A long time ago in a country far far away... Usually mythical stories or fairytales start like this. I will tell you stories about entrepreneurs and what could be better than starting with the impression some of us have about an entrepreneur. Imagine him or her... imagine the picture of a hero, standing alone, the sword in the hand, the wind is blowing through her/his hair and around her/him all the odds and obstacles that a lonesome rider might face and fight against.

'Where have all the good men gone and where are all the gods? Where's the street wise Hercules to fight the rising odds?' Bonnie Tyler might not have entrepreneurs in her mind when she sang this song but it fits in exactly here.

Heroes are rare, especially in entrepreneurship. You might become one when you take risks and fight. Entrepreneurs also take risks and fight but there are differences. As a hero you can win one fight after the next if you know how to handle the sword. The technical skills might be enough to succeed. For an entrepreneur technical skills are not enough. 'If you understand the technical work of a business, you understand a business that does that technical work' (Gerber 1995:12) is a fatal assumption. You can be the best baker, make the finest bread but that does not automatically make you a successful small business owner. Maybe after some months in your own business you realise that it was better to be employed by someone than be the slave of your own business.

Ok, the story of entrepreneurs as heroes does not lead anywhere. Maybe the story of what an entrepreneur IS (or as what some of us see him/her) is not useful at all. Let's look to another story, the story behind the story. What is the 'thing' that makes someone an entrepreneur?

Lyotard said that the great tales are dead, no one believes in them (or in heroes) anymore and therefore a productive and vacant space opens up. Entrepreneurship can be seen in wider context than just 'business', let us look at it as a creating process. Creativity does first of all mean a 'critical reflection over boundaries' (Jansson (not dated)). Why are they there and why are they not to be broken, at least not to be broken so far? Reflection upon boundaries makes people to become creative. No one can be creative and create in a vacuum! If there would be no boundaries what so ever, how could creativity be? 'Regard creativity as a multidimensional phenomenon, which is not a personal attribute' (Jansson (not dated)). This quote explains that 'to be creative' is nothing you inherit or you are, it 'is a dynamic form of power that flows everywhere, into everybody and only by destroying the boundaries ('this will never be successful'... 'Don't make yourself ridiculous') we allow ourselves to use [exercise] that power' (Vollmer 2004). Everybody can be creative when the right stimulus from the (social, natural, economical, business,..) environment appears. Entrepreneurship is 'a phenomenon which is beyond individual capabilities' (Johannisson and Landstrom 1999:4). Social interactions, feedback from others, action and reaction within your environment let an individual become entrepreneurial. Artists create artworks and entrepreneurs create opportunities. The shop owner around the corner is no entrepreneur. His boundaries are clear-cut around him and maybe he has lived inside his frame for 20 years now and might live there for another ten. And why not? If he is perfectly happy in his small shop why should he have the ambition to branch out or to open another shop?

What is an entrepreneur? There is no clear definition of this term. You can start making a list, with characteristics an entrepreneur has. But there will be items in the list that you can never ever explain in positivist methodology. Items like 'luck', 'the right gut feeling' or 'empathy'. A certain amount of ruthlessness, brashness or stolidness is also an ingredient in 'the entrepreneur'. We tend to see entrepreneurship as something good, we think about businessmen and maybe still about the little hero from the grand tale. But creativity and entrepreneurship are neutral. Someone who sets up a money-laundering organisation or commits a terrorist act might have the same creative mind as someone who launches a legal company. Our ethics and moral values make the difference between 'good' and 'bad' creativity and therefore also between 'good' and 'bad' destruction, as you start to become creative when you start to become destructive to the boundaries surrounding you.