That's why I prefer 'trep
Entrepreneur is a silly word, and you sound silly when you call yourself one
41–50 of 73 posts
Re: Entrepreneur is a silly word, and you sound silly when you call yourself one
#42So let me summarize this: some random guy from internet is mad at the word (!) entrepreneur because it sounds ... pompous?
Get over it: this word, entrepreneur, is the definition of what we are doing ( taking risks, becoming self-employed, building an entreprise ).
Excuse me now, I am going to eat my lunch in a eatery, the restaurants are for the bourgeoisie.
Re: Entrepreneur is a silly word, and you sound silly when you call yourself one
#43I sort of get the point of the article, but I don't undestand why what you call yourself is this important. It honestly doesn't matter what you refer to yourself in your career or otherwise. And you shouldn't be getting this upset about it either.
Re: Entrepreneur is a silly word, and you sound silly when you call yourself one
#44Meh.
After years of reading hundreds of essays from people complaining about how others use words ("hacker", "professional", "engineer", "artist", "freedom", and hundreds of other words, etc), I've come to the conclusion that the complaint says more about the rigidity of the complainer rather than anything insightful about language evolution.
It's ironic that the blog's name has the word "consulting" in it. When I was in my early 20s, I hated that word. Whenever I told friends I was a consultant, I'd immediately follow up with a self-deprecation: "that's just a fancy label for white-collar prostitute." At the time, "consulting" to me meant McKinsey or Bain and not your bodyshop of Visual Basic programmers. I preferred "contractor" or "freelancer" to the title "consultant". However, the years have gone by and I no longer care. Anyone can call themselves "consultant" and it doesn't bother me at all. It's just bikeshedding now.
Anyone remember the 1990s complaints about the title "webmaster" because (gasp!) it had the word "master" as a suffix? How pompous of those html authors! We should be thankful that "web-jedi" didn't gain any currency and webmaster has already fallen out of favor.
The author suggests "business owner" instead of "entrepreneur". I used to not like that label either. "Business Owner" had connotations of being some monopolist crushing the protesters on Occupy Wall Street or the slavedriver paying his workers minimum wage while drinking their babies blood. Maybe I can call myself "unemployed speculator" or some other circumlocution so as to not offend anyone. Personally, I think "entrepreneur" does not convey any false pretenses about prestige or bootstrapping. It's fascinating that some find a word neutral while others perceive it as putting on airs. You can't win.
If the author doesn't like "entrepreneur" and I have mixed feelings about "business owner", what's a good compromise?
How about other candidate labels such as "wantrepreneur"[1] which is what some of non-HN folks call HN'ers.
Or how about "wannabe philanthropist"? If high-profile charity is the apotheosis of the journey from student->businessman->philanthropist, is "wannabe philanthropist" self-deprecating enough while simultaneously conveying bold aspirations? If family & friends have that puzzled look and ask, "what the heck is a wannabe philanthropist?", you explain the transformation of Bill Gates from Harvard dropout -> CEO -> Gates Foundation. As a bonus, you can throw in words like "camel" and "eye of the needle". And after all that, they'll say "oh for fock's sake, just call yourself an entrepreneur!"
[1]http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=wantrepreneur
Re: Entrepreneur is a silly word, and you sound silly when you call yourself one
#45[deleted]
Re: Entrepreneur is a silly word, and you sound silly when you call yourself one
#46"Entrepreneur" is a french word. "Entre" means between and "Preneur" means parts. A indirect english synonym would be middleman. Traditionally, it was referring to people in the building industry that set up building site with plumber, electrician, workers... So, a freelancer is not an entrepreneur. Strictly speaking if you don't have any employees you are not an entrepreneur.
It is also an English word that means a person who starts businesses that mostly fail but has at least one that hasn't failed yet.
Same is true in French.
Re: Entrepreneur is a silly word, and you sound silly when you call yourself one
#47Same argument can be made about people calling themselves CEO of startups with no employees or product.
One of my previous employers went and acquired a startup that had three employees and each had a C title. One was chief Organization Officer. What exactly are you organizing?!
Re: Entrepreneur is a silly word, and you sound silly when you call yourself one
#48"Entrepreneur" is a french word. "Entre" means between and "Preneur" means parts. A indirect english synonym would be middleman. Traditionally, it was referring to people in the building industry that set up building site with plumber, electrician, workers... So, a freelancer is not an entrepreneur. Strictly speaking if you don't have any employees you are not an entrepreneur.
Preneur comes from "prendre" which means to take . So a more literal translation would be an undertaker , not as someone who manages burials, but undertakes something. (By the way an undertaker, would be translated as an "Entrepreneur de pompes funèbres" in French)
"Preneur" means taking part.
Re: Entrepreneur is a silly word, and you sound silly when you call yourself one
#49FWIW, here is the definition of "entrepreneur" from Etmology Online.
>> http://etymonline.com/index.php?search=entrepreneur
"Undertake"? "Theatrical"? Heh. Uncharacteristically, etymonline doesn't mention the two French component words, which more literally translate to "between-taker". A middleman, in other words.
In more common parlance, anyone who starts their own business of any kind is an entrepreneur. Food-truck operator? She's an entrepreneur. Hair-salon owner? He's an entrepreneur too. If we wanted to make finer distinctions about degrees of entrepreneurship, those distinctions might be based on risk. Buying your own equipment and materials to sell stuff at the local art fair? Very entrepreneurial. Taking other people's money to sell to an enterprise where you have inside contacts? Barely entrepreneurial at all.
And that's where I think anger like that in the OP comes from. People resent the way that founders of VC-backed high-tech companies seem to act like they're the vanguard or elite of entrepreneurship, when there's often very little entrepreneurial risk involved. For example:
* Person A goes to work for AmaGooBook directly.
* Person B starts a company that fails, then goes to work for AmaGooBook.
* Person C starts a company that's acquired by AmaGooBook.
What's the difference? Why are B and C entrepreneurs but A isn't? Because investors paid their salaries for a couple of years? Not all startups are like this, of course, but the question is whether those that are should claim the same "entrepreneur" mantle that others truly deserve. When a startup founder orders pizza, it's highly likely that the guy who owns the pizza shop is the real entrepreneur.
Re: Entrepreneur is a silly word, and you sound silly when you call yourself one
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
Preneur comes from "prendre" which means to take . So a more literal translation would be an undertaker , not as someone who manages burials, but undertakes something. (By the way an undertaker, would be translated as an "Entrepreneur de pompes funèbres" in French)
"Preneur" means taking part.
I stand corrected, I had misunderstood your post, I interpreted part as a mechanical part.