There is no “I” in entrepreneur
So, I was provoked this morning by a new study- I know rare, eh? You think all I do is read quirky articles and tangentially relate them to entrepreneurship? Well occasionally I read reports, real ones, the kinds written by people who have more letters after their name then I. (Sometimes I wish I was Kristina Libby Sr. , III– really then I would have more than enough letters…….ahhh, occasionally I loose even myself).
So, the new study called the Future Face of Enterprise (which for the sake of full disclosure was written in part by our UK Host’s Make Your Mark) told me that a.) less and less often are entrepreneurs loners and that b.) their work environment and personal time are becoming more and more important. Culminating in the realization that we are no longer entrepreneurs only for the money but rather more for the lifestyle it can help them lead and the means it provides for giving back to society.
So, we 20 somethings are more and more often leaving our corporate jobs for jobs which jib with our values. As Peter Grigg writes “For many young people, work is not only what they do but also an important expression of who they are. It is a way to communicate their values to the outside world. No one wants to work for one of the “bad guys”, and ethical track records are now a crucial factor when choosing an employer.”
This is nicely cross-referenced to a book I was reading the other day. This book, How to Think Like Leonardo Di Vinci, discussed the importance of the workspace, time allowances and value in enhancing and increasing productivity. The better our environment the happier and more connected we feel.
So, are people more and more often turning to entrepreneurship to feel connected. Is it becoming, like social networking, another way of showing your values and your view of yourself to society? Am I an entrepreneur because I want people to think I am individualistic, innovative, creative and business savvy or am I turning to entrepreneurship because I am already all of those things? Do I desire a different work culture because I don’t fit into the corporate business model or do I desire a different work culture because I want people to think I am above and greater than any other model? (See how provoked I became, I rarely ask this many questions!)
In our effort to every day differentiate ourselves from the rest of the world, entrepreneurship may be our best means of doing so. Being an entrepreneur then isn’t about connecting, it is just as much about alienating. Ultimately though, every effort at alienation puts us into a new group and a new definition of ourselves. No longer are entrepreneurs people working on the fringes with their crazy ideas instead they are new class of people– hipster, brainy, innovative, cutting edge and yes, cool.
Tags: enterprise, entrepreneur, Future Face of Enterprise, Global Entrepreneurship Week, How to think like leonardo di vinci, Make Your Mark, Peter Grigg
July 24th, 2008 at 9:19 pm
Being an entrepreneur is not really about the money indeed, I am not sure it has ever been. Statistically entrepreneurs make less money on average than the guys who fit within the corporate ladder. But there is a lottery factor that will make you try your luck, and you have to be crazy enough to go through this. And then when you do, you realize than being yourself fully is much better anyway than seating in a cubicle doing something that your boss ask you to do.
What is happening these days is that the social promises of the corporation are gone: you can be fired anytime, and whether you have been working for the corporation 2 months or 20 years does not really matter anymore. Have you read how some people are fired via SMS?
And then the technology is becoming such that we do not need the company infrastructure to function, even worse the constraints that corporate IT are putting on my PC make me less productive that I can be from my home PC (some companies prohibit the installation of software on your PC without approval from the IT department for example). So you cannot but wonder why you would work for a corporation, outside of the salary. But if you have some leeway and can spend some time trying to do business on your own, then why not try that, and if you are good enough you will end up a consultant, and maybe an entrepreneur if you can start setting up the right process to get customers and scale of the delivery side.
Entrepreneurs are indeed a new class of people, because the world is moving toward a new type of civilization. Michel Bauwens calls it the peer-to-peer civilization, Xavier Comtesse talks about Direct Economy, and we can all agree that this is the new cool.