What is an Entrepreneur’s Job?

An entrepreneur’s job is multifaceted, and often ill defined, but keeping one thing in mind will help an aspiring entrepreneur succeed.

A lot is written about what many perceive to be an entrepreneur’s job. In my 20 years as a corporate lawyer, I spent a good amount of time being the legal head of a multi-billion dollar fund, and had unique access to a lot of opinion leaders in the startup and growth stage company world.

This helped me shape my thinking around the definition of an entrepreneur’s job…

In my youth, I’ve personally been told many things – on the one extreme – follow your dreams, be aligned with your purpose, because you’ll naturally be good at it; and on the other extreme – just give the market what it needs – regardless of what value you can add to it.

Both these extremes describe elements of an entrepreneur’s job, but in my opinion, after watching numerous startups come and go, the optimal position is in the happy medium, as it often is, and marrying elements of both descriptions of an entrepreneur’s job.

The former description of an entrepreneur’s job – following your dreams – allows the entrepreneur to have unique knowledge in that area. Because he is naturally passionate about it, he would learn all he can about that area, developing deep knowledge. But that knowledge, is not value in the absence of market demand.

The latter description of an entrepreneur’s job – just give the market what they want – an entrepreneur may not have sufficient knowledge in those markets to add value.

And so, I’m sure you can quite clearly see by now, that an entrepreneur’s job is to provide value, or to solve a problem. Having the ability to solve a problem means that the entrepreneur has the knowledge to solve the problem, and that there is a market for his solution (ie, there is a problem to be solved).

So, how would I define an entrepreneur’s job? I would define it as “Problem Solver”.

Beyond, the initial conceptualization of a business, an entrepreneur’s job requires him to solve daily operational problems that come up, and so I’ve found that definition to be quite all encompassing.

Now with a definition in mind, can entrepreneurship be taught?

Once it is clearly defined, anything can be taught. I’ve learnt it, and in a year, have built a successful business from scratch. And now, I work with students worldwide applying clearly defined principles to helping them succeed online, applying my years of experience working with multi-million dollars startups, leading to over $735 million in IPO exits.

So, when faced with a problem, face it as an entrepreneur – a problem solver – look at that problem, not as a hindrance to success, but an opportunity to provide value to a market willing to pay you for your solution.

That is an entrepreneur’s job.

If you would like me to work with you to build your business, click here to begin.