Saturday, May 26, 2007

Designer vs. Entrepreneur

A recent photo in a magazine had the titles of the individuals listed as "engineer" and "entrepreneur." But is that how they view themselves?

Being labeled as an entrepreneur is how someone else thinks of an individual (similar to branding: it's not what you think of your company, it's what others think of you.)

As a designer, has it occurred to you that you're en entrepreneur? There's so much buzz around the concept that it's easy to lose perspective on it.

"In the future, everyone will enjoy 15 minutes of entrepreneurship." Entrepreneurship will become a commodity, and we'll have to invent a new word for what it is we do.

A key similarity between designers and entrepreneurship is in how we think. Essentially, an entrepreneur identifies a problem and solves it, as do designers. Both are willing to challenge the status quo, affect change, take huge risks... we want to change the world.

If the future, I'll think of myself as a designer. But I'll continue to think like an entrepreneur.

How about you? Ready to change the world?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I missed the original entry obviously. Have you heard the acronym "designer-entrepreneur" (DE)? It's a fixture on my site as I stubbornly insist on melding the two...

Anonymous said...

Interesting... I'd never willingly use that term of myself. I think I'm operating with a different definition (or at least connotation) of entrepreneur. When I hear that title, I don't think of someone who solves a problem, but someone who exploits a need -- someone who takes risks, yes, but does so for personal financial gain. For me, it's not something clearly positive, if anything, it's slightly negative: mercenary rather than warrior. It's not someone who wants to improve the world for the sake of doing so, necessarily, but someone who would love to alter the world if they see a percentage in it.