The busy life of an entrepreneur doesn’t leave much time for reading all of the valuable information shared on the Internet; so I don’t always get to read Seth Godin’s daily words of wisdom.
(How he comes up with something new to share every day continually awes me.)
But I must confess that I thought that he left something really important out of a post he wrote on The four elements of entrepreneurship.
He stated that entrepreneurs need the following 4 things, paraphrased from his blog:
- To make decisions
- To invest in activities and assets that aren’t a sure thing
- To persuade others to support a mission that isn’t a sure thing
- To embrace the work of doing things that might not work
But for myself, at least, there is one more essential item that keeps me keeping on through all the challenges and delights of building my own business.
That one thing is a strong sense of a personal mission, that I am doing my part to help make this world a better place through helping people find their own voice, so that they can fulfill their own mission in the world.
Henry David Thoreau observed that, The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.
It is my belief that people feel desperate because they are afraid to speak up and speak out about what is important to them.
As a result, they go to their grave, knowing that they have lived a much smaller life than they could have, had they been able to overcome their fear of speaking up.
Seth’s last two sentences are particularly perceptive: Entrepreneurial behavior isn’t about scale, it’s about a desire for a certain kind of journey.
You can find the complete version of Seth’s blog post here.
As for me, my mission is to enable people to bust out of the jail of their comfort zone, helping them both to create and then to confidently share their messages with the people whom they wish to serve.
Please share your thoughts about item #5 that I have had the courage (or the gall) to add to Seth’s insightful list.
