Why entrepreneurship?
I never know what to say when someone asks me what I do. What I do is often misunderstood… I dream, I guess, I launch, and I create… I am an entrepreneur.
I soon discovered that the definition is not clear in French, mainly because of back-and-forth term appropriation between English and French. However, I did like one of the definitions I found: “maker of a business project, in the development stage.”
Entrepreneurship means dreaming of a business and trying to make it happen. The dream often includes wishes of independence (money, time, creative freedom). Business is about creating a vision and about letting go of the reliance on others (i.e. through being employed). Entrepreneurship means questioning, pushing beyond one’s limits, potentially building something that will last a lifetime, maybe even leave a trace in the world.
Entrepreneurship is the ultimate passion job, decentralized and human-centric. Sometimes it allows you to create so much value that hiring becomes possible. It is the dream of every entrepreneur. Having enough success to be able to trigger some change in modern society, some change in his surroundings and to return the favor, help and support the people who stayed next to him in this wild dream. Entrepreneurship is a chance to become a true leader and to shape a small part of the world in one’s image. This is a chance to improve small, imperfect things around us. This is a chance to make something with a personal touch.
Of course, some already see themselves overthrowing the Captain, some are just power hungry and will repeat the mistakes of the ones they sought to replace. They forget where they come from and by doing so, they miss their chance to live up to their full potential.
Becoming an entrepreneur is a chance to have a self-defined pace of life. It’s a chance to measure the impact your idea can have onto others and, from there, adapt by either moving forward or backward to find the optimal execution on this idea. It is a chance to do something that has never been accomplished.
“It is good to have a destination to any trip, but it is the journey itself that matters.”
Entrepreneurship means meeting amazing people who can help you and who can understand the value of your help. Entrepreneurship is about learning, a lot of learning. Learning to delegate, learning not to know something, learning not to be in control, learning to trust others, learning to motivate oneself and learning to motivate others.
“Entrepreneurs are willing to work 80 hours each week to avoid having to go to work for 40 hours.”
(Article translated from French: Pourquoi entreprendre?)
