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As communications director for the Network for Teaching Â鶹Éçship, I frequently write and talk about business formation and creation.

I do it so often that coming up with new, exciting or interesting ways to talk about entrepreneurship is challenging. There are so many clichés and too many people trying to make the same points. And many are trying a little too hard to be different.

A web search for “” turned up dozens of results that left me scratching my head.

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Sporty analogies.

Based on what’s online, I figured out that some people really like sports metaphors:

I encountered lines like “” and “” as well as “starting a business is like a prizefight” and “.”

Some sports comparisons baffled me, though, such as .” I’m not sure I understand the business parallel with time as the competitor (as opposed to a real-life rival).

Then there are the personal challenge metaphors: A blogger could always say,” or if he is up to it, “.” Or better yet, as Kevin Fleming pointed out “,” which tempts me to ask what he does to relax.

Adventure, travel and fun.

A ton of adventure metaphors have been set forth online about starting a business. These include the harsh reality mentioned in a post that “” and the piece titled “” (not an approach I recommend). Rich Dad Coaching’s site offers that “” (probably an even worse idea).

Quite a few posts referenced the metaphor of travel: For example, there’s “.” Simple enough. Or “” and “” or “. That must be why they refer to it as “launching” a business.

Some bloggers found starting a business fun. Hence there’s the first-person post titled “” and an article titled “.”

A few other pieces compared entrepreneurship to the movie making business with titles like “” (which I want to read) and “” as well as the slightly esoteric “.'”

The human experience.

Apparently, it’s possible to analogize a business startup to nearly every stage in the human life cycle: There’s an article “” and a line in another post declares, “.” Other Internet posts explain “” and “” and even “.”

There’s even a crash course titled , which gets bonus points for being a video that starts with a lot of wine drinking. Cheers!

A more frank discussion is promised in an article titled “.”

If the baby metaphor still is puzzling, there’s a helpful British article: “.” That’s referring to parenthood not flowers (although gardening parallels abound in “,” “ and “.”)

I could not find any business-startup advice with comparisons to divorce or retirement. But I did find the line “,” attributed to Gina Hiatt. That may come in handy in some day, although she says it’s just as expensive.

But if none of this advice works for you, there’s an alternate option: “,” another article begins.

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Learning and puzzles.

Some articles make learning analogies such as “” and “.” Plus there’s the blogger who pointed out, “.” I also found a post titled “.”

Others believe that starting a business is gamelike. “” is the title of one piece. The author is quite excited about the idea, I believe, as the exclamation point is not part of the game title.

I also found out”” and the more cerebral and classic formulation that “.” Chess sounds nice. At least it’s not CHESS!

From other Internet postings I gather that launching a business can be very, very confusing: See these references: “” and “.”

Puzzlers.

Under a section I’d be tempted to title “sounds like bad advice” there’s StartupSofa’s piece “.”

More possible bad advice? A piece titled “” and the insight “.” No thanks.

For the category “I get what you’re trying to say, but no,” here are two examples:

A legal website attempted a good comparison with the line “” but spoiled it in the next line “and governing documents are the foundation.” I’m no engineer but building a house on a foundation of documents doesn’t sound solid.

A few articles seemed vie for “insert random analogy here” honors like the line “.”

Then I have my What? Huh? grouping of articles as follows:

1. “.” I have no idea what’s meant.

2. “” (referring to something I know everyone has done).

3. “.”

4. “.” I had no clue about this. Someone explained to me to the reference is akin to exploding party favor.

Finally I leave you to ponder the online comment “” as well as the observation “.”

In other words, entrepreneurship can be like anything else and nothing else. I could not have said it better myself.

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