Q: My colleague and I have volunteered to create a one-day course on entrepreneurship at a school where I am currently a student. We think that entrepreneurship isn’t just a label for start-up companies and their CEOs, but an attitude and approach that helps a person to take or make opportunities and develop them further. What do you think?
— Noelle Decuypere
A: As a label, the word "entrepreneur" really is fascinating. When my friends and I were starting up our first Virgin businesses in the early 1970s, no one seemed to understand what we were doing. Some important people called us entrepreneurs, but they used the word in a derogatory way, hinting that we were adventurers, out to upset the order of things, and perhaps not to be trusted. We certainly didn’t describe ourselves as entrepreneurs at that time, because that would have been met with some strange looks.
