Entrepreneur of Life

The term Entrepreneur of Life reflects a basic trend in today's society which demands people to take on a more active role in life, i.e. in all of life's dimensions. As traditional patterns of living and decision making increasingly lose their power to provide individuals with a sense of orientation and security, while the number of options and alternative courses of action to choose from is rising, more and more decisions and choices are left to the individual. The erosion of relieving certainties and institutions does not only open up the potential of increased opportunities to design and create one’s own life but it is inevitably linked to an increasing (formal) pressure to actively organize and manage life, a need for self-governing.

This double-edged and ambivalent process of modernization provides individuals with growing liberties when it comes to deciding how to shape and create their lives (contents), but at the same time they are less and less free to decide whether to do so (form) and – in this sense – whether they want to act as an entrepreneur of life.Hence, by transforming obligations and traditions into options – some among a number of multiple options that can be chosen –, processes of individualization create the basic conditions for being an entrepreneur of life. But as the motor of the dynamics of civilization they also tend to transform life in all its length and breadth pushing it into a direction, which causes individuals to act more and more as entrepreneurs of life, as the necessity to decide and to choose, to shape and create one’s life increases.

The term "Entrepreneur of Life" explicitly makes reference to the historic figure of the entrepreneur as a founder and leader suggesting that the Entrepreneur of Life and his classic counterpart should have certain essential qualities in common: he actively and consciously creates, designs and shapes his own life, takes direct responsibility for his actions, and is very self-motivated, which comprises not only the ability to and the process of action but also the will or determination to act. In this sense, the entrepreneur of life is basically the creator/designer of his own life, actively shaping the basic framework of his life – as opposed to passive reaction.

References

* Lutz, Christian: "Leben und Arbeiten in der Zukunft" (in German) (translated: "Living and Working in the Future")
* Baumgartner, Peter: "Der Lebensunternehmer" (in German) (translated: "The Entrepreneur of Life")
* Middendorp, Christoph: "Der Lebensunternehmer - Facetten eines Konzeptes" (in German) (translated: "The Entrepreneur of Life - Facets of a Concept")