Truth, Don’t-Know Mind & The Entrepreneurial Path

Being an entrepreneur mostly requires changing the status quo; there is an opportunity or gap, and you then make a plan to leverage this to your advantage.

The key components in that process are then:

• • To see or imagine a version of the future;
• • Identify the assets or resources (skills, experience, knowledge, money, people, etc.) that you have today to create that future version; and
• • Do the work towards that future version on a daily basis.

Uncertainty makes up a large part of this process and pursuit. There are things that we know (the resources that we can identify: skills, experience, knowledge, money, people, etc.) when we start this journey and it’s somewhat clear about the things we could do today to move forward. The future, however, holds no guarantee and a decisive factor in our journey is our ability to figure things out.

The challenge we encounter though is that neither the past nor our vision of the future is true in this moment. Everything that happened before this moment might’ve lead up to this unique moment, but this doesn’t define this moment anymore. Similarly, it’s a risky assumption to use the past to predict the future. Especially if it’s your emotional well-being that is at jeopardy (should that risky assumption prove false).

This challenge gets compounded by the anxiety that is caused as a direct consequence of dealing with uncertainty. Entrepreneurship requires challenging and changing the status quo today, but often one can go weeks only to discover new unknowns or not see any result or progress from one’s efforts. We’ve accepted that entrepreneurship requires persistence, but this feels like a case of “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.”.

Zen Master Seung Sahn (“In Dropping Ashes on the Buddha”) says “The man who has come to this is the man who was here from the beginning. He does what he always did. Nothing has changed.”. The idea of having (and practising a “don’t-know” mind is also prominent in Buddhism, where the only truth can be the truth in this moment.

This contradicts the idea that entrepreneurship in part looks for truths in the past (as we connect the dots), as well as imagining a new reality for tomorrow.

If we were to accept the idea that neither the past nor future could be true and that only this moment — today — is true, what would that mean for entrepreneurs?

I’m tempted to answer the question (or avoid answering it) by saying “I don’t know”. Zen Master Seung Sahn is likely to mostly approve of this answer I’d think. :)

But I’m not a Buddhist, and this answer does not completely satisfy.

In “Man’s Search For Meaning” Viktor Frankl says “Emotion, which is suffering, ceases to be suffering as soon as we form a clear and precise picture of it.”

The suffering associated being an entrepreneur or a maker of any sorts mostly happens in this moment, today. It happens because today’s truth doesn’t perfectly match up with what we (thought we) knew about the past. Nor does it give us a definitive indication that we are moving forward. We have ambition, drive and desire that turns this incongruence into anxiety. And then we suffer.

I would propose that this perspective and experience is just what it is. I also think that this is what Marcus Aurelius eluded to when he said that “for the present is the same to all”.

This means that the things that matter most (in our pursuit of our imagined version of the future) is the things that we do today. Are those things wholesome? Do they align with our values? Is this requiring a compromise on our ethics or morals? Or worse, affecting others negatively?

The answers to these questions are probably the closest to our truth today. We should have “don’t-know” mind about the past and future. This clarity about today’s truth will, however, guide us forward.

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Photo by Mark Daynes on Unsplash