David Chose to be Goliath

The difference between an entrepreneur and an hobbyist?

Not much really - we're all living the life, living the dream.

Really only two things, but they are huge.

An entrepreneur is someone who can sell. He gets paid for doing what he likes because he has overcome his internal resistance to selling. Some hobbyists get paid but most don't. They don't know how to sell well.

The other thing is the presence of a sound scaling strategy. The entrepreneur wants to grow the business. He is looking for any angle that allows his company to leverage anything other than himself. After all, he's the only one that cannot be duplicated. You can duplicate and stock up on car mechanics, accountants, sales representatives, customer service representatives, assembly line machinists, doctors, lawyers, graphic designers, whatever have you.

The hobbyist doesn't care or doesn't understand scaling effects.

Couple these two simple requirements together and it makes a world of difference. One guy runs a bodega on the corner. The other guy invented 7-Eleven. One gal runs a boutique in the East Village and the other gal built The Gap.

Comments

[cheap clothes online]

Thanks alot for writing on this topic…. I was feeling burnout few months back however excited to get back on track :)

Thanks!

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[şevket uğurçay]

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[emre]

Feride ay gülüm canım benim ! thanks

[Joseph Joel Sherman]

I see this in Toastmasters International, a public speaking and leadership organization. Many great speakers stay hobbies because they have no interest in commercializing their talents or are not able to organize their speaking skills into a something for the market. I have seen many professional speakers who do well because they are great at selling despite not being the best speakers.

[Jermaine Holmes]

There's nothing wrong with being a hobbyist. Really, having a hobby is fun and enjoyable. But if you want or are ready to move beyond having a hobby, then you the first thing you have to learn is how to scale yourself. YOU are going to make the business. YOU better learn how to duplicate and encapsulate yourself into whoever will run your business, or it will fail or not move beyond the hobby stage as much as you want it to.

[Nick Laborde]

I agree, some people want to be the bodega and they simply just own there job. If that's what they want, then they are fulfilling their desire.

It's the ones that want to be bigger but still have the hobbyist mindset. They aren't going to fulfill there desire and will have a tough time in the process.

[Gaurav Varma]

I think all they are saying is if you have a talent and hobby and you create a nice little saleable thing , dont sit over it, scale up, be smart about the talent....

[Gary]

It almost sounds like you believe tha 7-11 is BETTER than the bodega on the corner. Not everyone wants to be the 7-11. There are very successfull small businesses out there that WANT to be small. It may not be that they don't have a 'sound scaling strategy' - it might be that they don't want one....

[Mark]

Hi Alan,

Thanks for your post. Just a couple of thoughts:

You may not mean this (and if I have read you wrong, I apologize!), but I read your post to suggest that "bigger is better" - the entrepreneur should be prized above the hobbiest, because he/she can can sell and scale.

If this is what you meant, then I'm not sure I agree. I'm just not sure that bigger = better.

The current multi-national meltdowns we are reading on the news each day make me think that scaling isn't all its cracked up to be - because once you have started to scale, it seems incredibly hard to know when to stop.

And if I remember the story correctly, David didn't choose to be Goliath - he chose to defeat him... and he did so in part by being small, courageous, and agile, rather than being weighed down by the trappings of 'big'...

So, here's to all those hobbiests out there - who are injecting variety, passion and diversity into towns and cities that would otherwise be ruled by the boring uniformity of the big guys!