The Self-Reliant Entrepreneur

February 26Yes and No Are Lies

In writing, conversation should be folded many times thick. It is the height of art that, on the first perusal, plain common sense should appear; on the second, severe truth; and on a third, beauty; and, having these warrants for its depth and reality, we may then enjoy the beauty for evermore.

Henry David Thoreau—Familiar Letters (1894)

Here Thoreau is suggesting to Emerson that although the best writing seems simple and common sense, achieving this effect is not easy.

As a self-reliant entrepreneur, you can never stop looking for the truth in your vision, just as Thoreau felt he could never stop looking for the truth in nature. It's a bit of an epic journey even after you've “folded many times thick,” as Thoreau proposes.

The most creative thing an entrepreneur can accomplish is the capacity to explain their vision in ways so practical that it is immediately recognizable to many.

And this is achieved maybe never fully—there will always be more questions, better questions to ask. The art of self-reliance depends on incessantly questioning and evolving your ideas. There is perhaps no true state of done.

Although that may indeed seem exhausting work, it's what you signed up for. It's the magic in the daily struggle.

In an unrelated journal entry, Thoreau emphasizes this idea further: “Yes and no are lies, [a] true answer will not aim to establish anything, but rather to set all well afloat.”

Challenge Question

1. To what question about your journey ...