The obvious thing that sets entrepreneurs apart from employees is that entrepreneurs work for themselves, while employees work for others.  This is obvious.

But the thing that I think really separates these two types of people is a mindset.  Entrepreneurs like to be in control of what they are doing, they’re passionate, and they are ambitious.  They also don’t know they’re place and don’t need someone to tell them what to do, although, if theyr’e any good, they can take advice and really listen to other people.

Employees have the comfort of a steady paycheck.  They tend to know what they are going to be doing day-in day-out.  They hope to slowly climb the ranks in a given company, get raises, use vacation and sick time, and get a Christmas bonus.  Employees may end up making good money, but they might not ever make great money.

Since a dominant percentage of people work for other companies, it is hard to really separate them out from entrepreneurs in terms of personality or characteristics–it’s far easier to separate out entrepreneurs as a group since there are less of them. Employees may just be where they are because they’ve always worked for other people, have gotten used to the security and the 401k and the health insurance being taken care of, and haven’t had the initiative to move on and try other things.  Either that or they are making a lot of money.

But I think that everyone should experience working for themselves.  It teaches you a lot of things about balancing your own books, paying others for services, and it teaches you one more thing.

It teaches you not to be afraid of not having a job. You can fend for yourself out there in this world.  Read more about online business here at my blog.