Are you an ‘entitlement entrepreneur’?
February 26, 2009
An ‘entitlement entrepreneur’ or ‘EE’ is someone who acts as though being an entrepreneur is an entitlement. In clinical psychology, an unrealistic, exaggerated or rigidly held sense of entitlement is considered a symptom of a Narcissistic Personality Disorder. I meet lots of committed entrepreneurs, but every once in a while I meet what I call an ‘EE’. Nothing turns me off more than an ‘EE’.
- EE’s believe that investors should be willing to replace their salary.
- EE’s won’t quit their job until an investor replaces their salary.
- EE’s feel any investor who won’t invest in his business is an idiot.
- EE’s aren’t usually willing to take risks or responsibility.
- EE’s won’t listen to reasoned opinion, instead they get angry.
- EE’s feel as though investors are the problem. . .
The truth of the matter, being an entrepreneur is a priviledge that is relatively unique to the United States. Our system of government has always favored the rugged individual - the maverick willing to take risks is allowed to fail and more importantly allowed to succeed. Other systems of government are safer - they minimize the risk any citizen can take and as a result they minimize the potential opportunties. As I have met more and more ‘potential entrepreneurs’ from Holland, Germany and France I have been surprised by how little risk they are willing to take. Many are terribly excited about the prospect of starting their own business, but never take the leap to quit their day job to focus on their passion. These ‘potential entrepreneurs’ would be excellent and likely very wealthy entrepreneurs if they lived in the U.S. Unlike the ‘EE’ they have an excuse - a systemic excuse that is a direct result of the sort of governance they live under.
Being an entrepreneur is a really simple decision. It is a club anyone can join, but if you decide to join you need to realize that there MUST be tradeoffs. There MUST be risks. You might need to work for a year without a salary. You might need to personally guarantee a loan. You might need to bootstrap your startup if you can’t find investors. You might ruin your marraige. You might lose everything. You might get sued. You might fail. The truth is, you WILL fail. Hopefully you will fail enough so that you have the chance to succeed. The good news is that very few ‘Entitlement Entrepreneurs’ ever get started - i.e. they never really become entrepreneurs so we don’t really have to deal with them. Anyway, not sure why I started this rant today - sorry about that… :)
