“The problem with the French is that they don’t have a word for entrepreneur.” Thus—allegedly—spoke soon-to-be ex-President George Bush. It may be an apocryphal tale but I do so want it to be true.
And speaking of entrepreneurs, Michael Birch, founder of the social networking site bebo.com, gave a talk at Imperial a couple of weeks ago. Birch, a physics graduate back in 1991, was speaking at the College’s Alumni Reunion.
You can stream the video of the talk or download it as a podcast1. Birch is an engaging and fluent speaker and has an interesting tale to tell of his student days, his early employment developing databases for an insurance company and then his various attempts to develop a successful business on the web. The account of his initial efforts is really quite revealing – there were several non-starters before he finally got bebo.com off the ground. This kicked off as a very small business with his wife and brother but eventually grew into the success that is so well known today and that they sold to AOL this year for £850 million. Not too shabby.
It’s a fascinating account—especially for anyone interested in Web 2.0— told in a nicely self-deprecating manner. There are some touching recollections about his father – also a bit of an entrepreneur it would appear. And for those interested in making presentations, there was a very nice innovation: he gave a few keywords to his kids (aged 7 and 9) and got them to draw the slides that were shown in the talk!
1NB: the video is about an hour long, but it’s mostly footage of Birch talking so you could easily listen to it on the go (and check out his kids’ pictures later – there were only about five of them).
Apparently it is just a myth, but it’s so good it really should be true!
The French for entrepreneur is entrepreneur!
here is the OED entry
1852 CARLYLE Let. 15 Sept. in J. A. Froude Life of Carlyle II. xx. 107 A public set of roomsKursaal they call such things, finer than some palaces, all supported by gambling, all built by one French gambling entrepreneur. 1883 F. A. WALKER Pol. Econ. I. i. 203 The employer, or entrepreneur, receiving profits. Ibid. VI. xi. 432 The state as capitalist is at no small disadvantage; as entrepreneur, that disadvantage is vastly aggravated. 1889 R. T. ELY Introd. Pol. Econ. (1891) 170 We have..been obliged to resort to the French language for a word to designate the person who organizes and directs the productive factors, and we call such a one an entrepreneur. 1922 F. LAVINGTON Trade Cycle iii. 19 In modern times the entrepreneur assumes many forms. He may be a private business man, a partnership, a joint stock company, a co-operative society, a municipality or similar body. 1930 J. M. KEYNES Treat. Money I. ix. 124 The individuals who perform entrepreneur functions. Ibid. xi. 159 Entrepreneurs will sometimes begin to act before the price-changes which are the justification of their action have actually occurred. 1959 J. BRAINE Vodi viii. 123 Tom’s father looked every inch the successful entrepreneur. 1959 Listener 26 Nov. 915/2 Where their predecessors were flanked by engineers and scientists, the new-style entrepreneurs will be buttressed by sales managers and advertising experts.
Yes I did see that but since the denial is out of the mouth of Alastair Campell, there is plenty of room to doubt it…
@Brian – The French for entrepreneur is entrepreneur!
Yes – that was the joke. What I wanted to be true was that Bush had mis-spoken as reported, not that the French language was strangely out of touch with itself…
@Stephen – Unfortunately George W. Bush is not soon to be an ex-president. I believe the American convention is for the title to remain. So for the immediate future we shall have the Presidents Bush.
True – but they will finally prise his little hands free from the levers of power…
The geeks may inherit the earth …
but only if the jocks let them.
Jocks? Sorry Henry, you’re so far ahead of me on that one that I’m not with you… Do you mean the good folk of a Scottish persuasion?
Jocks as in the sense of college students of an aggressively sporty persuasion, seen as the opposite of geeks.
Stephen – I think jocks is a transatlantic term. Googling for that word can turn up some unexpected hits (think “straps”). The Wikipedia entry) looks safe enough.
Wow, there is some confusion going on here!
Concerning languages, W did tell reporters once he wouldn’t answer a question, neither in French nor in English nor in Mexican….you can find that one and many others on one of the many sites devoted to this!
@Henry (and Frank) – thanks for the clarification. I had heard of Gene Jocks (aka molecular biologists) but not the other sort. Sporty types are easy to distract and thereby disable…! The geeks will triumph.
@Steffi – Wow, there is some confusion going on here!
What else could we expect with W involved? Though I would be interested to hear the reactions of anyone who’s watched Birch’s talk which, after all, is the central topic of the post!
That was me in a previous incarnation! A gene-jockey. I was so proud when my PhD mentor dubbed me. You earned it after identifying, cloning and
screwing upmutating your first gene. Nowadays I’m a Patch-monkey…I get it – you really want us to hear the 1 hr long talk? Oh, Ok then…
What a sport but it will appeal mostly if you’re interested in the development of a feature of Web2.0. I thought it was interesting but there’s no accounting for taste!
If you just want to see his kids’ pictures, you can just scroll through the downloaded file to find them…
Geeks, Jocks and nerds are so Transatlantic and redolent of the Axis of NOT(Evil). Why can’t the Anoraks inherit the Earth?
@Ian – hmmm, you may want to come up with a better moniker. Jockey has some kudos. As for monkey, that has other associations (at least for Steve Bell) that link back to George Bush…
@Brian – because they’re only interested in trains?
Downloading it now. Will keep opinion on kids pictures to myself.
I’ve been worried about the title of your blog, and now I know why. Shouldn’t it be ‘the geeks might inherit the earth’?
Or did I mean, they have my permission…?
Actually no – I didn’t. You’re quite correct. Might is right (not for the first time e.g. W’s foreign policy). Will make amendment.