The Self-Reliant Entrepreneur

July 16Hope Guides

For a little while, hope made a show of reviving—not with any reason to back it, but only because it is its nature to revive when the spring has not been taken out of it by age and familiarity with failure.

Mark Twain—The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876)

Today's passage occurs inside the familiar plot line that finds Tom Sawyer and Becky Thatcher lost in MacDougal's Cave.

The scene was analyzed by some as a symbol of self-reliance creeping into the literature of the time. Previous works may have used the character's peril as a way to provide a lesson on God's punishment, salvation, or even prayer.

Twain chose to have Tom keep his wits and rely on adult behavior, hope, and self-trust to save himself and Becky. (Sure, the male character saved the damsel in distress when he could have just asked for directions before they got lost, but that's another story.)

The cave and darkness and even scant use of candles to light the dark are pretty easy metaphors for the entrepreneur's life of sporadic peril.

But hope, mercifully, has a habit of reviving, and without that, eventually our failed attempts and losses would accumulate to the point of miserable.

Hope is not a strategy, but hope creates strategy, hope moves you in the direction of your goals, hope burns like a candle in the pitch black. Even with very little to back it, hope guides.

Hope keeps sight of the next objective.

Challenge Question

1. When is the last time you relied on hope when you felt like giving ...