Entrepreneurs: Abusing the E Word
by Miki Saxon
In 2007 I wrote Stop abusing the L word!, and it is still one of my all-time favorite posts.
Five years later we’re still abusing the L word and the E word is getting the same treatment.
The E word is entrepreneur, but you knew that.
When I was young kids sold lemonade or mowed lawns wanted to earn spending money; it didn’t mean we were destined to start companies.
The E word, like the L word, used to be a label applied by other people after the fact to describe someone who founded a business that grew large—think HP and Intel.
Also, the label is more modern, even when applied retrospectively; Ben Franklin and Henry Ford weren’t lauded as entrepreneurs in contemporaneous writings, but always are now.
Nor do I class self-use of the E word as obnoxious in the same way that self-use of the L word is—I once saw a resume where ‘leader’ was used in both the ‘Position Desired’ and experience descriptions, “supervisor and leader,” “director and leader” (seriously, that’s what was written)—but it is a bit pretentious to introduce yourself that way, especially at a startup networking event (heard that, too.)
We all know that overused words lose their meaning, so lets lighten up on the E word; it gets a heavy enough workout from the media.
Image credit: Warning Sign Generator
December 8th, 2011 at 3:38 am
Great post, Miki. The irony is, out of the people I know, those who regard themselves as entrepreneurs aren’t entrepreneurs in my opinion (because they’re just abusing the word and aren’t necessarily of that calibre or level), and those who ARE entrepreneurs hate being called entrepreneurs (because of its now-negative connotations, with everyone else using it)! It’s confusing but brilliant!
December 13th, 2011 at 11:29 am
Thanks for the kind words, Steve.
My own inclination is to understand that the media needs labels like ‘entrepreneur’ and ‘leader’ and ignore them. But I don’t think I agree with your comment about caliber. Richard Branson, who is the penultimate entrepreneur by any standards, uses it extensively in his new book Screw Business As usual (watch for my review) and applies it to micro businesses. But using it on yourself or as a description of your job is the height of pretension and I guess that is what I can’t stand.
That and the sheer overuse, but, hey, it’s trendy:)
Thanks for taking time to add your thoughts. I would have replied sooner, but WP didn’t notify me of the comment.
December 16th, 2013 at 11:21 am
[…] 2007 I wrote that the word “leader” was being badly abused; five years later I added “entrepreneur” to the abuse list and today I’m officially adding […]