The story you tell yourself about entrepreneurship
Why monkeys think we are irrational
Humans are funny creatures.
Admittedly, I love monkeys, however I’m sure they observe how we interact with our environment and think (with their little monkey brains) that we are weird and irrational. Although we proclaim that we are independent free-thinking beings, the reality is that mostly look for someone else to take the lead and everyone else just follows along.
I’ve always questioned whether entrepreneurs are more, or less rational than everyone else. In many cases we don’t follow the general consensus, swim upstream (and across-stream) and get ourselves in bad situations, where in retrospect were led by clearly bad choices.
If we wanted the same out of life as everyone else but were trying to explore a new path, it’s pretty irrational to think we would get the same result. (It is a new path after all!)
However conversely, not following the masses and forging a new path that wasn’t laid out by someone before us seems like a smart thing to do if your ambitions are to live a non-conventional life.
And this is the lesson.
Starting from the perspective of understanding what you want your life to represent should determine which path you take. I’m not talking about setting goals. I’m not talking about a mission statement. This isn’t even a question you need to answer right now, but you need to be aware of the question.
What life do I want to create?
I’m sure you recognise that if you do everything the same as everyone else and expect a different result, you’re kidding yourself. However more often than not it’s a case of a could-be entrepreneur who thinks that spending time drawing up lots of business plans is going to yield a different path. Unlikely.
If you want your life to be different, but you’re not sure how, it doesn’t mean you need to recreate everything yourself. Look for other people who have created a path for you to try. You don’t need to innovate on every part of your life, but knowing when to follow and when to forge will be the key to unlocking your potential to focus on the things that matter to you the most.
Next time you see a pack of animals, spend a few minutes to watch them and choose who you think resembles the entrepreneur of the group. What do you notice about them? Are they the one trying to break free? Or maybe they are the one in the pack that comes up to you — the weird human, because you represent change and opportunity.
The story you tell yourself about these animals reflects the story you believe about entrepreneurship.
What story do you tell yourself?
