The Self-Reliant Entrepreneur

July 19Our Beautiful Art

We must know, as much as possible, in our beautiful art, yours and mine, what we are talking about—and the only way to know is to have lived and loved and cursed and floundered and enjoyed and suffered.

Henry James—Portrait of a Lady (1881)

To be fair, Henry James probably doesn't belong in this book. He was a brilliant writer, one of the best ever, but he was a newborn when Emerson penned Self-Reliance. (He was also decidedly transatlantic.)

Perhaps you were asked to read The Portrait of a Lady or The Turn of the Screw in high school or college. If so, then maybe you recall how layered and complex James's characters are. He spent more time inside the minds of his characters than on the external trappings of the day.

And that's where entrepreneurs must live as well. To gain the experience of being “loved and cursed and floundered and enjoyed and suffered.” Not to simply live through it, but to witness it, be a part of it, and learn from it.

This is where we gain humility and strength, and this is what turns us more deeply inward to where we discover we can endure so much more than we believe we are capable of. Because this is the place where we realize just how good our life is.

Challenge Question

1. What suffering in your life can you make peace with today?