Professor Jeff Cornwall of the Belmont University Center for Entrepreneurship advises that,
"Indeed, a good business model is never enough to carry you through the adversity and tough times that entrepreneurs almost always will face in their new ventures."
He also points out that passion is a popular topic in the business literature these days. Introducing us to the About.com article, The Mid-Life Challenge: Make a Plan to Re-ignite Career Passion. Experts encourage us to to seek a career path that "ignites our passion" and gives our life meaning. Now this has been one of the main topics of interest for this weblog. Similar to my readings of Anita Campbell of Small Business Trends even though I am not an entrepreneur I still find a good deal of value in what Entrepreneurial Mind has to offer.
Professor Cornwall doesn't however just leave it there, providing some very good advice through what he calls, this part of the "me" part of assessing opportunities. often write about. This process of assessment brings him to the following insightful conclusion.
"But I have some concern that many are taking the importance of passion and meaning too far -- to an almost unhealthy extreme. If unchecked, seeking meaning for your life from your business can lead to the kind of workaholism that many had hoped to avoid with an entrepreneurial career."
He then asks a question that focuses on self-definition.
"What do farmers do? They farm. What do designers do? They design. What do managers do? They manage. What do entrepreneurs do? Well, they.....
His point is being an entrepreneur or for me change agent has no simple verb to describe it. It becomes a matter of who one is not what one does, but it can become a limiting definition.
"Careers can do this to us. If we are not careful, they can consume all that we are. And what gets lost? Our families, our friendships, and even our souls.""If we are to become all that we were put on this Earth to do, we have to temper the temptation to become consumed by our work. We need to resist becoming the noun of what we do for a living."
- Work hard at being a spouse.
- Work hard at being a parent.
- Work hard at worshiping God (Buddha, Allah or your choice of spiritual truth- mine).
- Work hard at being a friend.
- Work hard at being a good citizen in your community.
- And yes, work hard at your vocation.
None of these alone can fulfill our humanness.
This is just a summary from my perspective. The original post is well worth reading.
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