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JIMINY SELF-HELP HANDBOOK 12

Innovators, Hustlers, Imitators, Researchers, Buyers
Since there are so many types and sizes of businesses, there are also many kinds of entrepreneurship.
There are people running a small business, a scalable startup or a large company or even social
enterprises introducing solutions into the market that produce both profit and measurable social
impact. One way or another, all these engage entrepreneurship: small-scale, medium-scale or large-
scale entrepreneurs, startupers or social entrepreneurs.
However, leaving aside aspects related to the industry/sector or the business size, the country or the
exact location, the era or the specific time period, there are also types of entrepreneurs that depend
on factors such as personality traits, motivation, abilities, skills and attitude, as they are briefly
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discussed in the next paragraphs :
 Innovators
Innovators are the types of entrepreneurs who come up with completely new ideas and turn them into
viable businesses. They are motivated by the idea of creating a legacy and changing the way people
think about and the way they do things. Such entrepreneurs tend to be extremely passionate and
obsessive, deriving their motivation from the unique nature of their business idea. Innovative
entrepreneurs also find new ways to market their products by choosing product differentiation
strategies that make their company stand out from the crowd or even actually creating a new
audience.

The advantages of being an innovate entrepreneur include creating the rules, facing minimal
competition during the beginning and also getting all the glory for the success of the business. On the
other hand, except from the glory an innovative entrepreneur has to take all the arrows as well.
Additional disadvantages include the need for significant capital to bring a new idea to life, resistance
from shareholders and longer timeframe for bringing true innovation to life.

 Hustlers
Unlike innovators whose vision is “the gas in their engine”, hustlers are motivated by their dreams and
will work extremely hard to achieve them. They create their own opportunities and know very well the
importance of networking. They tend to be very focused and will get rid of all forms of distractions,
favoring risks over short-term comfort. Hustlers often focus on starting small with the goal of becoming
bigger in the future. Even though many hustlers rarely give up, a lot of them are willing to try anything
to succeed which unfortunately means that they have a lot of hits and misses, while achieving their
dreams takes a lot longer than most other types of entrepreneurs.

Being a hustler entrepreneur has advantages like strong will to outwork most, seeing disappointment
and rejection as just another step in the process and tending to have “thick skin”, meaning that giving
up is rarely an option. Hustlers know the importance of small things and make use of them effectively
and efficiently. However, there are also disadvantages: hustlers usually tend to burn out, they often

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14 The Lonely Entrepreneur Blog (2018, August 13 ), “5 Types of Entrepreneurs: Understanding The Unique
Differences”, available online https://lonelyentrepreneur.com/types-of-entrepreneurs & Pahwa, Aashish (2020,
July 2020), “The 10 Types Of Entrepreneurs [Infographic]”, Feedough.com – The entrepreneur’s’ guide, available
online https://www.feedough.com/types-of-entrepreneurs