The Quirks of Entrepreneurs

A friend of mine passed on an article to me tonight on the topic of (warning: some possibly offensive content on this site) dating an entrepreneur and I thought it was good enough to be shared.

I don't believe I ever dated an entrepreneur actually thinking back on it now. These days my wife is becoming a bit of an entrepreneur herself so I guess I'm wading into this situation slowly. In her article Kelli looks at what it's like to date an entrepreneur, a reflection probably not far from the conversations in the heads of everyone I dated in my single years.

I will mention as a marital-peace disclaimer... I do not remember these years. Entrepreneurs can do very abnormal things but I think they are driven my pretty normal motivations.

I heard a great analogy from John Grinnell of Grinnell Leadership the other day about two different people approaching the same problem from different angles. The story goes like this.

Two people with identical assets and situations see a beach house for sale and the first person decides that the monthly payment is simply too much for them so they turn down the opportunity to buy it. The second person sees the beach house and knows that they cannot afford the monthly payment but notices that because of the structure of the house two additional downstairs entrances would easily allow it to be subdivided into three units.

Because the property is undervalued two units could easily be sold for the total value of the house which would yield them a free house at the beach. The house is smaller and the risk required to purchase the house and divide it into three separate units may be high... but the reward of a free beach house is high.

The funny stories you hear about entrepreneurs come in the midst of these little projects and I bet many of them rise out of the stress that comes from taking unusual risks.

Using money and time carefully and seeing business opportunities everywhere comes naturally to this type. They can also be seen as loners because the large majority of the population thinks like the first person in the example above who would never consider subdividing the beach house.