Entrepreneurship Today: Starting Up Is Optional (Infographic) Long over are the days when being an entrepreneur was defined solely as being a business owner.

By Andrea Huspeni

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

When it comes to being an entrepreneur, it's all in your head.

While many business owners are proud to call themselves entrepreneurs, 90 percent of people think the word "entrepreneur" has less to do with launching a startup and more to do with an individual's state of mind.

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This idea of you are what you say you are seems to be catching on at a younger age, as 58 percent of millennials are calling themselves entrepreneurs, according to a report by online staffing platform oDesk and Generation Y consulting firm Millennial Branding. The reasons why people define themselves as entrepreneurs range widely. Though largely, survey respondents say, it couldn't hurt to go by the moniker. In fact, they add, it often helps, as 75 percent of respondents suggest that the benefits of entrepreneurship outweigh the downsides.

The survey surveyed 3,193 individuals with 1,958 being from the millennial generation -- a segment of the population they defined as individuals born between 1982 and 1993.

For more on why people want to work for themselves and how many of them are ready to take the plunge into the entrepreneurship, check out the infographic below.

Entrepreneurship Today: Starting Up Is Optional (Infographic)
Andrea Huspeni

Founder of This Dog's Life

Andrea Huspeni is the former special projects director at Entrepreneur.com and the founder of This Dog's Life.

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