I’ve decided that I’m sick of writing about entrepreneurs. Not sick of the topic, by any means, but sick of the word itself. If ever there was a term that outlived its usefulness, this would have to be it. With all the smart people out there writing and thinking about the topic, surely we can come up with a better term for people who innovate, take risks and start something new.
I can think of at least five good reasons why the word “entrepreneur” is all wrong:
- It’s French. Not to be jingoistic here, but France probably isn’t the first country you’d associate with the scrappy, independent spirit of startup businesses. French is totally appropriate when discussing food (escargot) or sexual affairs (rendezvous), but for small business? Not so much.
- It’s ridiculously hard to type. In 20 years of writing about the topic, I’ve probably typed the word “entrepreneur” 20,000 times — and I still transpose letters almost every time. The computer keyboard simply wasn’t designed for a word with so many e’s and r’s in such close proximity.
- It’s not Twitter-friendly. When you type the word “entrepreneur” in the middle of a sentence, with a space before and after, you’ve already used 10% of your 140-character allotment. Throw in a Thai or a Russian name in the same tweet, and that’s pretty much all she wrote.
- It’s been thoroughly bastardized. Mompreneur. Solopreneur. Intrapreneur. Herpreneur. Lefthandedredheadpreneur. Okay, I made the last one up, but you get the point. Enough already.
- It’s just begging for a lawsuit. This is where things get serious. As BusinessWeek reported recently, EMI, the company behind Entrepreneur magazine, has a history of suing entrepreneurs who use its trademarked (!) term. While I’m a big believer in intellectual property, this seems like a classic overreach. If EMI really believes that its long, awkward, oft-bastardized French word is worth a constant stream of cease-and-desist letters, then maybe it’s time to devalue that word by finding something better.
So there you have it: plenty of good reasons why it’s high time to find a substitute for “entrepreneur.” The problem is, I don’t have any brilliant ideas for what that substitute should be. I kind of like “venturist,” which is 25% shorter than “entrepreneur,” much easier to spell — and sounds vaguely Latin rather than French.
I might actually start using “venturist,” although I’m not exactly wedded to it. In the meantime, I’d love to hear what you think — any brilliant ideas for updating the rickety, litigious term “entrepreneur”?
(Photo by flickr user prisme06)
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Entrepreneur magazine, shame on you! That’s like People magazine suing the Village People for trademark infringement. Let’s change entrepreneur to BizPioneer….easy to spell and remember. Whoops, I forgot, the Oklahoma Sooners or Thomas Edison may sue!
People magazine vs. the Village People — now there’s a jury I’d enjoy serving on.
Just typed the word “BizPioneer” without a single backspace, so it already has one advantage over “entrepreneur.”
Bizioneer
Business + vision + pioneer? That’s clever — I hope you’re a copywriter!
Robert, I love this suggestion. “Venturist” sounds a bit too high end for me, but that’s a whole lot better than entrepreneur. A lot of people are using “founder” now, but in context, as in startup founder. We see that in the founder institute. I think we should make a movement out of this, and whatever we decide on, let’s standardize. I can’t think of anything better than venturist at the spur of the moment, either, but let’s work on it. Count me in!
Thanks, Tim, glad to know you’re behind this idea. Looks like “venturist” is probably out, because it’s already been trademarked, so we’d just be swapping one legal issue for another. We may run into that issue with any coined term — chances are someone has already buttoned it up.
Generic terms like “founder” are probably a safer bet, but I wonder if that particular term is broad enough to capture the full spectrum of today’s “entrepreneurs.” I’d hate for a new term not to stick just because some people felt excluded.
I’m wondering now what founders/entrepreneurs are called in Japanese, Icelandic or Swahili. Maybe we can find another foreign term that has just the right ring to it …. then take steps to assure that it remains in the public domain.
Google. That’s the new term. Can you see it now? “I’m a Google.”
I can see the lawyers in Mountain View straightening their neckties even as we speak…