Tuesday 8 December 2015

The Virtues Behind Entrepreneurship

Author: Pat Matson


Becoming an entrepreneur is much more popular than it was thirty years ago. Working in the corporate world doesn’t hold the allure it once did. Our parents may have taken a job with a company and stayed there for an entire career. That certainly isn’t today’s model, is it? For me, working in corporate America was basically all that was available when I entered the workforce, but as the years began to add up, my dissatisfaction grew until I realized that I could no longer work for a corporation. I had to stretch past my fears and become an entrepreneur. And that is when the real work began. 

 “When you have arrived at the mountain top, then shall you begin to climb?” (Khalil Gibran) If you’re like me in my career, you might have a long list of sweet successes behind you, and yet the nudge to strike out on your own forces a fresh beginning. That beginning is demanding. You’re no longer working inside someone else’s business systems. You have to create your own. You’re no longer using another’s business forms. You have to create your own. You’re no longer using someone else’s money to travel. You have to use your own. You don’t have access to marketing wisdom in a specialty department. You have to create your own. You’re the one doing the purchasing, and looking for the best deal. You’re the one implementing the sales campaigns you crafted: and you’re the one doing the shipping and warehousing of products. 

You recall with nostalgia being able to leave the job behind at 5:00 p. m. and spend your evenings pursuing personal things. The logistics can leave you in shock and awe. I’d like to show you a slightly different perspective now to allow you to revel in some perhaps unseen benefits in all that you’ve had to handle – and more than likely are still handling – in your business. You’re Also Unfolding Your Virtues. The lyrics from Camelot used to really tickle me. “Take courage. Now there’s a sport. An invitation to the state of rigor mort. And purity, a noble yen. And very restful every now and then.” 

Let’s examine courage. It takes a bathtub full of courage to become an entrepreneur, and every tough decision you have to make for the sake of your business allows you to unfold a bit more courage for yourself. Look back on your business and see if you can recognize this? I’ll bet it is a lot easier for you to speak your mind now than it was in the beginning. That’s courage unfolding. And power is also in there. You gradually recognize – and the pace varies by each individual – that your life has value; your services have value; and your speaking up for yourself without doubt or fear takes power. It’s the strength of your own life 
force.

Wisdom is best seen in the life of a fox. He’s headed for that hen house, but he doesn’t go straight at the front door. No, like a sailboat in the wind, he tacks from side to side moving forward. Wisdom in you keeps taking another tack when one idea doesn’t work. It’s about skill, finesse, fortitude, and sage experience. Trust me; you’re unfolding wisdom courtesy of your business. 

I once had a teacher tell me that patience is not about clenching your finger, toes, and butt while waiting impatiently for something to occur. The true work of patience is to analyze all the details of what is good in a situation and once you decide there’s enough good there worthy of your efforts, you go for it calmly and deliberately. 

 I know that of all the virtues probably the one you are most aware of is perseverance, because if you don’t have a vital interest in the good that your business is providing, you won’t have what it takes to hang on in there for the long haul. Perseverance allows you to cherish your offering and persist long enough to produce that good, service, or product. 

Remember the saying “A little child shall lead them?” A child is innocent. Truth is his nature. He sometimes speaks his truth with little regard for the effect it may have on others. Well, as an adult, you can enjoy that awareness and still remain in integrity, in Truth. Honesty is refined, peaceful, lenient, and merciful. It’s so much easier to always be honest and not have to remember who you told which story to. If you thought you were “only working,” I beg to differ with you. I believe that we are here in this life experience on planet earth to discover who we really are and to unfold a joyful understanding about our own perfection. Being an entrepreneur is only one way. Your virtue set is the story behind the story. 

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