The word “intrapreneur” has been weighing heavily on my mind recently. In my line of work publishing the digital magazine Inside Startups (previously known as Inside Entrepreneurship), I talked to many amazing entrepreneurs, knowledgeable investors and those who connect the two together and make magic happen.
Often I found that entrepreneurs have similar characters and values. They are risk-takers, unafraid of failing (fail fast, learn fast seems to be the mantra). They know their business inside out, are very passionate about them, and are able to answer any questions thrown to them with ease and confidence.
They are energised by new business ideas and new ways of doing things, and often have to find means to make them happen no matter how many obstacles were stacked upon them. And they happy to do so.
It took me sometime to realise that I share some of those characteristics too.
I am no entrepreneur. I often tell people that I relish working for a company and have a good work-life balance. I eschew personal risks (financial or otherwise), and taking a leap into the big unknown make me whimper in fear.
But at work, I like taking risks. I like looking at how things were done before and find ways to do them differently, often in ways that no one has done before. While some may lament how things have been done for years, I challenge them aloud with new ideas and propositions, and ask the often-dreaded, “why not?”
When a new idea came to my mind, I genuinely feel excited about them. I Google for more ideas and examples, I talk to people, I start a “working document” to write down my findings. I admit that sometimes the enthusiasm for these plans die out, but those which survived were often made into realities.
Some were (relatively) a flop – like an e-book on overseas education guide which sold for a few thousand copies but didn’t do much to our bottom line. Some became a roaring success – like the MBA Festival series which has grown from strength to strength.
So I started to consider myself an intrapreneur. I Google-d and found what Sir Richard Branson has to say about an intrapreneur:
“An employee who is given freedom and financial support to create new products, services and systems, who does not have to follow the company’s usual routines or protocols”.
That term clicks. And the sense of identity and belonging is very gratifying. Who here feels the same? 🙂
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