He looked at me over his drink, and he smirked.
“We have all these damned wantrepreneurs running around this city just screwing everything up for the rest of us!”
He was actually a little angry. That surprised me. I knew he was competitive–that was easy to see–but it was tough for me to understand why he was becoming legitimately worked up about these people.
“Those stupid wantrepreneurs,” he simmered.
Then he finished his drink.
Why do we hate on “wantrepreneurs”?
And are wantrepreneurs really “screwing everything up” for other entrepreneurs?
No. People who want to be entrepreneurs are not ruining everything for us. That concept is ridiculous, and there’s only a certain type of entrepreneur who truly complains about people who want to become entrepreneurs: a struggling entrepreneur.
Here’s a question to think through.
What if you were scared of being a wantrepreneur?
A wantrepreneur wants to be an entrepreneur. That’s a simple definition. And what’s wrong with wanting that? What would happen if you were afraid of sharing your business with others because they might think you are the wantrepreneur?
Have you ever thought that maybe these wantrepreneurs simply don’t know as much about entrepreneurship as you do?
Think back to when you were 13 years old. At 13, most of us had worldviews that are much different than they are today. We know things now that we didn’t know then. Does that mean that we were all stupid at 13 years old? Maybe, but it’s tough to blame our 13 year old selves for being naive.
Some wantrepreneurs are bad people. Most aren’t. Some are faking it. Well, they may not know any better.
It does you no good to dog on them, and it doesn’t help them either.
What to do with wantrepreneurs.
Most wantrepreneurs aren’t stupid; they’re just not experienced enough to know what being a true entrepreneur entails.
So, guide them. Set an example. Show them what’s actually true.
And be patient while they figure it out.
If you don’t, then we might be the ones screwing it up for everyone else.
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Photo: Flickr/Nadine Heidrich