lifeoutside the lines

I was chatting with a friend today. She was worried about starting her own business because she wasn’t an ‘entrepreneur’.

I asked her what an ‘entrepreneur’ was.

She replied ‘someone creative who has new ideas all the time and is always creating something new’.

I said ‘Oh…’

I asked ‘Do you think Warren Buffet is entrepreneurial?’

‘Yes’, she said.

What about Donald Trump?

‘Yes.’

George Sorros?

‘Well, yes’.

‘When was the last time any of them created anything new?’ I asked. ‘Don’t they just buy, sell and do deals on stuff that other people have already created?’

‘I never thought of it like that’. she said.

Innovative entrepreneurs like Branson, Jobs, Gates et al have a high profile and arguably sit at the apex of the ‘uber entrepreneur’ pyramid because innovation is particularly sexy. Everyone likes things that are new and shiny. But it’s not their creativity or flair for innovation that makes them an entrepreneur.

From where I sit, an entrepreneur is someone who brings resources together to solve a problem for the world that would not have been solved without them.

Ideas are a resource. Just like money, time, knowledge or skills are.

Don’t have any zany ideas? Maybe you should start looking for the problem you want to solve first – then find someone who has an idea of how to solve it… and give them a job.

Bring it on.

(if you like it, share it!)

Cheers,