The Accidental Entrepreneur by Gerry Murphy

Author:Gerry Murphy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Orpen Press
Published: 2014-10-30T16:00:00+00:00

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The Way of the Accidental Entrepreneur

I have nearly a thousand business and self-help books in my library, so although what follows is going to sound like a massive generalisation, it is actually based on a lot of reading. Authors of business books frequently seem to come up with a clever-sounding idea. Many of those books, however, fail to live up to the blurb on the jacket and after a couple of chapters disappointment sets in, either because the idea is not great to begin with or because it is easily explained and most of the book is simply padding to justify the cover price. There are notable exceptions, but generally the ‘take away’ can usually be summed up in a page or two.

Which is why, here and now, I am going to admit that the accidental entrepreneur concept is really only a way to get entrepreneurs and would-be entrepreneurs to look at what they are doing, or want to do, from an entirely different perspective. Once I have explained the idea I am not going to keep banging on about it. My sole purpose is to provide a framework. In particular, I want to encourage you to forget – for the time being – profit, productivity, planning, positive thinking and all the other things that business gurus promote. Instead, open your mind (remembering that I am a former banker not prone to hippy-dippyisms) to chance.

How to Identify an Accidental Entrepreneur

It is often said that entrepreneurs are born, not made. Rubbish. I agree that some people do have entrepreneurship in their genetic make-up or, because of the way they are raised, appear to. From what I have observed, however, this group is actually in the minority. Much more common are people who reach a point in their career path where it becomes logical for them to give up paid employment and branch out on their own. Finally, there is the group who interest me most: entrepreneurs who stumble into it by accident.

What marks us accidental entrepreneurs out is, of course, that we never really intended to launch a business in the first place. I am not saying that we have never thought about it, but only in an idle, speculative way, much as you might consider climbing Mount Everest or visiting the North Pole. Commerce holds no glamour for us and we are, by and large, indifferent to gain. I don’t believe that accidental entrepreneurs conform to a personality type but in general I would say that we are self-effacing, modest and disinclined to over-analyse. Obviously, we must have a certain amount of determination or we wouldn’t achieve anything. Our primary goal, however, is to solve a problem or meet some need, and ultimately the fact that this involves setting up and managing a business is usually peripheral. Accidental entrepreneurs challenge the idea that business leaders must be focused on gain, growth and efficiency. Instead, we are likely to be concerned, if not obsessed, with achieving a non-business objective.

You Will Find Us Everywhere

Once you start looking for accidental entrepreneurs you will find us everywhere.

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