The Self-Reliant Entrepreneur

September 1Unearth the Complexity

The art of art, the glory of expression and the sunshine of the light of letters is simplicity. Nothing is better than simplicity … nothing can make up for excess or for the lack of definiteness. To carry on the heave of impulse and pierce intellectual depths and give all subjects their articulations are powers neither common nor very uncommon.

Walt Whitman—Leaves of Grass (1855)

Whitman was not the only author to extol the virtues of simplicity. Thoreau famously penned the phrase “Our life is frittered away by detail … simplify, simplify.”

An entrepreneur's life is often filled with detail—in fact, the very act of bringing something that did not exist until you took the action to make it so suggests a life of complexity.

And yet, when unchecked complexity turns to excess, turns to perplexity, turns to “stuckness.” Nurturing simplicity is the path back to center.

The source of a great deal of our complexity is found in the internal struggle to manifest our ideas. Yes, crazy town is real.

We often self-complicate, where simplicity would suffice, when we feel the need to defend our point of view, demonstrate that we are right, or grasp rigidly to details over desired outcomes, settling for perception over reality.

The good news is that self-reliance means that you never need to be right in the eyes of others. You never have to explain or defend your point of view. You can bask, always, in the sunshine of the light of your simplicity. Awesome, ...