The Art of Engagement (Entrepreneurism)

The Art of Engagement (Entrepreneurism)

I love ideas. Ideas can generate some serious excitement. Practically everything we can see in the world started as an idea in someone’s head. That is unbelievable. Yet ideas, without action, can lead to a debilitating sort of lostness.

Some ideas are worth pursuing. When you happen to stumble upon one you don’t really have the right to negotiate its existence. Your discovering it in some way beholdens you to seeing it out of your head and into this world. This process can be excruciating. Recall the idea:

  • Where did it come from?
  • Did you create it or discover it?
  • If you discovered it, whose idea is it?
  • Is there a sense of inevitability about the idea?
  • Would the idea find another birth sponsor if not you?

Ideas are powerful. They change everything. Mao understood that. Unable to get the people of China to adopt the ideas of communism he realized he had to write it out and “sell” the book to young people. The idea found a way out of his head.

Some say great ideas will make a way for themselves. Some say who carries and ultimately delivers them to the world is relative to their ability and more their willingness to listen and do as the idea leads. If not, the idea will find another carrier.

This is the exciting part of the deal. Ideas are time-sensitive. They do expire. Certain ideas are for certain times, and need to come out. If they are bottle-necked by someone’s refusal to cooperate they will simply find another way. We are on the line in other words. We have to be ready. We have to be willing to go where it leads. If we insist on dictating to the ideas how they should go it may seal the deal we are not really capable. We must hold them very loosely.

**Some think entreprenuering is sheer will power, ultimate manifest-destiny. Entrepreneurs are people who simply will or choose to make their idea a reality. We give a lot of credit to the person, but often forget about the idea.

Our biographies salute and almost canonize people who have made their dreams a reality. There is something amazing about them, but it’s not without their intimate connection to the dream that inspired them, a dream that was not them. Why did “that” dream become their pursuit? Why did “that” dream trump all others to become the thing worth doing? In other words, was there something inherent in the dream, the idea, the belief, that actually deserves the credit for inspiring the work?

The answer: yes!

The power of entrepreneuring is not so much in the process of doing the stuff to make it happen. Anyone can follow those steps. The magic is having the right vision and learning to listen to the One who gives such visions.