Entrepreneurs and Innovators
Entrepreneurs and innovators are not necessarily the same. I’ve been both. I’ve even tried to do both at the same time. They are very different things and require different resources and skill sets.
Innovators require a high tolerance for failure. To a great degree innovation is a trial and error process. I always think of Apples introduction of the Lisa. It was the first GUI interface on a PC. It was a big failure, technologically and financially. However, without Lisa, there would not have been the Macintosh. Good thing Apple had the financial strength to take the lessons of the Lisa failure and apply it to their next product.
There is a new commercial on TV about the innovation of the Dyson vacuum cleaner. I believe the number of prototypes tops 500. They are talking about going through a large amount of money before they had a viable product.
I had a second uncle, once removed on my father’s side who bought a MacDonald’s franchise in the early ’60’s. Everyone of his depression era friends thought he was nuts. His business was an innovation in the market he chose, but MacDonald’s did all the real innovation. He was the entrepreneur. He made out well.
To me being an innovator was lots of fun, more then the entrepreneurial side. The catch is that you have to have deep pockets. If you cannot afford a string of financial losses don’t get hooked into innovation. As a boomer you might want to take the more conservative approach. Who ever said that entrepreneurship was conservative? An innovator.