It’s interesting how just a few short years ago, the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor study classified most entrepreneurship in so-called emerging markets as necessity-based. Not anymore!

Cheers,
Jeremy

You raise a good point: I think the quiz is almost irrelevant in terms of determining one’s own suitability for a life of entrepreneurship. Its main value is simply debunking common misperceptions. Remember that it’s essentially a demographic survey of the total population of self-employed people, which is heavily skewed towards “lifestyle businesses” run by one-person sole proprietors.

I love the way you characterize the difference between creating a job and creating a business: “being self-employed as a cog in someone else’s machine feels different than creating your own machine.” Most solo entrepreneurs under Shane’s definition of “entrepreneur” have essentially created jobs for themselves (being self-employed as a cog in someone else’s machine).

Nothing wrong with that; it can be a fulfilling and lucrative lifestyle choice. But as you point out, it is fundamentally different from creating a business that has a life apart from the founder’s 24 x 7 involvement.

@ Dave for me, I knew I had to do something else when I saw an opportunity to offer real value. At a certain point, I just couldn’t stand on the sidelines anymore.

And by the way, being self-employed as a cog in someone else’s machine feels different than creating your own machine.

You and your 20 and 30 something audience no doubt discussed opportunity driven entrepreneurship, which is more along the lines of what most of us imagine when we hear the word “entrepreneur.”

BTW, hope you’ve recovered from your night on the airport floor

@Pace — I agree: Positive incentives rule. As Emerson said, nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.

Congratulations on your new start. Hope you’ll keep us up to date on your progress.

P.S. The E-Myth books are terrific; I think they now comprise the world’s number one selling small business series on entrepreneurship.

I feel that starting a business to do what you love is much more sustainable than starting a business to avoid working for others. (Heck, doing anything to AVOID doing something else will probably not get you anywhere great.)

Timely comments. I work in a technology incubator and just last night hosted a panel of 20 and 30 somethings talking about entrepreneurship. The topic of why and when they became entrepreneurs came up about halfway through the panel discussion.

While their answers jive somewhat with Mr. Shane’s, I think they hit a bit further to the truth.

While it is true that many entreprneurs start businesses to avoid working for someone else, there are still millions of people that don’t like working for someone else that continue to do so. I personally think it’s only part of the answer.

I believe the other part of the answer emerged last night, and it is a theme I hear over and over again: there came a moment where I just KNEW I had to make the jump into entrepreneurship.

I know Mr. Shane’s writings and this is probably too metaphysical or emotional for him, but working with entrepreneurs day in and day out I consistently hear this reason given. Being an entrepreneur is hard, risky, financially challenging and takes incredible passion and commitment. Simply avoiding having a boss is not enough in most instances (IMHO) to push one over that edge.