There’s an apocryphal story a friend is fond of telling. George Bush junior, decrying the French economy, said “their problem is they don’t have a word for entrepreneur”.
The problem with the English is we don’t think about what the word entrepreneur really means. I think in French the meaning is closer to the English word contractor. If entre is between, and preneur is taker, then ‘between taker’ sounds like something else again. It sounds like a middle man. Another kind of rentier seeking platform pravileges. Of course if you want to make money, that’s the only kind of business to start.
As French words in English so often do, entrepreneur has an allure; it sounds desirable. People like to describe themselves as entrepreneurs. They work for no man. They’re in charge of their own destiny. There’s an implication of success.
Often this is illusory. The glamourisation of the entrepreneur is part of a sneaky shift that takes the risk and burden away from companies and puts it onto working people. The self-styled entrepreneur is the one without sick leave, without paid holidays, without a contract, who delivers your parcels and takeaway, drives your minicab, and completes piecework in advance of payment. Or, maybe, the entrepreneur is at the bottom of a pyramid scheme selling ‘natural’ skin care with CBD, thermomixes on tick, or juicing diet plans. Or, as another friend pointed out, maybe they’re a drug dealer living with their mum.
This is the same sneaky shift that makes penniless job seekers pay hundreds of pounds for licenses before they can become a security guard. It’s the same sneaky shift that puts students thousands of pounds into debt while major employers shape the curriculum of universities without having to pay to train their entry level staff. It’s the same sneaky shift fueling the rise of the gig economy which can work for some — like me — but leaves many as members of the growing precariat.
Go out and create something that didn’t exist before. Go out and win your rewards. Be enterprising. That’s amazing. But it’s no longer what I think of when I hear the word entrepreneur. An entrepreneur conjures images of optimists trying to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps in a bent casino, and for every apparent success there will be thousands who never get anywhere.
