It does sound a little silly, I'm using the word "founder" or "startup founder" now, it can replace the word "entrepreneur" around 7 out of 10 times and people get it.
Entrepreneur is a silly word, and you sound silly when you call yourself one
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Re: Entrepreneur is a silly word, and you sound silly when you call yourself one
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Preneur" means taking part.
I stand corrected, I had misunderstood your post, I interpreted part as a mechanical part.
Don't stand corrected. The german word is Unternehmer which literally means "under-taker". This is probably not a coincidence and the french meaning is probably the same.
Re: Entrepreneur is a silly word, and you sound silly when you call yourself one
#63Meh. 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…
loved this rant :)
Re: Entrepreneur is a silly word, and you sound silly when you call yourself one
#64Yeah, not impressed. I think it sounds far more pretentious to refer to yourself as a CEO when you run a company of 5 people - that's always made me a bit uncomfortable. Entrepreneur denotes startup founder. Fair enough. It's more about tone, etc. than anything else. This reads a bit like hater rant.
Re: Entrepreneur is a silly word, and you sound silly when you call yourself one
#65I cringe when hearing the term "serial entrepreneur."
Honest question: what should someone call themselves when they've started, for example, a restaurant, two software companies, and a property management firm?
I'd call them a douche bag. Seriously this isn't something you want to advertise even if it's true. Stay down to earth and play down your successes especially if the person you're talking to is less successful then you.
Did Steve Jobs call himself a serial entrepreneur? True success advertises itself.
Re: Entrepreneur is a silly word, and you sound silly when you call yourself one
#66I am going to guess this is a silicon valley hang up because of people being funded. He kind of makes that point towards the end of the article. If you are someone who starts a business the traditional way, win or fail, I think you earned the right to be called an entrepreneur. You are taking a big risk which is scary and invigorating at the same time.
"I think you earned the right to be called an entrepreneur."
The problem is that most of the people who have "earned the right" wouldn't be caught dead calling themselves "entrepreneurs". My plumber is an entrepreneur, my doctor is an entrepreneur, and my accountant is an entrepreneur. They all call themselves "plumbers", "doctors", or "accountants". "Entrepreneur", in fact, doesn't seem to convey any actual information, at least in a what-do-you-do sense.
On the other hand, a person calling themselves an "entrepreneur" does tell me one thing: How they want me to view them. As far as I can tell, they want to be seen as someone who takes Big Risks in search of Big Rewards (even if they don't, or even if their idea of a business doesn't make any sense whatsoever).
Re: Entrepreneur is a silly word, and you sound silly when you call yourself one
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
I stand corrected, I had misunderstood your post, I interpreted part as a mechanical part.
Don't stand corrected. The german word is Unternehmer which literally means "under-taker". This is probably not a coincidence and the french meaning is probably the same.
As a point of linguistic curiousity, would a more accurate literal translation be "one who undertakes", or perhaps "one who engages in", given the fairly specific meaning of "undertaker" in English?
Re: Entrepreneur is a silly word, and you sound silly when you call yourself one
#68Re: Entrepreneur is a silly word, and you sound silly when you call yourself one
#69Meh. 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…
Agreed. I'm reminded of this: http://xkcd.com/1314/ -- I feel that there is some elitist phenomenon here that I can't quite articulate. It's related to the way calling out people as hipsters somewhat protects you from that label yourself.
It may work better for pictures of sunsets, but definitely it's much better to enjoy a concert/gig than trying to record it for youtube.
However, it's great to see a good recording of it afterwards, with emphasis on good. Not shaky, not blurry, professionally done.
Re: Entrepreneur is a silly word, and you sound silly when you call yourself one
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
A mistress.
Why not a spouse?
That too, although mistress tends to imply a lack of exclusivity, which is often a critical aspect of the business-employee relationship. I don't know if there's a polygamist-specific term for spouse? One that doesn't have the implication of being "the other woman" that mistress has?