We see it everywhere: in schools, incubators, talk shows, government campaigns or on LinkedIn. Entrepreneurship is brandished as the miracle solution to all evils. Unemployment ? Undertake. Exclusion? Undertake. Climate crisis? Warning better. Economic stagnation? You have guessed: start differently.
What if it revealed a cultural change? By dint of re-enchanting everything through entrepreneurship, have we not fallen into a form of collective obsession? A “ obsessive entrepreneosis Where the status of entrepreneur becomes prescribed, even sacred.
A new social standard, a moral imperative
In the past, Entreprendre was an exception: a daring choice, admired but risky. Today is an implicit expectation. We no longer say “I have a project”, but “I have to get started”. Not to undertake gives the impression of being late.
The entrepreneur has become a heroic figure embodying autonomy, creativity, agility and personal success – even at the cost of exhaustion. The wages seem to be relegated to a less ambitious, almost shameful status.
This valuation is essential in public policies, school programs, the media and personal development: “Create your box or stay in the way. In marginalized communities, it is presented as an answer to exclusion. Even social assistance programs sometimes see it as a shortcut towards the empowerment of individuals.
From promise to pressure
This celebration is accompanied by diffuse pressure. You have to be creative, passionate, autonomous, innovative … and do not wait. Entrepreneurship becomes a social duty: everyone is summoned to be the sole architect of their success or failure. What if you fail? It is that you had “not believed enough in you”. It is because you were “not agile enough”, “not persevering enough”.
This pressure leaves traces: according to a study by the Development Bank of Canada (2025), 36 % of business owners claim that mental health problems harm their ability to work at least once a week. Behind the image of freedom often hides exhausting loneliness, rarely recognized in the dominant story.
The illusion of universality
An RBC (2023) survey reveals that almost two thirds of Canadians – 80 % in Quebec – see entrepreneurship as the logical continuation of their professional development. As if wages were no longer a credible ambition. This massive membership maintains the illusion that everyone can – and must – undertake.
But not everyone has a network, a starting capital, stable mental health, adequate housing or the freedom to fail without consequences. Not everyone goes with the same cards!
Far from being neutral, entrepreneurship can reproduce inequalities linked to gender, ethnic origin, migration status, disability or location. However, we continue to present it as a meritocratic model where only will, effort and creativity.
What we lose to do a duty
Erect entrepreneurship in moral obligation is to lose the beauty of free choice: to create by envy, not by injunction; Sometimes prefer stable employment, the collective, public service or cooperation; Build differently.
It is not a question here of demonizing entrepreneurship. It is a great lever for emancipation, innovation and transformation. It allows thousands of people to build, dream, transcend their condition. And I am undoubtedly among its most enthusiastic defenders. But he must be defended against his excess, give him back his nuances. Desecralizing it to better humanize it, allow everyone to live in their own way – or not to inhabit it at all.
Get out of the obsession
Faced with obsessive entrepreneosis, we must renew our stories: talk about failures, doubts, fatigue, mental health and renunciations. Offer more human, less idealized stories.
Our ecosystems must be more inclusive and welcoming for plural trajectories. Accompany those who want to undertake, without imposing this path as the only horizon. Finally, recognizing that entrepreneurship will not save the world alone: it is only one tool among others in a larger project of social justice, solidarity and dignity.
Entrepreneurship is better than a slogan: it deserves a lucid, demanding and benevolent look. In the end, Entreprendre should never be a duty. Just a possibility.