Innovator or Entrepreneur
Aren't They Kissin' Cousins?
Before you type that question into Google AI Mode ... check out this video that supports the innovators/entrepreneurs at www.ThePurrgola.com:
Mind blown? Not yet? Well wait until I connect these dots to make a straight line for your professional development. We all know it takes three dots to make a line. Let's go to work.
At PCG, we talk a ton about our EPIC values: Entrepreneurial Spirit, Passion, Impact, and Community. I've also yaked endlessly about how we need to be innovators (disruptors) in mature markets (i.e. make stuff work better) and in new markets (i.e. using proven R&D approaches). Which begs the question ... what's the difference between an innovator and entrepreneur? Again, I thought they were kissing cousins.
Take a quick look at my "lived experience" and the folks I point to as the innovators, entrepreneurs, and the "hybrid" crowd:
There are a bunch of names listed above ... and I know all of them ... and have witnessed their journeys as artists, consultants, business owners, and generous humans. It's a nice back drop to consider the creativity and daring of William Allegra-Garofalo and his partner with ThePurrgola.com.
Before ya'll start on me about this case study, I don't even like cats and further more I don't think cats/dogs should be living inside with humans.
BUT YOU MIGHT! YOU MIGHT BE A CAT LOVER WHO DOESN'T MIND CAT HAIR ON YOUR SWEATER.
I'm 100% sure animals would be outside 100% of the time if it weren't for the overreach of human beings. Back in 60's-70's, Grannie and GranLloyd at Penley Produce would have tanned my hide if we let the dogs/cats in the house. Farmer Lloyd & Grannie's Big Farm in the Mountains innovative training tools: switches, brooms, or yardsticks.
BUT YOU MIGHT NOT HAVE BEEN SWITCHED FOR LETTING ANIMALS IN THE HOUSE!
Let's get back on track and test your ability to distinguish between the two words.
ONLINE TEST: INNOVATOR OR ENTREPRENEUR?
Example 1: Planting cherry tomatoes like trellising cumbumbers to market them as an innovative dining concept at Shoney's Big Boys, Pizza Hut, and Pisgah Fish Camps - for their new fangled "salad bars"?
Example 2: Packaging "oversized" squash (think as big as your arm) in a waxed-banana box and marketing them to J&S and S&W Cafeterias?
Example 3: Designing "autonomous driving" for a Ford tractor with bungee cords and bailing string (allowed a hillbilly to put up hay alone when his grandfather was napping)?
Example 4: Using a horse-drawn plow behind a Susuki Savage 250 moto-cross bike? Tying a bug sprayer (think posion before organic was cool) to the back of a Sears lawn mower (allowed a hillbilly to spray Manzate (poison) & Sevin (poison) on squash when his grandfather was napping)?
Example 5: Following the advice of NC State Agriculture Extension - Buncombe County GranLloyd was serious about "crop rotation" so we planted potatoes where we normally planted beans/squash and then donated 100% of them to MANA Food Bank?
OK ... if you are still with us ... PUT YOUR ANSWERS IN THE COMMENTS. IEIEI, EEEEE, IIIII, etc.
Here are the three dots we are connecting as professional development for your career .
- Innovation requires you get outside of your own bias and self-defined norms. (e.g. I hate cats)
- Always start with the bias/norms defined by your target market/potential clients. (e.g. Cat ladies think it's cool that their cats can be outside while being inside)
- If some one doesn't tell you that your innovation is NUTS ... it's probably not a GREAT idea, yet. (e.g. Yo William - you're nuts! Nobody will buy a clear cat box that installs as easy as a 1978 mobile home AC unit)
Now whether you fancy yourself as an innovator or entrepreneur ... the idea is only step 1, and the turning it into a viable business is step 2. BUT if you wanna live in that lofty "hybrid-space" of I/E/R ... you gotta make the final step #3: repeat. Have fun.
Tony McLean Brown
A Western NC hillbilly through and through, Tony McLean Brown was born in the small town of Enka-Candler outside of Asheville. His parents re-named him when he was 3 years old to Tony (a nickname provided by his grandfather) McLean (middle name of his Uncle Michael) while retaining his legal surname Brown.
Throughout his career, Tony McLean Brown worked as a farmer, computer programmer, and management consultant – in his adventurous years – author, song-writer, bass player, poet, pilot, mountaineer, certified scuba diver, and competitor in professional bull riding, NASCAR late model racing, Toughman boxing, Crossfit Open, Ironman, pole vaulting, marathon and ultra-marathon running, as well as parenting.
www.HappyGuidetoaShortLife.com has been leveraged to help charities and non-profits across the globe, USA, NC, and Lake Norman area. If you, your family, school, church, or charity has been supported, please take the time to share, like, subscribe, comment, and provide a 5 star review!