The end of entrepreneurism (if you’re talking to me)
I just read an article that used the word “entrepreneur” at least 20 times in two pages (before I stopped counting). “Entrepreneur” and its sinister step-child “serial entrepreneur” are so overused they are almost meaningless. Seems like anyone who quits their job refers to him/herself as an entrepreneur. It’s the business world equivalent of an Ed Hardy shirt: their rarity made them cool, but now they’re everywhere…and not so cool.
Entrepreneur comes from the French word “entreprendre” which means “to undertake.” I think that sells “real” entrepreneurs short. The best ones don’t just undertake a task; they finish it. They might make mistakes, but they finish. There’s already a demeaning term for the pretenders (“wantrapreneur”), so I'm giving the finishers a new title: accomplipreneur. Now to come up with a way to make sure only those deserving of the title get it…