When is an entrepreneur a business person?
I was reading that Olivia Newton-John just got married again.
Oh, hold your little blog ponies, people, I have a point.
I just noticed in the article that her new hubby, John Easterling, was termed an “entrepreneur” and I wondered why he was listed as such. It turns out he owns a hugely successful and, I’m gathering, lucrative business called, Amazon Herb Company.
Here’s my conspiracy theory: any time the media encounters a business that they don’t understand, they call the owner an entrepreneur. If it’s a widget factory, tool manufacturer, major car dealer (not that there’s anything wrong with these), etc. and so forth, the owner is a business person, or a business owner.
Notice that Microsoft pioneer Bill Gates used to be an entrepreneur, but by the time he retired, he was a business person. And now, he’s even a philanthropist. (A philanthropist is someone who makes billions as an entrepreneur and then feels guilty about it once he becomes a business person.)
There is one more reason for the media to label someone an entrepreneur. If they feel you are unsuccessful, you’re an entrepreneur. Even if you have a widget factory that’s in Chapter 11, you’re still a business person.
Final thought: Maybe this is similar to why rich people are eccentric and common folks are just weird, or why an artist is tortured and non-artist types are merely crazy.
–Stella, your weird, crazy entrepreneur
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July 14th, 2008 at 9:04 am
When they stop chasing every opportunity and focus on building a business. The meejer are so good at labels, we don’t have to believe a word they say, anyway.