The Entrepreneur’s Journey Part 2

This is the second of a five part series on my reflections on the entrepreneur’s journey. Some of this is taken from my experience advising and counseling entrepreneurs over nearly 20 years of practicing law. Much of this comes from hard-won personal experience as I have worked to build my own businesses from the ground up.

Part #2. Be of Service

In Part 1 of this series I wrote of the entrepreneur’s need to fall in love with their business, their idea, and the terrific solution they hope to share with the world.

Every entrepreneur should be in love with what they’re trying to accomplish. However, in order for their work to have any hope of adding value it must offer something that serves a real need in the lives of people. Without this element of service the entrepreneur’s passion lacks a foundation.

It is important to distinguish between offering a service to others and being of service others.

“The best way to find yourself, is to lose yourself in the service of others.” Mahatma Gandhi

When I worked as an associate at a law firm, I had the privilege and opportunity to work on many interesting, challenging and significant matters. Many of the firm’s clients were international enterprises and I worked on deals worth many millions of dollars. I worked with Dotcom millionaires. I negotiated bailouts with sovereign governments. I supported teams of lawyers on big projects. I was fortunate to have this experience and I learned a lot. However, all of this was profoundly, deeply and entirely unsatisfying. I was being trained to offer a service to my clients. I was not being shown how to be of service to my clients.

Later in my career I learned the difference. I found that when my mindset changed, I was able to work more closely with my clients, which in turn created immediate, tangible and lasting relationships with them. The dollar figure of the deals became irrelevant. Instead, what we were trying to accomplish and how my expertise could best support that goal became of central importance. In short, how could I be of service to the client.

This idea, of course, is not limited to your clients and customers. This is not a tactic to be used to acquire market share or land a big client. This is about changing the way you view the world and your role in it. You will find that you want to be of service to clients, co-workers and your community. This idea of service can, and will, permeate the entire business and will become part of your organization’s culture. The culture of service has the side-benefit of being good for business.

The powerful beating heart of a real and authentic service culture imbues meaning and mindfulness in every act taken by every employee the company. By making sure that the service you offer is in the service of others, your work will have deeper meaning. This will raise the importance of what you are doing, and your staff and will be recognized by your clients and customers as being of central value in your organization. In being of service, you will turn your job into your calling and work into passion.

Don’t just offer a service. Find a way to be of service.

This is Part 2 of a 5 part series. Next week I will write about the importance of building your dreams.