Experience as Truth: The Phenomenology of Entrepreneurship

It can be argued that entrepreneurial activity, by its very nature, acts as a type of self-directed existential therapy. Simply by being entrepreneurial in the classic sense, an individual has the advantage of becoming more “existentially aware” of their “humanness” than individuals following other professions. There is, indeed, a certain uniqueness about the trials, tribulations, and anxieties embedded in true entrepreneurial decision making that makes it different from most professions, those of the “busy men of affairs” to use Kierkegaard’s phrase. We suggest that there are other personal characteristics that are somewhat unique to entrepreneurs. These characteristics, while not directly existential in nature, are still important from a more phenomenological point of view since they fundamentally impact the manner in which an individual perceives the surrounding world.