Ironically, people who want to be entrepreneurs might have the least chances of actually becoming one.
This provocative idea comes from none other than Peter Thiel, the PayPal co-founder and venture capitalist, who has a knack for cutting through conventional wisdom. In a recent discussion, Thiel articulated a perspective that challenges the entrepreneurial zeitgeist:
“There are a lot of people who end up trying to be somewhat fake entrepreneurs where the goal is *to be* an entrepreneur. If you ask me, ‘What do you want to do with your life? What do you want to do when you grow up?’ ‘I want to be an entrepreneur,’ which I always think is somewhat, disturbingly, somewhat too common. It’s saying that you want to be an entrepreneur sort of like saying, ‘I want to be rich’ or ‘I want to be famous.’,” Thiel says.
“Nobody in their right mind starts a company for the sake of starting a company. You start a company because there’s a very important problem to solve that’s not getting solved in large governmental, nonprofit, or for-profit institutions. And that’s why you actually need to start a new company. Just starting a company for the sake of doing so is a really odd thing,” he adds.
Thiel’s statement resonates even more in today’s landscape, where “entrepreneur” has become a buzzword, almost a status symbol. The rise of the “hustle culture” and social media influencers promoting entrepreneurship as a lifestyle choice can obscure the core purpose of building a business. We see countless online courses and workshops promising to turn anyone into an entrepreneur, often focusing on branding and self-promotion rather than identifying and solving real-world problems.
Thiel’s point isn’t to discourage aspiring entrepreneurs. Instead, he’s advocating for a shift in mindset. True entrepreneurship, he argues, stems from a burning desire to solve a significant problem, not from the pursuit of a title. The desire to *be* an entrepreneur is a superficial ambition. The true entrepreneur is driven by the challenge, the innovation, and the impact their solution can have on the world. In fact, Steve Jobs had said something similar — he said that people who start companies just to make money rarely succeed.
In essence, Thiel suggests that focusing on the “entrepreneur” label is putting the cart before the horse. Identify a problem, develop a solution, and build a business around it. The title of “entrepreneur” will follow naturally as a consequence of your actions, not as the primary objective.