Entrepreneur, Manager, or Employee

Let’s first look at what the actual definitions of these three distinct words are—before we get into personality traits or other characteristics, because trust me, there’s a heck of a lot to this.

entrepreneur /ˌɒntrəprəˈnəː/ noun a person who sets up a business or businesses, taking on financial risks in the hope of profit.

That’s a pretty bare-bones and a quite literal definition of course. If I asked you to name three, my guess is at least one of the following would come instantly to your mind: Steve Jobs, Sir Richard Branson, Bill Gates, and Mark Zukerberg. And for good reason—they’ve all been very successful. But the truth is, there’s been millions and millions of successful entrepreneurs throughout the history of mankind going back to when the first caveman sold another hungry caveman a piece of roasted meat from the spoils of that day’s hunt. We’ll get more into that in a few moments, but let’s go ahead and define a manager now.

manager /ˈmanɪdʒə/ noun a person responsible for controlling or administering an organization or group of staff.

This one is fairly obvious, and to be frank with you—it’s not much different from an employee, save some added responsibility.

employee /ɛmplɔɪˈiː,ɛmˈplɔɪiː,ɪm-/ noun a person employed for wages or salary, especially at non-executive level.

What the two latter people have most in common is the fact that neither have any real control over the business they work for. That doesn’t mean they don’t have say over certain processes or tasks or whatever, but it’s a bit of an illusion because the ultimate authority (and responsibility) rests with ownership. In many respects, employees are simply a part of the mechanism that’s ensuring an entrepreneur’s goals come to fruition.

“Every day you’re lucky enough to wake up—you’re either working towards your goals, or someone else’s. Daily the choice is yours.” —James L. Clark

Make no mistake about it—both managers and the lowest rank and file worker at any company are employees. regardless of their job description and relative responsibilities. They trade hours in their day (the only currency in life we cannot replenish) to make someone’s goals a reality.

What’s your daily motivation?

Mangers and non-manager employees pretty much have the same motivation—they want a paycheck. I get it, trust me. Made lots of money and lost lots of money. It can be scary knowing that I’m entirely responsible for getting up every morning and finding a way to produce an income. Working a job takes away some of the heavy burden that rests on an entrepreneur’s shoulders.

People who work “jobs” for for crazy folks like me every day so they can trade the cash they earn and trade it for things like a lifestyle. Employees enjoy, as I said, “relative” security and a paycheck that is hopefully dependable. Not always the case of course, but for those of us who venture out (so to speak) into the uncertain world of business, we have no guarantees whatsoever. Other than, the guarantee that there are none. Well, if we’re honest—neither do employees. Businesses fail every day, so one minute you can have a safe job and the next—it’s gone.

I tend to embrace that kind of thing and live in that kind of reality. As a medic I’ve seen how uncertain life is across the board, so for me, I’m not the kind of guy who shrinks away from risk. Of course, I’m what I would describe as a “calculated risk taker” as opposed to someone who just takes risks without considering the potential consequences. Most employees around the world are either perfectly happy being “employees” (not necessarily at a given job, but with the concept of trading their day for a paycheck). Or, they just don’t know anything different.

Those who prefer the relative stability offered by a “job” over the potential uncertainty and seemingly innumerable associated risks of owing a business, are probably not entrepreneur material. And that’s perfectly okay. There’s nothing wrong, whatsoever, in holding down a job. In life there are leaders and there are there are followers, and we all fall somewhere on that ladder. Doesn’t make one person better than the next—it just makes us all different.

Are you open to alternative lifestyles?

I’m not talking about living in a commune and not showering for weeks on end. I’m not talking about wearing tie-dyed shirts, smoking pot, or gauging your ears either—though none of those things will necessarily prevent you from being your own boss, if I’m honest. What I’m really talking about is being an entrepreneur. Because it’s unlike anything you’ve ever done in your life—hands down.

Most employees, especially people who’ve worked jobs for years—have no idea how to think any differently. Those who flirt with it or are able to make the mental leap from working a job to wanting to be the boss—often have no idea how to transition. But to get there you have to be open to risk, open to working a lot more hours than you ever have in your life, to being dedicated, to sleepless nights, to uncertainty, and to all other plethora of realities that come with the new title.

Going back to motives, it could be argued that the main motive or objective of an entrepreneur is to start a venture and make money. I suppose in many respects, that can be true, but I think that falls short in a lot of respects. It also could be said that an entrepreneur sets up a business for personal gratification, which too is often the case. More likely, it’s a combination of these and a lot of other factors.

For instance, a lot of the business owners I know personally are crazy—crazy creative, crazy inventive, and crazy fun. They just think differently. They think both inside and outside the proverbial box. They look for needs or problems and fill or solve them accordingly. They see gaps that need to be filled.

So what are you? An entrepreneur, manager, or employee?