The words entrepreneur and entrepreneurship come from French — though unlike fashion, cuisine, or art, they’ve never been easy for English speakers to embrace. When I became the facilitator of the Successful Entrepreneur Program at Independence Community College years ago, it took me a long time to learn how to pronounce entrepreneur, let alone spell it. Even today, after typing it thousands of times, spell-check still warns me I’ve misplaced an “r.”

Beyond the spelling challenge, the meaning of entrepreneur — and related ideas like entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial mindset, and entrepreneurial thinking — has evolved. Many people today have widely different ideas about what entrepreneurship means.

Entrepreneurship Is Not Just About Owning a Business

Traditionally, entrepreneurship was seen as launching and owning a business. Society often portrays entrepreneurs as mavericks who risk everything on a bold idea. But the idea that all entrepreneurs are reckless risk-takers is a myth.

In fact, research has shown that 98% of new businesses that later appeared on the Fortune 500 list were started with less than $10,000. What set these founders apart wasn’t how much money they risked — it was how they thought. Entrepreneurial thinking is useful not only for business owners but also for employees, government workers, educators, nonprofit leaders — anyone trying to solve problems and make the most of limited resources.

How Entrepreneurs Really Think

Studies on entrepreneurial mindset reveal how successful entrepreneurs approach problems and solutions.

They start by making assumptions about a perceived problem and a possible solution — but they don’t rush into long business plans or detailed five-year projections. They don’t borrow huge sums of money and hope their guesses are right.

Instead, they run a series of small, low-cost experiments to test their assumptions. If the assumptions prove wrong, they haven’t exhausted their resources; they can adjust their solution or even pivot to a new idea. Only after validating key assumptions do they invest more time, energy, and money.

Validation Means More Than Focus Groups

These entrepreneurs don’t rely only on market studies, surveys, or focus groups asking what people say they want.

Instead, they build a minimum viable product (MVP) — the simplest possible version of their solution — and see if even a small group of real customers will actually pay to try it. This creates a feedback loop: they learn, tweak, and improve based on how customers respond after using the product or service, not just based on opinions.

This mindset — testing assumptions early, starting small, learning as you go — saves time, money, and effort. And it’s a valuable approach for anyone, in any line of work, where solving problems for others is central.

Why We Should All Think Entrepreneurially

Imagine a community or society where everyone — not just business owners — approached their work with entrepreneurial thinking.

In businesses, government agencies, schools, nonprofits, and even in our personal lives, this approach helps us do more with limited time, money, and energy. That’s why so many of us working in entrepreneurship today believe this way of thinking benefits everyone.

Entrepreneurial thinking isn’t just about starting companies; it’s about how we solve problems, how we test ideas, and how we create value in whatever work we do. It’s a mindset worth practicing — no matter where you work or what you do.