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What’s an entrepreneur? The best answer ever

This classic 25-word definition pares entrepreneurship to its essence and explains why it’s so hard. And so addictive.

As an entrepreneur, you surely have an elevator pitch, the pithy 15-second synopsis of what your company does and why, and you can all but repeat it in your sleep. But until recently, I’d never seen a good elevator pitch for entrepreneurship itself—that is, what you do that all entrepreneurs do?

Now I’ve seen it, and it comes from Harvard Business School, of all places. It was conceived 37 years ago by HBS professor Howard Stevenson. I came across it in the book Breakthrough Entrepreneurship (which I highly recommend) by entrepreneur and teacher Jon Burgstone and writer Bill Murphy, Jr. Of Stevenson’s definition, Burgstone says, “people often need to say it out loud 50 or 100 times before they really understand what it means.” Here it is:

“Entrepreneurship is the pursuit of opportunity without regard to resources currently controlled.”

…to read this article in full, visit leading US small business resource, Inc.

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Inc.

Inc.

Inc.com is a place where entrepreneurs and business owners can find useful information, advice, insights, resources and inspiration for running and growing their businesses.

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