Sometimes I get lost reading long LinkedIn titles for the same profile; CEOs at multiple companies, life coaches, strategists, authors and above all serial entrepreneurs!
What if Bill Gates or Steve Jobs had self-titled themselves as serial entrepreneurs when starting. Would Microsoft and Apple exist or they would have been sold when they had achieved revenues of a few million or tenths of millions?
For me, it is difficult to understand this title when I see it on LinkedIn or elsewhere. It always reminds me of serial killer; Someone that will do the same thing again and again. Shoot, go away and shoot again. But no intention to create something that will last. Maybe, because it is rather difficult to create things that will last…
Many of today’s serial entrepreneurs seem to focus on the “serial”. Frank Zappa wrote: “We’re Only in It for the Money“. But those who truly had vision created value, and the money followed. Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and many others made far more money than most of the self-titled serial entrepreneurs ever will.
I think that there’s a psychological parallel between serial entrepreneurs and serial killers in how both are driven by cycles, intensity, and impermanence, though their purposes are of course opposite. Both are defined by repetition, not permanence. They aren’t satisfied with “one success” or “one act” – they’re compelled to start over.
A serial entrepreneur doesn’t build a company to last forever; the challenge is to prove a concept, push boundaries, experience the thrill of creation, and then move on to the next challenge. Similarly, a serial killer also seeks repetition, control, and the rush of the act, rather than the endurance of its result.
Of course, there is an important difference in impact: One destroys to feel alive. The other creates to feel alive. Both can’t stay. Like a serial lover. But that’s probably a story for another time.