Member-only story
What I no longer believe about entrepreneurship and ecosystem building.
Myths, fairy tales and not so ‘best practices’.
Rounding out my 1st year as an ESHIP community activator for ecosystem building practioners, I continue to learn from amazing people who are helping entrepreneurs and communities across the country and the world. I had some notions as I approached this work, along with some experiences and what I was taught along the way. Over the year I’ve been revisiting some of the stories we tell ourselves and I no longer align with what I thought was true…
Myth #1 ~ small business owners are not entrepreneurs.
Small business owners, particularly Main Street types are not commonly considered entrepreneurs. There are lots of articles on the internet pointing to the differences between small business owners and entrepreneurs. Much of what’s published differentiate by the size of the problem they’re solving or the types of businesses…are they utilizing new ideas or risky enough to be considered “entrepreneurial”. It’s a lot of labeling and pigeon holing in my opinion. Recently a friend ranted, “stop debating what entrepreneurs are and help them already!”. While it’s not kitschy enough to # or fit on a t-shirt, I agree with him, what a waste of time and energy.
