When are you a Serial Entrepreneur?
I recently got an invite from a person (who I don't know) to connect on LinkedIn. This individual's title is 'Director and Serial Entrepreneur'. This convinced me to put a question that I've been asking myself for a while now on paper - When are you a serial entrepreneur?
Google defines an entrepreneur as "a person who sets up a business or businesses, taking on financial risks in the hope of profit." The conclusion that I draw from this definition is that you are an entrepreneur, irrespective of how many businesses you've started. Why include the word "serial"?
I also once harboured hopes of becoming a Serial Entrepreneur. This desire was fuelled by the talk and content of the time, which is still pretty much the status quo. But now that I have started starting a business it's becoming clear to me that the aim should be to build a sustainable business before moving on and that this requires the majority of one's attention.
To conclude, I don't think people need to call themselves serial entrepreneurs. I think entrepreneur is fine. It tells me as the reader of a LinkedIn profile that the entrepreneur in question is a no-nonsense individual how avoids creating perceptions and prefers to state facts.
I feel that time will tell whether someone deserves to be called a serial entrepreneur - history can bestow this title on someone if they repeatedly created jobs or businesses that stand the test of time.
OCL