There are several definitions for the term entrepreneurship. If you are an entrepreneur or aspire to be one, you truly want to understand what it really means to be an entrepreneur and what it is all about.
You may think that entrepreneurship is about becoming a millionaire, or being your own boss or doing it your way or becoming famous. This is not completely true. Those are only some of the side outcomes of entrepreneurship, that may or may not always happen. More importantly they are not necessary to happen.
Joseph Campbell’s work on Hero’s Journey maps really well to the entrepreneur’s lifecycle. This blog is only a start, but you got to watch the movie Finding Joe, which is a documentary of Campbell’s work, to better understand what’s summarized in this short blog.
Entrepreneurship is about your journey. The destination is to know your powers and sharing it with the world. The goal is to truly be yourself.
Entrepreneurship Begins With Death, With Separation
Campbell states that a hero’s journey starts with an inner calling. Most entrepreneurial journey’s also start with an inner calling. In requires you to give up what you have and take the first step into the forest. The calling to act is so powerful, that it defies all logic and never makes sense.
But when you take your first step and enter the unknown, you get your metamorphic death. You separate out of your comfort zone to enter the unknown. The hero’s journey begins.
It is important that you do not follow anyone’s path, but do it your way. If you follow someone else’s path, you are on someone else’s journey. You must enter alone and build your on trail.
Entrepreneurship is About Knowing Thyself
When you embark on your entrepreneurial journey, you will very soon encounter your dragons that you will have to defeat. This dragon is your fear. Fear of the unknown. Fear of failure. Fear of society. Fear of insecurity. Fear of loosing time and money. And any other form of fear that you may have. Campbell talks about sleighing this dragon.
Interestingly, the only way to sleigh the dragon is to surrender to it, to love it. This means to know your fear, to know thyself. You want to do things that you are scared of again and again. It takes courage. But once you face it, know it and love it, you will realize your powers to change the world, to save the world and to better the world.
Entrepreneurship is About Your Story
Being the super hero with powers, you would have certainly done things that no one could have done. You may have become the Richard Branson or Steve Jobs or Bill Gates of the world or you may have chosen to become the enlightened Buddha.
But your journey is still not complete. There is one last thing remaining. You have to bring back your story to your people. You want to give them the essence of your journey and encourage them to begin their own. The story is what completes your journey.
Jinesh Parekh is the founder of a Ruby on Rails Development shop named Idyllic Software which exclusively works with startup’s to help build their MVP.
Image Credit: Shutterstock.com
