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

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis 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.