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What does entrepreneurialism mean to you? Insight from Columbus area insiders

By Erika Pryor, Social Boomerang Digital Communications Consultant

Central Ohio has a rich entrepreneurial culture and business community with plenty of individuals willing to offer advice, mentorship, information and a general “helping hand,” to those seeking it. So, I asked the simple question:

What does entrepreneurialism or the entrepreneurial spirit mean to you? As you can imagine, I received a number of innovative responses. I offer a few below.For Paul Dumouchelle, Columbus area Management Consultant at ADVISA, the entrepreneurial spirit is “the ability to envision a new reality and the will to bring it to fruition.” Also, he notes that entrepreneurialism is defined by “impatience with the status quo,” and “comfort with risk, or eagerness to try new things.”

Julia Kinslow, Interactive Marketer and Communications Consultant at Nine Dots Interactive, draws from her own experiences. She says, “being an entrepreneur means being in charge of my own destiny,” which she reveals “can be a little scary at times, but the rewards from seeing the fruit of my hard work (without the worry of someone else deciding your worth) is beyond description.”

Paul and Julia’s descriptions connect entrepreneurialism with the ability to be visionary, self-directed, and risk taking. For others, entrepreneurialism means working toward results and change. E-Waste Manager at Possitivity, Jesse Roberts describes it as: “The chance to get something accomplished in business.”

He continues, stating that, “Where would we be if someone had not thought of the multiple ideas in which people with disabilities could be employed. Entrepreneurialism has allowed persons with disabilities, limitations and other needs to be successfully employed, own their own business and have freedom to be a participating member, not just a receiving member of the economic society.”
When JB Bryant, Organizational Strategic Development Consultant and Coach with Strategic Alignment Group, Orrville , Ohio considered entrepreneurialism, he started simple, with the old French meaning, “to undertake.”  He continues on to describe the “successful entrepreneur” as someone that has “a very specific tension between positive change and stability.” JB believes that a successful and accomplished entrepreneur is “motivated by improving circumstances at a broader level. Helping individuals attain their greatest potential..” For him, entrepreneurs are concerned with “making communities or economies stronger. Creating new or better products to solve existing problems. Addressing global problems, such as poverty, or crime, or government waste.”
Making the world a better place to live. Although this statement might seem too simple to boil entrepreneurialism down to — it makes some sense. Regardless of which answer fits best within your personal understanding — what remains consistent is that an entrepreneurial spirit is about being a change agent in your own life, the lives of others, of a business or organization, your community, and world. So, next time you’re thinking about entrepreneurialsim don’t limit yourself to a one-dimensional business model, but rather consider how entrepreneurs have and continue making the world a better place to live.
To read all 20+ answers to this question on LinkedIn see: http://bit.ly/DECStory

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