A lot of people promote the idea that you have to be an entrepreneur to run a successful small business.
To which I say, "poppycock". (I would say something stronger, but this is a family-friendly enterprise.)
For instance, Michael Gerber, founder and chairman of E-Myth Worldwide and author of Awakening the Entrepreneur Within, said, in an interview with Chris Attwood of Healthy Wealthy & Wise,
"... very, very few-an infinitesimal number-small business owners understand. They are not really inventors. They really aren't entrepreneurs. They're what I call technicians suffering from an entrepreneurial seizure. They simply create a job for themselves, and they create a business to do that job. Entrepreneurs don't do that. Entrepreneurs invent."
Mr. Gerber goes on to explain four other realties of the entrepreneur:
- entrepreneurs don't buy business opportunities; they create them;
- entrepreneurs love to be loved;
- businesses must grow; and
- everyone possesses the ability to be an entrepreneur.
Now personally, I don't see anything wrong with people creating jobs for themselves. And I take issue with the point about businesses having to grow; if people running businesses are making the living they want to make and are satisfied with the way their businesses are running, I don't see anything wrong with them continuing to do what they're doing rather than trying to grow their business.
While Mr. Gerber and others seem to feel that everyone needs to learn how to become an entrepreneur, I believe that a thriving business community needs both entrepreneurs and technicians. After all, who's going to buy the business opportunities the entrepreneurs have created?
So if you are what Mr. Gerber would call a technician and you want to start a business or buy an existing one such as a franchise, don't be put off; you don't have to be as ambitious as Ray Kroc to run a successful business.
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I agree with you Susan – we don’t all have to be Donald Trump to be considered successful. I also have to take exception that you need to be an inventor to be an entrepreneur. Even the technicians among us who created our own employment in order to survive, because we were “too old, too fat, too whatever…” or we could no longer stand working for someone else, took risks and continue to take risks every day. We have at least some capital at risk, we have no safety net, most of us cannot get unemployment benefits, and many of us can’t get health insurance or qualify for a loan either.
Many business men and women are satisfied. I agree that if you’re happy, why screw it up?
Randy
About Home Business Guide
Yes, that’s more of how I think of being an entrepreneur – taking risks. Not to say that entrepreneurs can’t invent things; just that you can be an entrepreneur and not be an inventor.
Thanks for the post, Randy!
I totally agree with Susan, It was wonderful way to explain about enterprunership. As i always say, when ever someone call enterpruners as inventors, You phrase the coin and i love it. The fact about micheal e garber is he is one of the most talented and devoted person on the face of the earth. He is himself a enterpruner who has proved world that you cant become enterpruner unless you have a passion towards it.
I really want to thank susan for writing this, becasue her approch towards the eneterunership shows her critical thinking and she even helped me to get more clear definiation of enterpruner. I have a diploma in enterprunership and still if some one asks me what is enterpunership i cant expalin like she did.
Great job… Cheers!
As I understand it Michael Gerber believes we need the 3 characters – Entrepreneur, Technician, and Manager. I don’t think he encourages people to switch from being a technician. What he wants is for us to view a business from the 3 different perspectives and not choose one but consider all.
I also don’t take issue with people creating jobs for themselves (e.g. consulting) but I think we need to be conscious that the goal is to run it like a business. Otherwise, the job you have created for yourself may turn out to be worse.