Entrepreneurship as creation
Is every venture an act of creation? I would dare to say yes – when knowledge, skill and experience go into it. And heart, and certainly a sense of responsibility. When something new is made, something needed. When value is created. It doesn't matter what the product is: a thing, a job, a service, or a feeling.
Every business owner is a creator
When you start a business, you need to think carefully about what you are going to do, what the product is, who will use it, what the venture is for, and which legal form suits it best.
When someone creates a company, it is never just a name and a number in the official registers. It is always something more. It is a venture that carries risk and responsibility – but above all, it has to offer a chance at self-fulfillment, a chance to outdo yourself and take on new challenges.
To keep a company alive, its owner has to keep doing something: finding solutions, making decisions. A company isn’t a thing you can toss into a corner and forget about. When you create one, you take responsibility for its fate and its future. And most business owners do exactly that.
And when an owner feels satisfaction and joy in what they do, you can say the venture has succeeded. That it is thriving.
Every business owner wants to succeed
Success has no fixed criteria. It has no formulas and no milestones to measure against. Everyone chooses their own yardstick and their own way of keeping score.
Some are very ambitious: every time they reach a goal, they immediately set a new one to strive for. Some take risks constantly, and some are always looking for something new, or for someone to compete with.
And some want, and know how, to be content with every successful step.
Just as no two people are alike, no two ventures are alike, and each one bears the face of its creator.
Lone wolf or team (a crew, a company of fellow travelers)
Solo operators, small players and big players alike all have their firm place and their important role in society and in the economy.
There are business owners who are at their best working entirely alone. They want to rely only on themselves, and to answer only for their own actions.
There are business owners who need other people beside them, who are at their most productive working together. These are the ones who do better once they find suitable, trustworthy partners – whether co-owners, employees, or other business owners. Working in a good team, and with a team, is a great piece of luck for everyone: for the owner and for every member of the team.
There are business owners who are visionaries, generators of ideas, but who need partners and doers to bring those ideas to life.
There are business owners with a mission, a calling, or a life’s task to fulfill, or something they need to bring into being.
There are business owners who like building systems and running processes.
And there are the doers, who want a hand in every activity, to be in the thick of things. There are those who, from the moment they enter the working world, want and need to be the leading figure, and there are those who ended up in business by chance, or for whom it was the only way to take the initiative and create a job for themselves or for others.
Business owners aim to earn an income
Income can be defined in many ways, but it is usually measured in money.
Some want to get as much money out of what they do as they can, quickly and right away, and then move on. Others have longer-term plans: to build a steady flow of cash, or to reap the rewards of the business in the future.
It all depends on who the owner is, and what goals the venture has been given.
Every job is a venture. Every job can be creation
Of course, there are days when things don’t go quite as planned, and jobs that don’t always work out. It happens. To everyone.
I am certain, though, that there is real joy in doing work you enjoy. In doing work, and taking on tasks, that suit your personal qualities and the knowledge and skills you have acquired. Some jobs take more effort, and more lessons learned. But what matters more is that the result brings joy – to you and to others.
It doesn’t matter whether you are the business owner, a partner, a member of a team or one of a crew of fellow travelers. What matters is what you do, and in whose company you do it.
I wrote this piece for everyone who thinks about their work – who wonders what they want to do, and which path to choose.
To close, I’ll say only this: the happy ones are those who know how to turn their work into creation, and who take joy in it!
Photo: Andrea Piacquadio
