Who am I and why do I believe in entrepreneurship?
It's tempting to jump into explaining who I am, but it makes more sense to begin with why I believe in entrepreneurship. If I can help you understand why I believe in entrepreneurship, I’ll have a good chance of not just introducing you to who I am, but also answering why you’d give a damn, to begin with 😉
There is a dying discipline in the world of language called etymology — etymology is the study of the origin of words. Studying a word’s origin often captures the essence of a word in a way that a dictionary definition can’t.
Let’s look up the dictionary definition of “entrepreneur”: “A person who sets up a business or businesses, taking on financial risks in the hope of profit”
I mean… 🤮 really?!
Now, let’s unpack its origin instead: The word “entrepreneur” is borrowed from the French word “entreprendre” which means to undertake.
What’s an entrepreneur?
An entrepreneur is someone, anyone, who goes on an undertaking... a journey…a voyage. When I think of a voyage, I think of the thrill (and terror) of the unknown, of adventure… of facing trials, facing your own demons triumph and defeat…and emerging, hopefully, alive and intact, as someone greater than the person who set out on the journey in the first place.
That to me is an entrepreneur. A brave soul who refuses to settle, she sets out on a journey with no guarantees, equipped with a stubborn desire to be someone greater than who she is today, to make a contribution greater than the one she's made so far, to (frankly) have fun doing it and look back on an incredible life when all’s said and done.
I don’t buy into the notion that life is inherently meaningful, my own experience and the shared experiences of others, suggests that life takes on whatever meaning you give it. This is really why I believe as wholeheartedly as I do in entrepreneurship. In pushing yourself to be a person of value, you have an opportunity to not only find success but find meaning as well.
That’s a winning combination in my book, and I can’t think of any endeavour which is as ‘fit-for-purpose’ as entrepreneurship is for someone who wants something more than a comfort zone, or money, or fame… or success. For the adventurer who’s willing to risk all for a proverbial pot of gold that might never be found, but is virtually guaranteed to emerge as someone who’s better for it.
“In pushing yourself to be a person of value, you have an opportunity to not only find success, but meaning as well”
Feels like as good a place as any to jump over to me… let’s do that.
About me
I identify as someone who wants more — not just for the sake of it, but honestly because I’ve always felt ‘called’ to it. I’ve always felt like I had my own “inner adventurer” who wanted to share his value with the world. But alas… like any great adventurer, I also had my monster lurking in the shadows behind me. My monster has, and in some ways, continues to be the niggling feeling that I might not be enough.
I write a little more about my monster here but suffice it to say, knowing what my monster is and understanding how it tirelessly works to remind me of my insecurities, inadequacies and general not-good-enough-ness, is empowering. It means I can face that f@#$&% head-on and figure out a way over, under, around or through it.
My weapon of choice in facing my monster, is without a doubt, my Genius. From as far back as I can remember, I’ve always been a creative, head-in-the-clouds, arty-farty guy. For most of my life, I didn’t appreciate the “secret sauce” that my creativity represented for my own entrepreneurship journey — only in 2015 did I meet my then business mentor and discover the idea of doubling-down and nurturing my strengths instead of focusing energy and attention on trying to work on my weaknesses.
Once I embraced this simple but oh-so-profound idea, that my innate talents and skills (i.e my Genius) were my unfair advantage and my navigation system to find both success and fulfilment in my entrepreneurship journey, things started to shift.. in a big way.
Today I’m lucky to wake up each day with one major goal on my mind...pursuing my personal legend, finding my own path to success and fulfilment, creating my own definition of wealth. I consider myself even luckier to know that what gets me up in the first place, is a deep (DEEP) belief in the power of creative people to solve the world’s most pressing challenges, and a strong ‘urge’ to support creative entrepreneurs to get whatever’s standing between them and their own fantastic voyage the F outta the way.
