10- Overcoming Stigma for being an Entrepreneur – In Memoriam

Stigmatized as a home-based Entrepreneur - in Memoriam [18:05m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Although the Entrepreneur today has multiple private sector and public sector low-cost (or free) resources, and although the home-based Small Business Owner is accepted as a valid business, it was not always so. In fact, the home-based Entrepreneur carried a stigma as a second-class citizen that had no credibility and just only a bad reputation — mainly because the individual was not part of mainstream Corporate America in the employ of a large multinational firm like IBM, DEC, AT&T, etc.

Steve Jobs as early Entrepreneur

Here, in reflection of the passing of Steve Jobs, we delve into the area of Entrepreneurship in the 1975 time frame–and Steve had to overcome this particular stigma (from this repurposed episode of the podcast series The Struggling Entrepreneur).

In addition to the model of Steve Jobs in founding his startup called Apple Computer Corporation as an Entrepreneur, we also compare this to a case study of my own personal experiences of having been an entrepreneur during this same time — and living through the stigma of being a “no-op” (that is, an individual who could not be taken seriously, as home-based businesses were scoffed and mocked).

The discussion salutes three situations that Steve Jobs pioneered for us:

(1) Launching as an Entrepreneur in 1975 and overcoming the stigma of being a home-based small business owner;

(2) Overcoming the growth of a small business into a multinational firm within several years;

(3) Re-inventing his entrepreneurship after being thrown out of his own company (some call this “failure”) and pursuing his visions and passion until they became reality.

You, too, can buck the tide, overcome failure and pursue your passion and dreams amidst setbacks.

The final part of the discussion discusses exit strategy implementation, as well as updating your own personal plan to complement your entrepreneurial business plan so that you yourself can achieve what only YOU can define as “SUCCESS” and happiness in your world.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/05/steve-jobs-photos-apple-cofounder_n_997306.html#s391999&zoom=huge