‘To be One’s Own Boss’: Exceptional Entrepreneurs and Products that Sell Themselves in Urban Poland

ABSTRACT

This article discusses the aspirations of young people in the Polish city of Kraków who wish to ‘be their own bosses’ – to become entrepreneurs. The article makes a rejoinder to portrayals of ‘the fine salesperson’ as a man or woman who ‘can sell anything’. The forms of personhood and aesthetics favoured in Krakowian renderings of selling instead place emphasis on a good entrepreneur not as one who persuades, but as one who provides. Comprehension of these areas explains why the salient ‘moment of sale’ is when an aspirant businessperson comes up with their ‘good idea’ for a product. Drawing from the observation that the indiscriminate promotion of goods is widely disdained in Kraków, I argue that the topic of selling opens up discussions about the local constitution of difference and the ways in which successful entrepreneurs are able to match products to demographics.

KEYWORDS:

• Poland
• selling
• business
• entrepreneurs
• postsocialism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. One survey conducted in Poland found that over 70% of respondents had considered starting their own business (Rzeczpospolita 2013).

2. This article is based primarily upon fieldwork carried out between November 2009 and February 2011.

 

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Economic and Social Research Council.