How do you define entrepreneurship? Rarely a day goes by that I don’t have a conversation about entrepreneurship or related topics such as creativity, innovation or strategy. However, I find that people have very different views on who is an entrepreneur and what they do.
Some define entrepreneurship as starting a business. Within this camp, some are more stringent by not considering service-based endeavors such as lawn service, car washing, and the like as being entrepreneurial. Those are just “side hustles” not real businesses.
Others define entrepreneurship by job creation. In this camp, the one-person show is not really an entrepreneurial venture. From this perspective, real entrepreneurial ventures hire staff and manage payroll.
Some define entrepreneurship by an entity’s organizational structure/status such as for-profit, faith-based, not-for-profit, etc. For many, churches, synagogues and other houses of worship are not businesses (despite the presence of traditional business functions such as revenue-generation, project management, human resources, information technology, marketing, etc).
Finally, there are some that consider entrepreneurship as a mindset. They see entrepreneurship as a way of thinking, behaving, making decisions and solving problems. In this way, even an entry-level employee can be an entrepreneur if they exhibit the characteristics of an entrepreneur.
So how do you see it? How do you define entrepreneur and entrepreneurship?
