A Founder Calls Himself “Jobless.” Am I an Entrepreneur?

For years, I thought an entrepreneur was someone who could never work for other people. Over the past 25 years, I’ve spent at most four in jobs. By my own definition, the answer seemed obvious.

But was I defining entrepreneurship—or simply describing myself?

A September 4 profile of Bhairav Shanth in Talking Business offers an interesting reversal. After years of building a business, he describes himself as “Jobless.” Someone who could comfortably claim the title chooses another word entirely. It makes me wonder how much these labels actually tell us.

I know friends who call themselves entrepreneurs while working toward other people’s visions. They may be successful, resourceful, and a driving force within their companies. I recognize what they contribute. Still, I wouldn’t naturally call them entrepreneurs.

That hesitation probably reveals something about what I value: deciding what to build, rather than only how to build it. Yet how clean is that distinction? Can someone take another person’s idea somewhere its originator never imagined and become entrepreneurial in the process? How much of a vision must be yours?

My own path hasn’t followed one job title. These days, I build apps, make artwork, and create travel films. The different kinds of work visible on my personal site don’t fit neatly into a single professional identity. Neither does the balance of those 25 years.

But spending little time in employment doesn’t, by itself, explain what I’ve built. Is independence enough to make someone an entrepreneur?

For some people, the word means owning a successful business. For others, success is too vague: the business needs to make a profit. Someone else might point to the person who makes things happen inside a company, regardless of whose name is on the ownership documents.

Those definitions lead to different questions. Does an unprofitable founder stop being an entrepreneur? Does a profitable business owner qualify even if they bought an established operation? Does an employee who creates an entirely new line of business count?

My instinct still leans toward independence and ownership of the vision. I haven’t stopped caring about that distinction. But I’m less certain that my definition can account for every way people build something—or that it will mean exactly the same thing to me in another ten years.

What does the word mean to you? A business you own? A living you make? A direction you choose?

If nobody could see your title, what about the way you work would make you an entrepreneur?