Can a Corporate Careerist Really Be An Entrepreneur?

Today, I’m sat in a room of intrapreneurs. They are incredibly smart, very driven, and undeniably impressive… but they’re not real entrepreneurs right?

I don’t know how many times I’ve been told that corporate employees can’t be called entrepreneurs; they haven’t really taken the risk: they have the security of a paycheck, the support of a megalith, no fear of fundraising.

It’s de-risked, your innovation and career practically handed to you on a plate right? How is that the messy, dangerous life of the entrepreneur.

They don’t eat Ramen, they can pay their rent- they just don’t qualify- right?

Clearly noone who says that has ever tried to start a business in a corporate.

Yes, elements are de-risked: you know you’re still getting your monthly pay check; you (hopefully) know what the corporate has committed to fund your idea if successful and if not you at least know there’s money there to be had if you can prove the business case.

But don’t be fooled by this seeming security: in lieu of the typical startup strains, others swiftly emerge.

Diverting from a known career path to test a new business (which you are actively encouraged to kill if the customer data doesn’t confirm the need) pulls you straight off the clear career ladder most corporates pride themselves on and into no-mans land and limbo.

If your idea succeeds, you become a thought leader, but if it fails, where are you left? You’ve proven you can fail fast, which is a trait heavily rewarded in the startup space, but rarely understood by corporate middle managers.

Meanwhile, the myth of work life balance being assured is pure fantasy: not only are intraprenuers fighting to get a new business off the ground, but they’re rarely able to do this without at least some pull from their past life and “normal job”; so they’re working with two hats on- never a 9–5.

They’re battling the corporate ecosystem, which even with huge investment in innovation will have a natural predisposition to shut down anything with real risk (the definition of an unproven new business) and execute as usual.

So why do these intrapreneurs exist at all: because just like an entreprenuer- they’re passionate believers in doing something differently; in not accepting something because that’s the way it’s always been done. In driving for speed and putting themselves on the firing line (in front of customers and colleagues) because they have a vision they want to achieve.

Just this week, I’m watching 20 intrepreneurs battle jet lag, leave their families behind and push themselves well out of their corporate comfort zone to spend their days surrounded by post it notes, business model canvases and customer interview data (with no break for sight-seeing I can promise you). They laugh when I suggest they get a good nights sleep and yet are still preparing to jump headfirst into at least another 12 weeks of madness: with manic travel schedules and intense pressure at both a personal and team level- all with no guarantee their idea will succeed at the end.

So yes, intrepreneurs aren’t exactly entrepreneurs- they are their own breed- with their own challenges, their own pressures and their own very real risks. But they share something incredibly tangible: the grit to get the hard stuff done; putting aside the challenges this may throw at their own careers- because they want to build a new business.

And for that, I think we should give them a lot more respect than to try to challenge them on their entrepreneurial credentials.