‘What If We’ve Misunderstood What It Means to be an Entrepreneur All Along?’ Asks Prof. Sid Mohasseb

Prof. Sid Mohasseb illuminates the hidden power of ‘womenpreneurs,’ even those who don’t consider themselves to be one.

Entrepreneurship is often portrayed as an exclusive battlefield, a relentless pursuit of success where only the boldest risk-takers, the fastest movers, and the most aggressive competitors survive. It’s a story told by and for a specific group of people (men), one that has, for decades, ignored the massive creativity and execution power of women.

But what if the most underrated entrepreneurs in the world today are not the ones pitching to investors, scaling startups, or writing books about their grind? What if they’re the women who don’t even call themselves entrepreneurs but are, in reality, the very definition of it? This is the provocative challenge posed by Professor Sid Mohasseb, founder of Anabasis Academy.

“Entrepreneurship isn’t a career choice or a club for the elite,” Prof. Sid says. “It’s a fundamental human ability: the ability to exchange something for something of greater value. The problem is, society has told us for too long who gets to wear that title.”

For women particularly, this narrow framing has led to a silent dismissal of their entrepreneurial potential. The ability to build, create, innovate, lead, and adapt has always been a natural part of their reality. But because it doesn’t always take the form of a pitch deck or a VC-backed startup, it is often not recognized as entrepreneurship at all. And that, Prof. Sid argues, needs to change because the collective future of the world depends on it.

Look beyond the startup incubators and boardrooms, and one will find millions of women operating as entrepreneurs every day, even if they don’t fit the mold of what we traditionally associate with the term. “The mother who builds a business between school drop-offs and bedtime stories is an entrepreneur. The immigrant woman who turns her skills into a microenterprise, reshaping her family’s future, is an entrepreneur. The community leader who launches a grassroots initiative, solving a problem no one else dared to tackle, is an entrepreneur as well,” says Prof. Sid.

That is why, through his interactive-focused Anabasis Academy, Prof. Sid hopes to provoke individuals into understanding that their lives and their potential are in their own hands.

Instead of following a step-by-step manual for success, Anabasis members engage in deep, thought-provoking discussions, challenging their own perspectives and redefining their own paths.

Unlike traditional business schools or coaching programs, Anabasis is structured around one simple idea: There is no single way to win. “To ‘win’ is not to follow someone else’s blueprint for entrepreneurship,” Prof. Sid explains. “It’s to discover the next, better version of yourself and then the next. And to get there, you have to commit to your own evolution, not someone else’s rules or perceptions of what entrepreneurship looks like.”

Unknowingly, for some, women have been entrepreneurs all along. “The single mother working two jobs just to take her son to Disneyland? She’s an entrepreneur,” Prof. Sid explains. “She is exchanging her time and effort for something she sees as a higher value. That is what entrepreneurship is about.” The issue isn’t that women lack entrepreneurial talent; it is that most of society has failed to acknowledge their unique approach to it.

For decades, the business world has been obsessed with templates, formulas, and ‘best practices,’ but Prof. Sid believes this mindset does more harm than good. “What works for one woman may be completely irrelevant for another,” he says. “The only universal truth is that progress happens when you ignite your own potential, understand your nuances, and embrace your authentic self.”

According to Prof. Sid, women are not aspiring entrepreneurs. They are already practicing entrepreneurs. The only thing missing is the recognition of their value, the resources to amplify their impact, and the shift in mindset that allows them to fully embrace their potential.

Anabasis Academy isn’t offering another course, another seminar, or another professional development program; it’s creating an entirely new space where entrepreneurs, male and female, each in their own unique way, don’t just consume knowledge but actively question and shape it. And that, Prof. Sid insists, is how true change happens. He says: “We are all entrepreneurs. We just need to stop letting the world define what that means for us.”