Good Life Project - Founder or Entrepreneur? It’s Not Just Semantics

Episode Date: January 13, 2016

If you ask someone who is working on turning an idea into a business what they call themselves, a likely answer these days is "startup founder."If you'd asked that same question a generation ago, you'd have probably heard "entrepreneur" or "business person."The difference isn't just about semantics or generational change. It's about a profound shift in both the mindset of entrepreneurship, and the acknowledgement and exaltation of a very distinct "discovery" phase that exists between the idea and the viable entity called the startup.This seemingly subtle shift, which is anything but, has created a new wave of permission to take risks and innovate on a level that, not too long ago, many would have been fiercely judged for. And, along with that, it has brought a less catastrophic lens to failure and increased the willingness to put yourself on the line in the name of doing something extraordinary.It has tilled the soil of purposeful experimentation and empowered so many to take a shot at creating something from nothing who, but for the cover provided by the "startup" moniker, would've never even tried. That is a great thing, not only on an individual level, but on a societal level, because it creates possibility. It allows more ingenuity and innovation to see the light of day. In the end, we all benefit from that.This is what we're talking about in today's short and sweet Good Life Project Riff.Tweetable: “We need more people trying to create genius.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ask somebody, let's call it six months into a new business, what they did a generation ago, and they tell you, I'm an entrepreneur, or I run a company that does X. Ask somebody six months into a new business what they do now, and they'll tell you, I run a, quote, startup, or I may quote, founder. Semantics, right? Actually, probably couldn't be more wrong. Here's the deal. So that simple change in language, well, it signifies both a shift in the understanding of what you're really doing in the first, let's call it six to 36 months, along with a deeper shift in psychology that allows for both more risk-taking and a greater willingness to put failure on the table. So here's how it breaks down. The purpose of a

business or a company is to succeed, and that can be defined individually, usually through some blend of profit, service, joy, and growth. Everything you do in a company is about succeeding at the business you've chosen to build. When you use the word business or company, the implication is that it's thought out. You know what you're here to do and your job is to do it. Failure carries a certain gravity. The purpose of a startup though, well, that's different. So a startup is an experiment in search of a business. Its job is not to succeed at actually making money and building and scaling.

Its job is to figure out whether a viable customer, a viable business model, a viable product, a viable mode of delivery even exists. The core metric for a startup is learning, not money, not scaling. If the learning yields no clear answer, well, then the startup has done its job and it folds. And for the most part, that's why a lot of people look at this as no harm, no foul. Startups are expected to fail more often than not because very often there isn't a viable customer or business model or mode of delivery or whatever it may be. If the startup does yield a viable customer model, product mode of delivery and scaling methodology, then the core metrics shift to the more conventional money, service, impact, and growth.

So at that point, you're supposed to have already had the possibility of success vetted and validated. So failure in the quote business or company phase, well, that's considered to be more about execution. It's a failure of execution, meaning it's more personal. You showed it could be done, but then you couldn't pull it off. Knowing this ramps the fear of judgment and failure and often stops you from taking the risks that you were okay with in the startup phase. And here's the thing, startups aren't new. You know, what's new is acknowledging that the earliest phase of entrepreneurship is not about growth and scaling and money and impact. It's about validated learning. It's about whether there's something worth doing, and if so, what? Splitting out and naming the earliest experimental

phase as a startup, then, well, it shifts not just the language, but it shifts in a profound way, the psychology of the experience. For the startup founder, your job is just to figure out if a company is possible. And you know that by claiming the moniker of startup founder, you're also setting the external expectation that you may well fail, and that's okay as long as you've got data. That subtle shift in language, that underlying psychology and expectations, in my mind, is profound. It makes you more willing to consider paths and possibilities and opens the pursuit of creation to more people who, but for the cover of the title startup founder of Ford's, would never have had

the gumption to venture into the world of entrepreneurship because they would have been terrified of being labeled a failure. Does that mean that more ventures fail? Likely so. But it also means more net ventures attempted, which means more net ventures succeeded over the long haul. And the impact of that evolution in the willingness to engage in the process of public dream manifestation, the impact of that on innovation, on improving the human condition, well, that is something that the world needs more of. So yes, the emergence of these terms startup and founder instead of entrepreneur or business owner, what seems like on the surface is just semantics.

Well, it's a shift in language, but it's also profound shift in the psychology of willingness to start and take risks. We live in a world where we need more people trying to create genius. So if that subtle shift in language inspires this, if it allows you to build a venture, to build an organization, to build a community, to build a life that ripples out and makes more of a difference, that is an awesome thing. Something to think about. Thanks so much. If you found something valuable, entertaining, engaging, or just plain fun,

I'd be so appreciative if you take a couple extra seconds and share it. Maybe you want to email it to a friend. Maybe you want to share it around social media. Or even be awesome if you'd head over to iTunes and just give us a rating. Every little bit helps get the word out and it helps more people get in touch with the message. I'm Jonathan Fields, signing off for Good Life Project.