The Self-Reliant Entrepreneur

November 25The East Wind

What makes the value of your life at present? What dreams have you, and what realizations? You know there is a high tableland which not even the east wind reaches. Now can't we walk and chat upon its plane still, as if there were no lower latitudes? Surely our two destinies are topics interesting and grand enough for any occasion.

Henry David Thoreau—Familiar Letters (1865)

How would you sum up your life right now? Not your net worth, your life worth?

A lot of entrepreneurs give up on their dreams because they aren't making enough or as much money as their peers.

In hindsight, some wonder what the cost was of not following their dreams.

This is the place where it would be logical or at least trendy to suggest you quit your job, travel around the world, and while you're at it learn to surf. Only you can decide worth in this case.

Maybe that's following your dream (go for it), but when Thoreau asked, “What makes the value of your life at present?” he was more concerned with raising your conviction to follow your destiny, no matter what shape it took.

Every entrepreneur will hopefully at some point learn that “there is a high tableland which not even the east wind reaches.”

It might be helpful to note here that throughout history and literature the east wind is often portrayed as mischievous, destructive, or evil. (The writers of the Old Testament really had it out for the east wind.)

So, perhaps what Thoreau is suggesting is that if we follow our heart, ...