The Harvard Business Review published a great article looking at entrepreneurship as a disease. The author Jeff Stibel shows how there is a major difference between being a CEO of a company and being an entrepreneur. There are many people who can run companies but there is a whole different breed of people that consistently start companies.
Many people associate entrepreneurship with great things like fame and fortune but the truth is very different. The author states “I liken entrepreneurism to a disease. Having it myself, I am not always sure it is a good thing.” Of course you hear about the successes like Bill Gates, Larry Ellison and Ted Turner but what about the thousands of others that never make it? The authors says that “Entrepreneurs are all in, all the time. Entrepreneurs love what they do and obsess over it. It is a predisposition; a path that has already been laid for you. It is a character trait, a labor of love, a zeal that cannot be trained, a condition that cannot be treated, an illness that cannot be caught.”
Here are 4 questions to see if you have it!
- Do you wake up before your alarm goes off, hop out of bed excited to go to work? (good)
- Do you race to the car, forgetting breakfast, your morning coffee, and the paper? (better)
- Halfway to work, do you look down, realize you forgot to shower, shave, or get dressed? (great)
- Do you pause for a second, and then decide–what the hell–and head to work anyways? (diagnosis: entrepreneurialism; cure unknown)
Now if your reading this we hope you have it! And despite the author saying it can’t be caught we hope to give it to you!
Being an entrepreneur is unlike most things out there and no one (unless you are one) truly knows what you go through on a day to day basis. No one gets as excited but at the same time is the most insecure person in the room. It is a mindset or maybe even a disease but that is what makes it so great!
