We Are All Entrepreneurs, Even When We Choose Not to Be, Says Professor Sid Mohasseb
Defining entrepreneurship as the exclusive club of risk-takers, hustlers, fast-takers, and money-hungry individuals is wrong. This is according to Sid Mohasseb, founder of Anabasis Academy. “The most common definition of entrepreneurship today revolves around profits, canned ‘How Tos,’ and quick money schemes,” he says. “This is too narrow and neglects millions of people who may never explore their inherent entrepreneurial spirit. We just need them to realize that the sky is the limit.”
Sadly, most aspiring entrepreneurs fixate only on financial success, envisioning their startup reaching unicorn status. However, as of 2024, only 1,200 companies worldwide have achieved this milestone. The reality of startups is far more sobering, with 90% failing. According to Professor Sid, many of these new ventures will fail because of mindset, trying to follow generic success recipes, and imitating others.
Many entrepreneurs fail because they have a fundamental misunderstanding of the value they are able to offer the world. “Nothing can disqualify you from being an entrepreneur, not even yourself,” admits Professor Sid. “The truth is, we all are entrepreneurs, even if we choose not to be.”
But the pressure to succeed is palpable. Those who don’t meet society’s narrow definitions of success and are not captured in the usual entrepreneurial statistics may feel as if they are falling behind their competitors. Combined with ‘hustle culture,’ it makes many believe that working a normal job isn’t enough anymore. The fact is they are entrepreneurs even when they work for someone else, claims Sid.
By conventional measures, there is tremendous progress in startup ecosystems. The UAE’s scale-up startups, for instance, exhibit a remarkable 26% year-on-year growth. Beyond the UAE, the whole of MENA has rapidly grown from a desert oasis into a hub of innovation. This sentiment extends to businesses, and statistics are clear: 45% of current entrepreneurs embarked on business ventures within the last five years, and 46% of employees are ‘ready to start a business.’
However, entrepreneurship, Professor Sid clarifies, is neither about business disruption nor chasing profit milestones but about exchanging something for something of a higher value. To fulfill one’s innate entrepreneurial nature, individuals should start by realizing that they have the power to define their own ‘higher value’ and that their inherent capabilities are sufficient to achieve it. At Anabasis Academy, Professor Sid leverages his over 40 years of experience to provoke people to understand that their lives are in their own hands.
Anabasis Academy intertwines this core truth of entrepreneurship with self-growth. By igniting minds to spark thousands of continuous, unique evolutions, this engagement platform has one goal: to help participants become the next best version of themselves with a sequence of focused, committed, actuated decisions.
Those with a provoked mind will realize their entrepreneurial potential, even if they don’t know it. “That single mother working every day just to take her son to Disneyland is an entrepreneur, exchanging her time for something that has a higher value – according to her. We all have that power, but not all people realize it,” Sid adds.
Even when one refuses to strive for something bigger, even when one is content with mediocrity, they are still, whether they want to or not, making an entrepreneurial choice. “Whether you choose success vs sameness, new heights vs the dead zone, or satisfaction vs misery, it’s your decision, and who am I to judge?” he says.
To provoke minds and ignite human evolution, Sid encourages people to embrace change – not manage it, not stifle it, not control it. In an ideal world, people would wake up every morning as a better version of themselves than they were the day before. In reality, not every choice will be the right one. He remarks: “But once you put the pieces together and realize that you are, in fact, an entrepreneur, you will embrace your own unique evolution with vigor, no longer leaving change to chance.”