The truth about entrepreneurs.
Entrepreneurs are rare. Successful entrepreneurs are a dying breed. For entrepreneurs to survive, and to thrive, their environs must tolerate some misfits, cowboys, rogues, and unconstrained individualists [see photo].
The truth is there are just two types of entrepreneurs:
One - those who seek to change the prevailing system to make a profit
Two - those who seek to exploit the prevailing system to make a profit.
In the past those who sought to change a system from the "outside in" were called "entrepreneurs" and those who sought to change a system from the "inside out" were called "intrapreneurs".
These individuals face two major problems:
One - the problem faced by most "intrapreneurs" is they create innovative change that will not scale within their current/future systems. Thus they can become useful idiots but little more. They are idiots because they either stop the current system from innovating across all levels of operation or they produce a maze of "workarounds" anchored by their individualistic work and this leads to systemic stagnation and decline.
Two - the problem faced by most "entrepreneurs" is that the risk profiles they take on tend to unwind their ability to succeed. Risk is best served hot and spicy. Risk taking that is hot and spicy leads one to truly unexpected outcomes. And... "unexpected outcomes" are forbidden in a social framework that seeks security and safety in thoughts, habits, and beliefs.
Clearly, the C21st has produced a social framework that is preoccupied with the issue of security and safety: therefore being a real "entrepreneur" is beyond the reach of all but a scarce few.
Richard.
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