When people speak with me about captivity, freedom, and entrepreneurial thinking saving their lives, I understand and encourage us all to take a deep breath and let it out with a big sigh.
In this moment, you may choose any place on the continuum between captivity and freedom. Like everything else, it’s a matter of perspective. No matter where you see yourself right now, you may see it as an advantage or a disadvantage. Freedom can feel both exciting and terrifying. Captivity can feel both protective and confining. It is all part of what is true.
The dance upon that continuum tells me something about us. I notice that we approach entrepreneurship much like we approach fire.
- At first, we play with matches and candles, getting our fingers into it. We have entrepreneurial ideas. We play with them.
- Then building backyard campfires, learning from the success patterns of those who’ve built many fires before us: the log cabin and lean-to set-ups, experimenting with the necessary elements of fuel, air and ignition. We have entrepreneurial adventures. We experiment and learn.
- We venture into bonfire construction:
- Sometimes we move ahead with the wisdom of many successful campfires. We see our learning is an obvious progression and it leads us right into greater understanding of the business we are building.
- Sometimes we carry the frustration of campfire failures. We seek to learn by going bigger, by throwing everything at it. We take the one thing that worked for us, almighty lighter fluid, and go hog-wild with it, pretending we understand how fire works, imagining we are in control. Eventually, we can get frustrated with our own lack of progress and seek outside funding, the lighter fluid of business, to finally get our project to roar and crackle with success.
- Someone yells, “It’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt!” Your family may have been patient, but now someone is asking in a very concerned voice, “When will this company make some money? We have bills to pay, too.” Or the concern may be expressed this way, “I know you love this company and you’re making a profit, but you never seem to sleep. How long can this go on?”
- Then we become, or attract, the fire fighters, the heating engineers, the fire stokers, the masters of fire control. In entrepreneurial terms, the masters of fire control are those who figure out how to take a problem and solve it, how to make a company profitable, how to create win-win-win. This may be you. It may be your business partner. It may be your competition. It may be your team.
- We might bask in this illusion of security, captivated by this apparent power to control and manipulate fire. Complacency sets in after the problem is solved, and we imagine we have everything under control.
- We might get so caught up in controlling the fire that we put it out. The business coasts for a while and eventually we realize ruts have set in where creativity used to live. You notice a glazed look in the eyes of people talking about your company, including that person in the mirror.
- We might get burned. What happens when you get burned? What does it mean for you?
- Do you blame those around you? Do you blame yourself?
- Do you never touch fire gain? Avoid all candles and campfires? Do you discourage others from being entrepreneurial?
- Where do you go to recover? Do you work for someone else? Do you choose a place where you can continue to grow? Do you choose a place to hide out in someone else’s workforce? Do you have some fun as a consultant on the side, while working a day job for someone else? Do you go back to school? Do you seek solace in an MBA? Do you pour your heart into writing about what you learned?
- Do you get back to playing with fire as soon as possible? Do you sort out your lessons first? Do you blow off your burn experience to jump back in? What unacknowledged lessons stick to you like burrs, making you itchy, as you head into your next entrepreneurial venture?
We move back and forth testing, checking, exploring, widening and narrowing the boundaries of our comfort and desire. We get to know the light and dark sides to captivity and freedom. We begin to realize there is no perfect formula for everyone. What works for one company may or may not work for another. What works for one person may or may not work for you.
We seek to release the full power of the fire,
while harnessing it
to sustain the flame and
to support our own purposes,
like having heat, shining light, or moving something.
In the freedom of natural entrepreneurial thinking,
we release the full power of creativity
for solving problems and building opportunities,
while harnessing it
to sustain that power and
to support our own purposes,
like making a living, contributing to community, and having fun.
