A brief keynote defining entrepreneurship and examining the potential benefits of the entrepreneurial lifestyle.

1. Entrepreneurship
What is it and why should you be interested?

2. Overview
Definitions Basic definitions
Business Examples Solving problems for profit
Psychology and
Types of Entrepreneurs entrepreneurship
Why you should consider
What’s wrong with being an employee? converting
Examining criticisms of
Misconceptions entrepreneurship
Benefits of Entrepreneurial Lifestyle More on what’s to be gained

3. Definitions
An entrepreneur is a person who has possession of a new enterprise,
Wikipedia venture or idea and is accountable for the inherent risks and the outcome
of a product.
In economics it is one of the four factors of production. The other three
Economics being land, labor, and capital. It is defined as “The human resource that
organizes labor, land, and capital.”
I believe it’s easiest to think of an entrepreneur as a business owner who
removes some type of inefficiency (solves a problem) in exchange for a
My Definition profit. The more inefficiency the entrepreneur can eliminate the more
profit he or she will accumulate.

4. Business Examples
Problem/Inefficiency: It isn’t feasible for most people to grow their own food anymore.
Pain point: Many of us either don’t have time to cook or simply don’t want to.
Relief: They save you time and money.
Profit: They do this so well that as of August 2011 they make over 4 billion a year in profit.
Problem/Inefficiency: To be safe and avoid a DUI people need a sober ride home.
Pain point: Coming back the next day all hungover to pick up your car.
Relief: Save you time and money.
Profit: Was my first business venture and it ultimately failed.
*I will tell you what mistakes I made in a different presentation/video.

5. Types of Entrepreneurs
• Places passion before profit
Lifestyle • Combines personal interests and talent with the ability to earn a living.
Entrepreneur • Turn their passion into their career - they want to make a living doing something they love.
• Examples: Freelance web developer, artist, restaurant owner
• Motivated by desire to improve and transform social, environmental, and economic conditions.
• Characterized as highly ambitious with a lack of acceptance of the status quo.
Social • Driven by emotional desire to address large social and economic conditions such as poverty
Entrepreneur and educational deprivation rather than desire for profit.
• Example: Salman Khan - Khan Academy (free education)
• Continuously comes up with new ideas and starts new businesses.
• Characterized as possessing a higher propensity for risk, innovation, and achievement.
Serial • More likely to take risks and recover from business failure.
Entrepreneur • More interested in flipping business for profit and moving on to the next one.
• Example: Sean Parker - Plaxo, Napster, Facebook, Causes, Founders Fund

6. What’s Wrong With Being An Employee?
• Social security might disappear
Diminishing • Increased inflation leaves you less value on dollars earned.
retirement • Increased life expectancy means your money will be spread thinner
• You may have to deal with less than desirable personalities on a daily basis. If you run the
business you choose who you work with.
Lack of • Your employer is your master. He or she tells you what time to show up, what actions you
Freedom take while you are there, and what time you are allowed to leave.
• You have a limited number of vacation or free days that you are allowed to use.
Difficulty obtaining • You will be directly trading time for money -- No one gets rich just trading their
time for money. That philosophy puts an absolute limit on your wealth and turns
significant wealth you into a slave for earnings. Also known as a “wage-slave”.
Unable to reach • You are giving yourself very little control over your own destiny.
potential • You probably aren’t making the type of impact in the world that you could be.

7. Misconceptions
Starting your own business is risky
Many (including myself) believe being an employee is actually riskier than being an entrepreneur. Employees are at the mercy of
their boss and could be laid off or fired any time. Businesses will do what they have to in order to increase profits, if that means
laying off a dedicated employee who has been with the company for a long time, they will do it.
You have to be naturally business savvy to start your own company
You are going to want to develop some business savvy but it doesn’t come natural to anyone. If you have the motivation and work
ethic, business savvy will come. For more on “natural” talent and how people get really good at something check out the book
Talent Is Overrated.
You needs lots of cash to be successful
While lack of capital is a leading cause of start-up failure, you don’t have to be rich or have rich friends to start a business. It
definitely helps to have access to those kinds of resources but many millionaires have been made from what seems like dirt. With
technology increasing it’s getting easier to bootstrap your way up to a certain point. It’s difficult to bootstrap your way to a massive
success but the goal is to bootstrap to a point where you have something solid then you can seek investors or get that loan. There
are many businesses that have been bootstrapped to significant size and it can be done, especially if you’re just shooting to be self
employed and run a lifestyle business.

8. Benefits of Entrepreneurial Lifestyle
Potential to change the world
If your vision becomes successful enough you may have the opportunity to change lives. Whether you be for against Facebook, it
has changed lives and brought people together. The personal computer changed the world in ways I don’t need to start listing.
Medical technology has saved countless lives. Even the smallest business that is deeply appreciated by a small community feels
extremely rewarding. People are happier when they know that their hard work is helping people.
Increased Freedom
• You are in direct control of your time and therefore have exponentially more freedom than you would as an employee.
• You will make money while you sleep.
• You can plan vacations to your preference and take as many as you would like without risking the well-being of your business.
• When you’re working towards your own creation for your own benefit and not your bosses, you are a lot less likely to think of
your work as work.

9. Benefits of Entrepreneurial Lifestyle
Much higher potential earnings
The harder you work on your business the more it will pay off later. You might be putting in a lot more hours than a typical full
time worker would but you’re going to receive exponentially greater rewards. One day you might be able to automate your
business to where you are receiving high profits without running it or you may eventually be able to sell your business and cash in
on it and start another or just retire.

10. Benefits of Entrepreneurial Lifestyle
Inspiration
Every failure is a learning experience and that’s the way you have to look it. Thomas Edison said
he failed his way to success. The best entrepreneurs aren’t in it for the money they just have
drive. I think everyone can find that drive within themselves if they get to experience what it’s like
to be passionate about building something of their own and being truly free and independent.
There has been no better time than now. As technology advances more power shifts to the
individual. You have more resources at your disposal and bootstrapping gets easier.

11. “A man who only does
only what is required of
him, is a slave, the minute
he decides to do more
than is required of him, he
becomes a free man.”

12. This is the rst of a three
part series. The next
presentation will discuss
what steps one can take to
start out on their journey as
an entrepreneur.

13. Thanks for viewing!
For more check out my blog
justintallant.com
follow me on twitter @jtallant