• Insights

I have the privilege of meeting all kinds of entrepreneurs. What I find sometimes amusing and oftentimes perplexing is that they all use fancy words with so much panache that it leaves me speechless! Here’s a tongue-in-cheek look at a few examples:

Entrepreneur
(How I love this animal!)
Dictionary says: One who organizes and manages an enterprise, especially a business, with considerable initiative and risk.
Entrepreneur says: A person running a business, the way he chooses to, without being answerable to a boss, coming to work when he pleases, making money and keeping it all.
Mentor says: A selfish person who doesn’t like the way the world around him is, sets out to change it and in the process leave his footprint.

Serial entrepreneur
(The word reminds me of a serial killer!)
Dictionary says: One who starts one business after another by successfully exiting the previous one.
Entrepreneur says: A person who starts a company, gets bored with it after a point,  sells it, shuts it or forgets it.
Mentor says: A person who likes to validate how often he can keep repeating the same mistakes or how creatively he can make new mistakes!

Customer
(Has discovered lately that he is actually the king!)
Dictionary says: One who buys goods and services.
Entrepreneur says: Any sensible person who buys my product because I know better what is good for him.’
Mentor says: A person who makes or breaks
an entrepreneur.

Venture Capitalist
(Never have two alphabets sounded more ominous!)
Dictionary says: Private equity investment in a business which does not have access to capital market.
Entrepreneur says: Capital which announces that I have arrived to the rest of the world.
Mentor says: Capital that you will raise when you don’t need it, not when you’re desperate for it.

Profit
(Used to be an ugly word with all failed capitalists!)
Dictionary says: Monetary gain resulting from employment of capital in any transaction.
Entrepreneur Says: The difference between over invoicing and under booking of costs.
Mentor’s definition: The meeting point between your vision and execution.

Mentor
(A new species troubling Darwin in his grave!)
Dictionary says: A wise guide, adviser, preceptor.
Entrepreneur says: Not sure what he’s supposed to do but is expected to wave his magic wand and make the negative effect of all mistakes vanish.
Mentor says: One who will never claim he knows it all, is willing to share what he knows and learn what he doesn’t, will open doors for you, and choose the good of your organization over you.

These words define an entrepreneur’s existence, yet there seems to be such serious disconnect in perception. India badly needs entrepreneurship education today.

Nandini Vaidyanathan teaches entrepreneurship in several ivy-league business schools across the world. Her company, CARMa (www.carmaconnect.in), mentors startups, family businesses and mature enterprises. She is the author of bestseller Entrepedia—A Step-by-Step Guide to Becoming an Entrepreneur in India.

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entrepreneur, Insights, mentor, Nandini Vaidyanathan