The more I read about entrepreneurship, the more people seem to conflate it with small business in general. While it makes sense to me that many small businesses can be entrepreneurial, I don't think they all are. There seems to be something more specific, or maybe more uncertain, about what makes an entrepreneur tick.

The research seems to attempt to identify the characteristics of an entrepreneur, and those tend to center around a person's creativity, intuition, decision making abilities, and tolerance to risk. I guess what bugs me about most of these models, is that they're studying the Steve Jobs types, and not really the average Joe like me. The problem is that this type of research tends to center around the rarified personality, the stellar successful businessmen and women who become the stuff of legend.

Did you know for example that entrepreneurs earn an average of twice what an employee earns in a lifetime? We tend to consider the fears and limitations of our creative careers, but we're also sitting on a lot of potential here. Imagine the possibility of doubling your income, and actually doing what you love to do. Not that you're dying to to the marketing and record keeping, but to be able to take your ideas and desires in any direction you choose. To develop your skills and direct the trajectory of your business to follow your bliss. No one said it would be easy, but no one seems to say either that it could be wonderful, life-affirming, and fun.

Mistakes and failures are a part of the process, and are learning experiences. This may be a lot harder for creatives. We're certainly willing and able to take chances, explore new boundaries, and risk more than others, but we also seem to have egos made of glass. We tend to doubt ourselves, break under pressure, and crumble before criticism. So that's somewhere I need to grow. I need to be able to take risks confident that even failure teaches me something... possibly more than success does. I need to be open to, responsive to, but not destroyed by criticism. I need to be able to push past fear of rejection, ridicule and self-doubt. There's a lesson I need to learn. But at its core, entrepreneurship is a way of looking at life, and career. It's not a matter of luck, it's just work.