The Real Meaning of 14 Entrepreneur Buzzwords

These buzzwords are so mainstream

It’s been about 5 years since I looked at some business buzzwords.  A lot has changed in 5 years.  We have left the Great Recession and are now in a Golden Age of sorts in entrepreneurship.  With that Golden Age, you get new terminology.  You often hear these terms when dealing with any technology related business, but it is also creeping into all businesses, especially start-ups.

For example:

1. Stealth - I’m talented, but nobody knows it.  Actually, if you are stealth for a long time, you might not be that talented. 
2. Ninja - You can call yourself a Ninja, if you get past stealth mode.
3. Thought leader – I think this used to be an expert.  But then Malcolm Gladwell messed everything up by saying you needed 10,000 hours in a particular practice area to be considered an expert.  So now you can just be a thought leader instead.
4. Rocking it - Doing something super good.
5. Crushing it – Doing something super-duper good.
6. Killing it - Doing something super-duper-duper good.
7. Ecosystem - Biologists use the term ecosystem to describe a community of organisms interacting in their environment.   Now the ecosystem can be any kind of grouping.
8. Pivot - If your ecosystem is suddenly not rocking, crushing, or killing it, you may need to pivot.  We used to say change or quit, but pivoting is more fun. 
9. Disruptive - After you pivot, hopefully you can be disruptive in an ecosystem.  In the early 2000’s this was game changer and in the 1990’s there was some reference to cheese being moved.
10. Content – Stuff, i.e., written stories, pictures, video, etc.
11. Curate – Borrowing other people’s stuff until you get your own stuff, i.e., written stories, pictures, video, etc.
12. Hack - A hack is a tip.  Now that I think of it, a hack used to be what you would call someone if they “curated” a lot, but never really gave anyone else credit, i.e. “He is such a hack!”
13. Big data – Everything has been digital since about 2002.  That means there is a lot of data out there.  A lot.  Like Petabyte big.  For example, if you can run “big data” on your laptop, that ain’t big data.
14. Internet of Things – The internet of things….means, uh…..well….you know, things on the internet?  Okay, there are only 13 Entrepreneur Definitions.  

Discussion question:

What are some other buzzwords that have gotten out of hand?  Tell me in the comment section.