So what makes you an entrepreneur?
As far as I know, the human species is the only one that domesticates itself. It provides shelter and contraceptives for themselves like no other species. We no longer treat ourselves as would be appropriate for our biological welfare and make ourselves physically and mentally unfree. No other species locks itself up physically and psychologically out of its own free will. And to top it all, we even pretend to feel comfortable in this allegedly golden cage.
We block out our nature, illness and death. We want a hundred percent security and believe it can be achieved by technology and insurances. Yet the knowledge of our powerlessness remains and so we are no longer prepared to take any risks. To me, it often looks like evolution over the last hundred years was a regression of the entrepreneurial gene among humans.
When speaking in front of students, I sometimes ask them if they see their career as public servant, employee, or entrepreneur. Most of the listeners want to be employees of a big or medium-sized enterprise. Sometimes, most of the students want to become public servants. I guess it depends on the region. Those who wish to become entrepreneurs are always a very small minority.
I understand the sentiment of wanting to become a public servant. Feudalism has a very long tradition and has always been an attractive goal. In former times, however, only very few people managed to get there, and it looks like it will get harder again in the future. The employee model is not an old one and it might well disappear before long. There used to be a time when words were not invented in order to beautify what you said. That was when employees were still labourers.
But why does nobody want to become en entrepreneur? And what exactly does it mean to “have an enterprise”?
Let me try to define what makes an “entrepreneur”:
An entrepreneur decides something of his own free will that is highly relevant and lies beyond the usual range of our current social and cultural norm. Then he consciously goes on his self-chosen path the risk of which he has weighed himself.
However, not just people who found a company are entrepreneurs:
Some generations ago, it was absolutely normal to go to Italy by bike or kayak up the Danube to the river mouth. If you do that kind of thing today, you start an enterprise and will be regarded both sceptically and admiringly by those around you.
If a couple (or even a single woman) decides to have a family of their own, then this is a brave entrepreneurial decision.
If someone promotes a club or a social course, then he or she is an entrepreneur.
An employee who gives notice on his (secure?) job and looks for freelance work is an entrepreneur.
Every craftsman, doctor or counsellor who opens up his own shop in order to no longer be dependent on fixed wages is an entrepreneur.
Founding a company is a special form of entrepreneurship. The goal of being independent from fixed wages is supplemented by the wish to implement economic and technical ideas.
Every day-labourer accepting and working job after job is an entrepreneur!
Basically, everybody who takes his or her life and livelihood in their own hands is an entrepreneur. What we are talking here is always the freedom to be willing, able and allowed to realize your own concept of life autonomously.
I guess we all will have to become more entrepreneurial. The “entrepreneurial gene” must be strengthened. But I get the impression that the evolutionary process is already into this. The number of people willing to lead their own lives in a self-responsible way seems to increase.
Entrepreneurship is like work. There is honorary work and organized work. And especially in the area of organized work, it will suffice if you do a good job with a new self-responsibility. Almost all the time, what we are talking is being extra diligent on the “small” issues.
Hoping for the entrepreneurial idea to hit you like a divine inspiration is useless and hinders entrepreneurship. However, you must not have false illusions, either. The amount of external control will not be less when you are an entrepreneur. It is just a different sort of external control.
Still, it is worth going on this journey.
RMD
(Translated by EG)
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