The Entrepreneur
I was at a very nice lunch last week hosted by my lawyers (and who said there was no such thing as a free lunch?). The lunch was simply wonderful and during the conversation I naturally explained what I was doing in Canada, and that I now spend at least one week a month there. This then led one of the people at the lunch to say I was a great example of an entrepreneur.
Of course I was flattered, but in all honesty I do not consider myself an entrepreneur. I would describe myself as someone who just stumbles from one thing to another and hopes that one of the things I stumble across works. As a very successful angel investor described his investment approach “spray and pray”.
The problem with the above is that it does not fit into the description that most people have of entrepreneurs or successful investors. I have often sensed the disappointment in business students when I am doing my talk at St Mary’s University when I explain that the route to where I am now was littered with accidents and very lucky coincidences. What a lot of us want to hear is that there was a plan and some positive thinking affirmations.
I personally have a real thing about people calling themselves an entrepreneur. I think it is for someone else to call you that. Most people I know who call themselves entrepreneurs are rather like waiters in Hollywood who call themselves actors. It means nothing to me.
If you had an enterprise which had launched or was running – you would talk about that. Calling yourself an entrepreneur implies you do not have one thing to talk about.
Judging upon whom I am talking to, I will describe myself either as a Salesman (my preferred description), Fund Manager, Angel investor, Blogger (is that a valid job?), Business consultant or trainer. The point is that I would never call myself an entrepreneur as it ends up meaning nothing other than tell the person I am describing myself to – that I have nothing substantive to point to. And trust me – I never want to invest in someone who describes themselves “as a bit of an entrepreneur”.
I was at another lunch recently where I asked someone what they did. The answer was “I run several businesses”. She did not know who I was at that point, but she had lost my interest straight away. I am involved in several businesses but I only run one – Help with Sales. I am sure some of you will disagree but I find it very difficult to imagine someone actually running more than one business.
Why do people do it? Just remember that great saying “money talks, bullshit walks – but wealth whispers”.
