Presented below are mixed and edited excerpts from a beautiful book i just started with. Life Entrepreneurs has been a beautiful book thus far and seems to make for an easy reading (i would know...am finally reading after six months!!). So...here are my best portions thus far...
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To be nobody-but-yourself—in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else—means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.
-- E. E. CUMMINGS
Is it possible to apply the entrepreneurial mind-set of opportunity recognition, vision creation, innovation, and initiative to create a better life? Could we creatively design a life aligned with our values? Could we lead our lives in such a way that our work, life, and purpose would be not only balanced but integrated? The questions were provocative and disquieting. The answers carried significant implications for how we could live.
Here are some of the major patterns spotted in the analysis of interviews of fifty five different business and social entrepreneurs:
• All of the entrepreneurs interviewed made a conscious decision to walk their own path and forge their own future - often going against prevailing expectations.
• There was a direct correlation between the purposefulness and conviction with which they walk their path in life and the passion and joy they feel for their life and work.
• Many of them don’t think of themselves as dividing their time between “work” and “life.” For many, these are integrated, not compartmentalized, pursuits. They are creating, owning, and taking responsibility for every facet of their lives with an integrated approach.
• Their dispositions toward risk were all over the map—ranging from those who were somewhat risk-averse to a few intrepid “risk junkies.” But they were all willing to take measured risks in pursuit of a worthy project or goal. They saw risk as an inherent part of life and took steps to mitigate it through thoughtful planning and disciplined execution.
• All of them have experienced failure and dealt with significant setbacks. Many have encountered life-changing episodes of tragedy, illness, loss, financial difficulty, and more.
• Several found great value in stepping off the path to renew, recharge, and sometimes reinvent their lives, discovering that periods of activity and achievement must be counterbalanced with periods of rest and regrouping.
• Their life path was usually a winding one, not linear. In most cases, it made much more sense looking backward. As they moved forward, they were both shaping the future and responding to it.
• Most of them came to the conclusion that it’s not all about them—far from it. They have cultivated healthy support systems, and many have become deeply connected, civic-minded leaders.
"We believe that entrepreneurship is not solely the province of the professional. It is a mind-set, approach, and process that can be applied to any endeavor—including that of leading our lives. In the same way that a business or social entrepreneur creates an enterprise through artful combinations of vision, creativity, dynamism, and risk, so too can we—any one of us—build an extraordinary life. We can fashion a life that is purposeful, self-directed, and aligned with who we truly are—providing us with opportunities for challenge, contribution, and fulfillment."
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that last para can be a bit of a mouthful for some (including me ;)....but then every word does stick. by the way...does anyone have a different word for entrepreneurship...? its a bit of a rubber to pronounce for describing something which people do naturally by just trying to be who they feel they really are...by doing what they feel they ought to be doing...by just following their gut.
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