Difference and relation: innovation, invention, entrepreneurship, startup, business, and company

Updated: May 29

These terms are often talked about interchangably. Let us review their origin and subtle differences.

Humans are intelligent social creations. We are different from other animals by three facts. One, we create. Two, we build relations. Three, we trade.

Entrepreneurs, inventors, innovators, startup founders - they all want one thing - Business and Relationship. They want to provide value.

Our creation desire is the foundation of invention and innovation. It is unstoppable. When an invention is useful, it can unleash social and economic changes.

Our desire to trade is the foundation of business. Through business, we also build relations. So business is relation, and relation is business.

In business, you give value, and sometimes people pay you. But first you have to have relationship.

Innovation is constant renewal of business, and trying to avoid competitors and followers. Innovation is a business term, not an "thought and cleverness" term.

The evolution of our society keeps on creating new businesses. When you start a company, it may not have business. When you invent something, it may not become business.

Invention and company only becomes business when they create value for the recipients.

A startup business is therefore a company HOPING that its offering can be accepted. Because of this uncertainty and large economic resource spent, it is quite risky, hence the act of starting a business is called entrepreneurship, which is French word for "taking risks".

Veterans take risks, beginners take changes. Experience is originated from failure, and failure only happens AFTER you launch your startup.

Startup is not guess. It is learning by failure.

Business is also a source of income. The competition is heavy. So a startup must not only build a business, but also build the relation and protect its relations.

The smallest business, a lemonade stand in your town, is equally hard as the APPLE corporation. No business is easy, because you hustle to build the relation.

Value: is what you give for free in exchange for some payment. Value is not the cost or the price. Value is over giving and relationship building. People only pay their friends.

Market: value and cash exchange only happens in a market. The market is therefore heavily guarded, by people who are already in the market. New entrants are not welcome. The entering of the market is called marketing. The path to the market is called channel. Social networking and other techniques draws people to your stall in the market.

The ultimate proof of usefulness is when people buy your offering.

This is what engineers, business man, marketers, salesman, all want. The act of buying is difficult to achieve.

Other related articles:

Steps to generate an idea


If no one is paying, it means you have not provided enough value yet. Value is to give people 10 dollars and get paid 1. And your company survives by scaling.


Don't worry, just start. The first start is always a failure.


Dr Chang Liu's biography



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