Entrepreneur’s Creed

I do not choose to be a common person.
It is my right to be uncommon — if I can.
I seek opportunity — not security.
I do not wish to be a kept citizen,
humbled and dulled by having the state look after me.
I want to take the calculated risk,
to dream and to build, to fail and to succeed.
I refuse to barter incentive for a dole;
I prefer the challenges of life to the guaranteed existence:
the thrill of fulfillment to the stale calm of Utopia.
I will not trade my freedom for beneficence
nor my dignity for a handout.
I will never cower before any earthly master
nor bend to any threat.
It is my heritage to stand erect, proud and
unafraid: to think and act for myself,
to enjoy the benefit of my creations
and to face the world boldly and say:
this, with God’s help I have done.
All this is what it means to be an entrepreneur.

I stumbled on this creed some days ago, and it rang home to me. It was as though I authored it. Please forgive my thinking myself capable of such, but once in a while in my life, I read words of a page and it reassures me. One of such readings recently was the writings of Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore, and of Peter Drucker about the Entrepreneurial Society. When I saw this creed, it lept out of the pages, and sounded like what I must memorize. You might not be an entrepreneur today, but there are a few lessons in there for someone too. Here are my thoughts.

1. Dare to be different.

Common people are a dime a dozen, by being different you stand out. Not being different to a few of your friends, being different on a world scale. God made us all different, no tumb print is the same, neither is any retina scan, we are all unique individuals with unique giftings, but we conform, and rob the world of our deposits.

Repeat this

I do not choose to be a common person.
It is my right to be uncommon — if I can.

2. Seek Opportunity not Security.

One verse of scripture that caught my fancy relatively early is one in Hebrews 2:15 -”And deliver those who through the fear of death have been kept captive all their lives”. What this means to me, is that the fear of death makes life lived substandard. Can you wrap your mind around that? That merely by fearing death (the loss of life) we live the few years we spend on earth not fully living? Our fear of lack, misfortune or failure makes us pursue secruity, and stays us from the best we could offer life. I know many people who are slaving it away at Jobs clearly not their passions, just because they want to make ends meet. Is the life worth living, spent on the wrong priorities, just because we don’t want to die? Does it make sense, to work so that we can earn money that will help us be able to buy clothes, a car and fuel to go back to work with? What is the purpose of your life? I believe that there are segments of the human brain that are not accessible to him until he loses his security. Necessity is truly the mother of invention.

Repeat

I seek opportunity — not security.

3. Take responsibililty for your life.

“My company will take care of me”, “The government will pay me pension”, “I will get retirement benefits”. All these hopes are being dissappointed in some of the most structured economies. It will be a good thing if we can all serve the state and have the state take care of us, but it has been proven that these systems are not sustainable. Man was not made to be taken care of, man was made to be in charge. To tend the earth, have dominion, be fruitful, multiply and take charge of the earth. A wise man lives an inheritance for his children’s children, not depend on the state and his children’s children. Are you wise?

Repeat.

I do not wish to be a kept citizen,
humbled and dulled by having the state look after me.

4. Have a Dream!

“Dream what you want to dream; go where you want to go; be what you want to be, because you have only one life and one chance to do all the things you want to do.” – Anon

A life without a dream is a passionless life. Nature will be unfair to give one an appetite for a delicacy it hasn’t prepared. Our dreams are pointers to their own possibilities. Dream big, dream tall, dream large. God charges no trariffs on dreams. Dare, be bold be courageous, failure is a process, success is a journey. Don’t fear failure. Success is characterised by the ability to move from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.

Repeat

I want to take the calculated risk,
to dream and to build, to fail and to succeed.

5. Rid yourself of Entitlement Mentality.

I’m not entiled to anything. I will be content with what the work of my hand with God’s help bring me. I will not hide under the shade or shadow of entitlement to cater for my downtimes. I will look up only to God, and work while it is day. I will work long and hard enough while it is day, to rest long and hard enough when it is night. I’ll rather reward for value added, than scrounge for entitlements. I’ll rather the challenges of uncertainty and life, than the 30 day cycle of “whether the master sells or not, the servant is secured”. I’ll rather the adrenalin I get from reaching my goals, than an aimless hope for an ideal society.

Repeat.

I refuse to barter incentive for a dole;
I prefer the challenges of life to the guaranteed existence:
the thrill of fulfillment to the stale calm of Utopia.

6. Reach for the Skies.

The sky is the place of freedom, it’s the place where there is sufficient space for the actualization of the dreams of all men (and women). All of nature grows upwards, the more we advance, the more our freedom. The more our freedom, the more our dignity. He that pays the piper, instructs the tunes. Every human soul yearns for freedom, a place of personal identity, and choice. A place where one’s values cannot be mortaged for “thus saith the master”. A place of courage and convition!

Repeat.

I will not trade my freedom for beneficence
nor my dignity for a handout.
I will never cower before any earthly master
nor bend to any threat.

7. Be Like God

I believe the the ultimate quest of every man is to be like His maker. The authors manual alludes to the fact that we were created in His image. We were made to be like God, and we were designed to imitate him. It even says that as He is, so are we in this world. Cowardice is not in our DNA, there is no advantage to reducing ourselves so that another does not feel small. We are sons of God! We are co-creators, we are the hands of the divine, His extension and proof of presence on the earth. What are you creating? How are you representing the divine in your society? What difference are you making? Of what are you afraid?

Repeat

It is my heritage to stand erect, proud and
unafraid: to think and act for myself,
to enjoy the benefit of my creations
and to face the world boldly and say:
this, with God’s help I have done.
All this is what it means to be an entrepreneur.

Maybe you are not an entrepreneur yet, maybe you are, but not full time. Maybe you are an entrepreneur within an organization (intrapreneur). Maybe you are a social entrepreneur, maybe you are an infopreneur. Whatever you are today, the part of growth is in the direction of these 7 points. How are you doing?

Related Posts:

• Who else wants a better life?
• How to Expand Your Business
• Before It’s in the NEWS
• Life Lessons from My Mummy
• Buckets or Piplines Reloaded.
• Buckets or Pipes
• On Your Marks…
• Do More
• The Parable of the Apsiring Gorilla
• Extra Income Opportunity