Businessman vs Entrepreneur: What’s the Difference?
Knowing the difference between a businessman and an entrepreneur will teach you a ton about emotional intelligence.
It’ll also make a lot of missing puzzle pieces connect.
One leads with faith, while the other has the job of removing faith.
By knowing the difference between a businessman and an entrepreneur, you will understand how the marketplace and economics work.
The Difference Between the 2
A businessman sets up shop in a preexisting market.
An entrepreneur creates a market.
Let’s imagine Paul.
He wants to start a lawn mowing business.
What should Paul do?
He can look around his community and research the other major lawn mowing companies, see how much money they are making, how they are advertising etc.
There is already a market for lawn mowing services.
Therefore, Paul is going to set up shop in a pre-existing market.
What is Paul, an entrepreneur or a businessman?
‘He’s a businessman.’
Correct!
It’s because he spotted a market and now he is placing himself within that market.
Timothy is different.
He wants to create a phone that can be activated with the brain.
Thus far, he has been working with brain wave technology that can be picked up by a phone.
His only problem is that he doesn’t know how to make the phone and brain connect.
He’s been working on this problem for years.
When he looks to his left and right, he doesn’t see anyone else working on this issue.
He knows that if he can get a product made and distributed, then he will make money.
Timothy must create demand because the world is oblivious that a product like this is capable of existing.
What is Timothy?
‘Hm…so he’s not setting up shop in a pre-existing market. It seems like he’s CREATING a market for brainwave phones. Entrepreneur?’
Yes! He’s an entrepreneur.
What A Businessman & Entrepreneur Have in Common
The main difference between the 2 is the market.
The main similarity between the 2 is money.
A businessman’s goal is to make money.
If he doesn’t make money, then he cannot pay his employees, invest in ads, afford his groceries etc.
He needs to create a great service or product, so he gets money for his effort.
Likewise, an entrepreneur also needs to make money.
There are some misconceptions that an entrepreneur is working for a grander vision and that money doesn’t matter.
That’s not even close to being accurate.
After an entrepreneur creates a market, that’s when he needs to activate his inner businessman.
He needs to learn how to manage, create efficient processes, capture value, etc.
If the entrepreneur never adopts a businessman’s mind, then the entrepreneur will always be a starving artist.
The Personality Difference Between The 2
The businessman is highly analytical and often copies a ton.
They’ll say stuff like:
‘Find what’s already working and just do that.’
An entrepreneur is more imaginative.
They don’t like hearing the advice of copying.
Because chances are, what they are working on cannot quickly be copied from others.
It’s funny to see a businessman and an entrepreneur having a conversation.
They both talk past each other a lot.
The businessman asks the entrepreneur questions that the entrepreneur finds uninspiring.
‘What’s your profit margin?’
The entrepreneur asks the businessman questions that the businessman considers useless.
‘What’s the story behind your brand logo?’
Due to them talking past each other, they often don’t get along.
It’s a similar dynamic as engineers and artists.
Although artists and engineers both create, they create in different ways.
Many of them cannot look past the differences to see the similarities.
And although businessmen and entrepreneurs both provide something valuable to society, they do so in different ways.
The difference often leaves the 2 not getting along.
The Role of Faith
One of the biggest reasons that entrepreneurs and businessmen don’t connect is due to faith.
A classic example is IBM.
IBM used to be the big dog when it came to computers.
They were raking in money.
Soon, there were rebels who began talking about the PC.
Aka: personal computers.
The businessmen in IBM thought that PCs were hobbyist items.
Toys that would never have mass market appeal.
At that point, IBM was correct.
Because the only people using PCs were hackers and hobbyists.
But rebels like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs saw something different.
They saw a future where everyone would have personal computers.
It would be just as popular as the TV.
Not having a PC would be similar to not having a car.
The people in IBM just couldn’t see it.
But the rebels could.
What is faith?
My definition of faith is when the current state of the outside world does not have the data that your internal world presents.
Despite IBM looking at the CURRENT landscape and reaching the conclusion that PCs would only be a hobbyist item…
Bill Gates and Steve Jobs SAW something different.
Where were they seeing it?
The outside world didn’t have the data.
Exactly.
But their internal world did have the data.
That’s what I call the inner compass.
Entrepreneurs listen to their inner compass way more than businessmen.
The risky thing is that the inner compass can be wrong too.
Therefore, it requires risk to put your reputation on the line and follow the faith.
Talking Past Each Other
Most people view a businessman and entrepreneur to be the same thing.
They do have a lot of similarities; I won’t deny that.
However, they see the world differently.
Sometimes, a businessman and entrepreneur can work very well together.
Other times, they can’t.
Despite having the same objective of creating value and collecting money for it…
They just rub each other the wrong way.
If you see 2 folks talking past each other, it’s because the same objective is not the only important thing.
The important thing is the path to reaching the objective.
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