The word #Entreprendre is a French one. Entre = enter, prendre = take. So an entrepreneur is a “go getter” #ForumBr
— Nnenna (@nnenna) April 25, 2014
Obviously I’ve been following events at the NETMundial conference in Brazil this week, and this tweet from keynote speaker Nnenna (see previous post) sparked me to add my thinking on the use of this word in the English-speaking world of business..
Thanks to Nnenna for her positive interpretation of Entrepreneur, and I want to add my ideas to tip the balance further into positive for you values-based entrepreneurs out there:
Although the French verb entrer does mean ‘to enter’, the preposition entre means ‘between’, both literally and figuratively. Using the prepositional version enriches the expression for me.
The French noun preneur (which is derived from the verb prendre, of course) means ‘buyer/taker/lessee’ or even ‘client’. And this, too, adds value to the meaning of the term Entrepreneur.
This translation of the term helps re-integrate the ‘business’ fragment that can be the missing link to success for creative people with issues about ‘selling myself’ or ‘selling out’. To me, it translates as ‘between buyers’. In other words, an entrepreneur seeks exchange with (entre) another buyer (preneur). It is an egalitarian term as I see it.
Being an entrepreneur does not necessarily imply that one profits at the expense of the other – or that is not implied in the term itself. It is people who misbehave, and who may misinterpret the term.
And so the term ‘entrepreneur’, as co–opted by some in the corporate version of business – where exchange is not of mutual benefit and is often downright exploitive – THAT is a corruption of its meaning.
When I work with artists and others who are blocked in their thinking about the business side of their work, who don’t see themselves as entrepreneurs, it really helps to demonstrate this difference, and to suggest that they reclaim the term from the Donald Trumps of the world and own it. RECLAIM your inner entrepreneur and PROCLAIM it!
In an egalitarian and mutually beneficial way, of course.