What makes someone an entrepreneur, is it a state issued business license? Some think that being an entrepreneur is having their name appear on a deed to property. But money does not truly make money, it takes people to actually build a thing. Being an entrepreneur reflects more than numbers on a balance sheet, a P & L or a Cash Flow Statement. Those are just tools (albeit essential) of the trade. Entrepreneurship is a mindset.
Traditionally we think of entrepreneurs as people who have title to their businesses; and take full responsibility for its success. but this definition has expanded as companies grow more and more complex requiring a host of specialists to keep it running smoothly. Many entrepreneurs today are employed by large companies earning seven figures. Also some people start out as owners but that does not really make them entrepreneurs, (Though they would do much better if they had one working for them).
So here is my definition : What makes an entrepreneur is a bone deep drive to accept nothing less than winning growth from himself peers and the organization. It is the all in dedication to the mission of the company and all employed at the company. Entrepreneurs are foremost leaders.
Of course what makes us entrepreneurs also makes us competitive and that can understandably be difficult for the more tame souls among us to contend with our narcissistic traits. So if you are one of those people you might prefer reading something else rather than continuing any further with this article.
There is a noteable difference between a narcissistic trait and a narcissistic disorder. The former is someone who see the big picture and has the confidence to share his or her vision with the world, many great achievers fall into this category: including Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, Abraham Lincoln, Florence Nightingale and so on. The latter is someone incapable of empathy which is where the negative connotation of the term derives.
An entrepreneur will be driven to produce so long as he does not have a ceiling on his earning potential. If you are an owner and your business is not growing, you are not really being an entrepreneur, you simply own a company. Similarly if you are an employee leading your company to geometric growth quarter after quarter, well in that case, in my book. you certainly are an entrepreneur.
Michael Jordan did not own the Chicago Bulls NBA Team, Jerry M. Reinsdorf is the owner who previous to the Bulls also owned the White Sox, a championship winning baseball franchise. Have you even heard of Jerry Reisndorf? (but you would probably agree that Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and assisting players owned their jobs. This led to six championships between 1991 and 1998. As a result the players were able to command salaries, that grew larger with each contract negotiation. Because they consistently were counted on to produce wins for the team.
Employee Entrepreneurs in every business do pretty much the same kinds of things. They are all seven foot tall winners, (well not really) and if you happen to be an Employee Entrepreneur than you are contributing to making your boss/employer a seven foot winner too (imagine that) (The boss is an entrepreneur if he recognizes the potential of his team and provides the resources and freedom for them to pursue the next win. Extraordinary companies are always a collaboration of talented people who have entrepreneurial spirit.
Henry Ford is said to have had limited knowledge about the more technical aspects of manufacturing such as the electronic components, composite plastics and metallurgy alloys used in his later model automobiles. But Mr Ford was a true visionary who employed experts in all pertinent areas and maintained direct communication to those whom he depended on for accurate information. It is said that he even had frequent conversations with production floor supervisors at the manufacturing plants. He was constantly being updated as innovative technologies occurred . But a better still guiding structure for automobile company was forthcoming.
Toyota came along after World War II and instituted a radical change that they called “Kaizen” that is Japanese for “Continuous Improvement”. It became the standard methodology for manufacturing worldwide. The mandate at Toyota is to continually improve all functions and to involve all employees from the CEO to the assembly line workers in the process. Every mind is taken off the bench and put in the game. The Japanese Company took Management by Objectives the elite western business methodology of the era and applied expanded collaboration and synergy to every detail at each function of the business, making examination of processes a routine and continuous endeavor for every employee. By spreading accountability for results and scientific method to everyone employed at the company, entrepreneurship flourished and the best ideas were able to float to the top.
It is possible to have such a transformation in our own companies if we learn to invest in the best ideas and if we require (rather than merely encourage) everyone in our companies to present their input (especially the introverts). Than by training everyone to understand business controls, KPI’s, feedback loops, and throughput efficiencies, we set realistically high goals and share celebrating the wins.
For the entrepreneur life is too short neither to waste our time on lackluster companies nor to allow mediocrity to seep into our habits and infect our results with low earnings/growth expectations. If the ceiling is too low, it is the entrepreneur’s job to raise the roof and paint a bigger picture for the team. That said it isn't the size of the company he builds that makes an entrepreneur who he or she is, but rather it is the size of his commitment to customer service as reflected in the value delivered to them.
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