Free thinkers of the world unite

Don’t we all admire entrepreneurs. They have an innate gift to be able to recognise and seize opportunities as they arise. They’re not a

take risks and accept unequivocally that some things will work and some things won’t. That comes with the territory.

LinkedIn, as a social media platform is particularly ‘productive’ at highlighting quotes from entrepreneurial people and sharing them. Whilst many are no more than irrelevant waffle, some have really appealed to me. Stuff like ‘Instead of thinking outside the box, get rid of the box’ is obviously alluding to the fact that people shouldn’t feel constrained by tradition (the ‘we’ve always done it that way’ syndrome) or other circumstances or situations that may hinder free thinking.

Other gems I’ve enjoyed recently are: ‘The ones that who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are usually the ones that do’ and ‘If your dreams don’t scare you they are too small’. The former was a quote from the late Steve Jobs and the latter from Richard Branson. This is how these people think and it’s this aspect of their DNA that makes them fundamentally different from the average Joe on the street. I’m not sure you can ‘learn’ to become an entrepreneur.

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The other thing is defining what an entrepreneur is: consider these two definitions – the first from Merriam-Webster’s dictionary and the second from www.dictionary.com.

Merriam-Webster: ‘One who organises, manages and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise’.

Dictionary.com: ‘A person who organises and manages any enterprise, especially a business, usually with considerable initiative and risk’.

The explanations are similar but subtly different. The key word here is ‘any’ used in the dictionary.com definition implying entrepreneurs in the purest sense identify a need and fulfil that need irrespective of market, service or industry. They’re often the ultimate in risk takers – heading up multi-faceted companies – and operating as true exponents of the ‘instead of thinking outside the box, get rid of the box’ mentality.

I actually changed my mind regarding definition in the time it took me to write this. When I started I was entrenched firmly in the dictionary.com camp; now I’m not so sure. I believe Richard Branson is an entrepreneur because his company is multi-disciplined – but I also think Bill Gates and Steve Jobs are (were) entrepreneurs; pushing the boundaries of innovation to unimaginable levels within the IT sector. Just think how revolutionary the iPhone and IPad were? It’s easy to overlook what a game changer Windows 95 was.

All three are of the same ilk – trendsetters, innovators, pioneers. What’s in a word anyway?

Company

PES Media

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