At any conference, usually even on the first day, you can find a group of people who founded their own companies sitting in the bar commiserating. If you could overhear them, you would most likely hear the phrase, “They are not entrepreneurs.”

“They” refers to non-founder professionals, or “G2,” the next generation of professionals in our profession. These people play a prominent role in many firms and are the future of the profession, but unfortunately company founders harshly criticize them—often saying this group lacks entrepreneurial spirit.

We’ve spent much time in such conversations with the founders of advisor businesses. We’ve also spent significant time with the younger professionals. And we’ve become convinced that G2 is eager to build and create. They just need some encouragement for their drive and some experience putting their ideas into action.

To help them, founders need to rethink what it means to be an entrepreneur, encourage the early signs of initiative, accept “group entrepreneurship” as opposed to the individual type and create an environment of stability where exploration can flourish.

What Does It Mean To Be An Entrepreneur?

We wanted to be precise here, so we looked it up. According to Merriam-Webster, an entrepreneur is someone who “organizes, manages and assumes the risk of an enterprise.” Most important, she’s not just the person who starts from scratch and founds a business—the definition also encompasses those who manage and bear the risk. The dictionary wouldn’t tell us how much risk is borne by employees and how much by the entrepreneurs, but we would propose that G2 is taking just as much risk as the founders did in their firms’ beginnings.

They say that entrepreneurs jump off the plane and assemble the parachute on the way down. When we think about company founders as entrepreneurs, we define them as visionaries of new business models. They’re people who are starting from scratch, risking all that they have accomplished in their lives and careers to take a leap of faith and set up a new shop. Over the years, they face numerous risks as they hire people and invest money in what they know to be right for themselves and their future clients.

After they have succeeded, these founders stand outside looking in and wonder whether the next generation “has what it takes” to move their firms, clients and employees well into the future.

The next generation, meanwhile, are often dependent and rely on a salary, and are cautious in pursuit of what the founders see as opportunities. What the founders forget to see is that the 5% equity a member of G2 has acquired is often worth more than a house. They also fail to see that the failure of the business would be just as ruinous to G2 as it would have been to the founders. And finally, they forget that G2 shares the business, too—they are part of a team and often need to exercise “team entrepreneurship” rather than make individual decisions.

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