This post was originally produced for Forbes.
Perhaps I’m showing my age, but with the years I’ve spent working as an entrepreneur and working with and for entrepreneurs—especially social entrepreneurs in recent years—I’ve noticed a disturbing trend: focus has shifted to disruption away from solving problems and building businesses.
First, let me say, that I understand the meaning, and buried within an entrepreneur’s desire to disrupt an industry is a goal to solve a problem and build a business. Here’s the thing, increasingly entrepreneurs aren’t talking about the problems they solve and the businesses they’ll build but instead are focused on the industry they’ll disrupt.
Did Thomas Edison set out to disrupt the gas lamp industry when he decided to invent the electric light bulb? I suspect not. He wanted to create a better, safer, more reliable source of light.
Let’s be clear, disruption is a problem. When entrepreneurs say they hope to disrupt an industry, they are really saying, we hop…