Did you know that one can be an entrepreneur or an intrapreneur? An entrepreneur is generally someone who starts a new business; an intrapreneur works in an existing business to revitalize it with creative, innovative ideas or to start a new company under the umbrella of the existing one for the purposes of diversification. In either case, entrepreneurial skills are needed to achieve success – although the intrapreneur may not be as accountable as the entrepreneur.

If you’re given free reign as an intrapreneur, it can be very exciting. And you aren’t the one taking the risk. However, if someone is telling you exactly how to do the job, instead of letting you use your innovative ideas and entrepreneurial skills (intrapreneurial?) to get it done, it can be not so fun – in the extreme.

I had a friend, for example, who was hired to open up the U.S. market for a product that was doing very well in Europe. Company headquarters were also in Europe. Several people had tried to launch this product in America without success.

My friend took on the project and it was soon very clear why others had failed – the European guys who ran the show insisted that it be done their way. It was quite an amazing phenomenon actually: they only hired those with proven entrepreneurial skills and success launching new products, so the hirees really knew what they were doing, but then they wouldn’t let them work their magic.

It was a classic case of Einstein’s definition of insanity: “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

My friend finally quit the company in disgust, and about 15 marketing and PR people followed shortly thereafter. That was some years ago, and the product still isn’t making it in the U.S.

This is not an unusual situation: in fact, it’s the type of scenario that drives people to work on their own.

Lesson learned: If you’re going to use your entrepreneurial skills to achieve success as an intrapreneur, make sure the parameters are very, very clear prior to committing to the project.