Although this blog will almost always be about starting a new business enterprise, it’s more generally about being enterprising. The two go together. Starting a business is just one path an enterprising person can take. Who is an enterprising person? Calling someone enterprising is an accolade. It is recognition they have achieved ‘good’ through their own initiative. The accolade is given by a person, or persons, who experiences the benefits of an enterprising act, or by an observer of the positive effect the enterprising act has. If someone habitually does good, through their own initiative, it becomes part of their character and social identity.  However, the accolade is given only for success. If you try and try, but fail, you won’t be called ‘enterprising, you’ll be called ‘a tryer’ instead, or even ‘a loser.’ To be ‘enterprising’ you have to achieve, but it’s also about initiative taking. Achievement + initiative, is crucial, plus taking a bit of a risk, preferably one that is calculated. If ‘goodness’ is achieved by novel means, or comes as a very pleasant surprise, then the impact of the enterprising act might be even greater.

One can be enterprising within a larger corporate entity, in which case you ‘do good’ for your employer and might even be called an intrapreneur. If you are enterprising outside of an organisation and manage to do good for others and set up a business to do so, you might be called an entrepreneur.