WARUM ES SICH LOHNT, SICH MIT ENTREPRENEURSHIP ZU BESCHÄFTIGEN

Entrepreneurship as self-determination

Entrepreneurship - an unwieldy word for which there is no adequate synonym in German. The often-used "entrepreneurship" doesn't come close and is often tainted with the wrong images: of managers in suits, bringing in as much profit as possible with elbows out ("You have to be a pig in this world"), a bulging sack full of borrowed capital and lavish marketing campaigns. This is the overdrawn picture, but it is still circulating in all sorts of variations in too many people's minds.

Yet the question "What is entrepreneurship?" has never been more relevant than it is today: the economic, political and looming ecological crises around the world have caused us to question many of the assumptions on which the economy and its rules of the game have been based since World War II. Many people hope that entrepreneurship will not only create new jobs, but also new ideas for the future and solutions to the world's most pressing problems.

A purely business approach overlooks the emancipatory qualities of entrepreneurship.

Entrepreneurship as self-determination and self-expression, as an artistic activity of redesign, reinvention, a step beyond the known boundaries of the self, but often also beyond the social forms and conventions in which we are at home.

There is not only business entrepreneurship. That is, those concerns that are ostensibly about making a surplus of revenue to support the individual. There is an abundance of concerns in which the prospect of such a surplus either plays no role or is not even possible. Be it Social Entrepreneurship, Ecological Entrepreneurship or Cultural Entrepreneurship, to name just a few fields - in these cases another concern is in the foreground.

Entrepreneurship must not be reduced to business entrepreneurship alone

"Doing something" can extend to an infinite number of fields. It means challenging the status quo and looking for new, better and more creative ways.It does not require a lot of capital, heroic character traits or marketing.

"It's the idea of becoming proactive, of not taking it for granted, which is what entrepreneurship is at its core. Go for a cause. Give your life meaning. Focus. Feel the sense of making a difference. Start a business to have an impact on shaping society." (Prof. Günter Faltin)

Entrepreneurship is creative destruction, change, departure and nowadays accessible to everyone and applicable to all fields. It requires a different attitude towards life, sometimes tenacity, perseverance, tolerance of ambiguity and much more. But it is worth it!

For those who would like to dive deeper into the topic, we recommend Prof. Faltin's interview with Prof. Fritz Fleischmann "Entrepreneurship as a Way of Life: Entrepreneurial Thinking and Culture at Babson College and Beyond". Prof. Fritz Fleischmann teaches at Babson College in Massachusetts, an internationally recognized and highly regarded business school with a focus on entrepreneurial education.

"Starting a business is like putting together a jigsaw puzzle - but one whose result no one knows at the beginning and whose individual pieces have yet to be thought out."
(Prof. Günter Faltin, from "Head Beats Capital")

Entrepreneurship Christmas Campaign

If you want to learn more about entrepreneurship or deepen your knowledge, come to our annual Entrepreneurship Summit in October 2023!

For next year you can already secure a cheaper ticket and get the "Kopf schlägt Kapital" audio book for free.

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