember, some dance to forget.

Good stuff Cyberian,

Ronald Regging · 01-24-2012, 09:28 PM

My ex-wife danced all of my profits down the drain. I started out domaining with one of those $1.99 regs from Yahoo domains. Sold it two weeks later for $500. Had a couple hand regs go for low $x,xxx. Sales weren't every day, but the ROI was ridiculous.

The biggest limiting factor in my domaining career was not being able to reinvest my profits so that I could grow my business.

seshone · 01-27-2012, 12:09 PM

Wendigo · 01-31-2012, 02:54 AM

Originally Posted by KingDon

I would disagree with one point in the other 12 start up rules, something about having to love what you're getting into; I think the fear of being poor, can equally fuel ones determination, become equally as strong a motivational factor as loving your vision.

That's certainly true. For some people it's even a stronger motivator.

The problem arises in the long run... a love for the job can shield you from stress and burnout, while fear of failure just adds to the pressure. Some deal well with it and thrive, others may eventually crack.

KingDon · 02-17-2012, 10:13 PM

"a love for the job can shield you from stress and burnout"

Very true, but I ask myself how many people with limited resources, financial/educational, have the option to pursue, or start working at their dream job. The poor have few choices; they do what they have to do, in order to pursue a chance at landing their "dream job."
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And even then, what one considers "the dream job," usually ends up having it's own unforeseen stresses. Job = Work

How many times in life have we all said, "I wish I had that job/position/title/opportunity," only to find that when we received it, a span of time went by, and once again, we found ourselves looking elsewhere.

michael55555 · 02-28-2012, 10:32 PM

An entrepreneur is perhaps someone who is creative and innovative and benefits both oneself and others.

01-15-2012, 09:20 PM	#2 (permalink)
KingDon Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Sunny Florida Posts: 1,181	I think this is why curious people turn into domain entrepreneurs, you can lack the capitol, and still make a go of it. $9 to reg a name, then just learning how to build a site around something to sell, and then marketing it. But even with all the things outlined in the definition, the one thing that is rarely discussed, is luck. Many entrepreneurs start down the same path, but very few make it to the top of their game, and I think it's a combination of being in the right place at the right time, while being prepared, that equals luck to me, IMHO. ????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=743138 I have found that the guys who really excelled in domaining (guys with no financial backing, no family money, no safety nets/spouses with jobs), really had no other choice but to succeed; they either made it work, or they knew they will be in deeper s**t if their plans fail. I would disagree with one point in the other 12 start up rules, something about having to love what you're getting into; I think the fear of being poor, can equally fuel ones determination, become equally as strong a motivational factor as loving your vision. How does the song go, some dance to remember, some dance to forget. Good stuff Cyberian, __________________ I'm going for personal success rather than the lottery; the odds are MUCH better. Not everyone who smiles while listening to your achievements, is planning on congratulating you.

02-17-2012, 10:13 PM	#6 (permalink)
KingDon Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Sunny Florida Posts: 1,181	"a love for the job can shield you from stress and burnout" Very true, but I ask myself how many people with limited resources, financial/educational, have the option to pursue, or start working at their dream job. The poor have few choices; they do what they have to do, in order to pursue a chance at landing their "dream job." ????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=743138 And even then, what one considers "the dream job," usually ends up having it's own unforeseen stresses. Job = Work How many times in life have we all said, "I wish I had that job/position/title/opportunity," only to find that when we received it, a span of time went by, and once again, we found ourselves looking elsewhere. __________________ I'm going for personal success rather than the lottery; the odds are MUCH better. Not everyone who smiles while listening to your achievements, is planning on congratulating you.

02-28-2012, 10:32 PM	#7 (permalink)
michael55555 New Member Join Date: Jan 2011 Posts: 22	An entrepreneur is perhaps someone who is creative and innovative and benefits both oneself and others. __________________ Throw The World? Quotes To Live By Fly Using An Obtuse Method

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Ronald Regging Ex-President Join Date: May 2006 Location: Mount Joy, PA Posts: 2,643	My ex-wife danced all of my profits down the drain. I started out domaining with one of those $1.99 regs from Yahoo domains. Sold it two weeks later for $500. Had a couple hand regs go for low $x,xxx. Sales weren't every day, but the ROI was ridiculous. The biggest limiting factor in my domaining career was not being able to reinvest my profits so that I could grow my business.

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