The Self-Reliant Entrepreneur

June 8Spirit of Entrepreneurship

Business now takes the same place in the education of the people that was once held by war: it stimulates activity, promotes the intercourse of person with person, nation with nation; assembling all in masses, it elevates their temperature, so to say; it leads to new and better forms of organization; it excites us to invention, so that thereby we are continually acquiring new power over the elements.

Theodore Parker—Speeches, Addresses, and Occasional Sermons (1852)

Comparing entrepreneurship to war may seem needlessly foolish because let's face it—war is hell.

There is, however, an energy contained in both that can instruct.

The most notable comparisons of business and war are drawn from the ancient work of Sun Tzu, The Art of War. Although many business writings citing the work focus primarily on the aspects of defeating the enemy, there is one quote that the self-reliant entrepreneur, who focused on preparing to never fight, might find most useful:

Unhappy is the fate of one who tries to win his battles and succeed in his attacks without cultivating the spirit of enterprise (entrepreneurship), as the result is waste of time and general stagnation.

We must make it our job to cultivate the spirit of entrepreneurship—to seek out change, to ask hard questions, to rise above mediocrity, to innovate, and to focus only on what we can control.

Our job is to take our journey seriously. To practice, sweat the little things, nurture and stay true ...