This continues as long as people allow. The more driven (and potentially successful) the entrepreneur, the longer they perpetuate this reality; reminding themselves to sacrifice today’s shortcomings to feast on the future’s rewards. This determination is exactly what sets them apart, right?
Surprisingly, no. Karma does not reward those who venture into new business startups. Lacking balance, the entrepreneur is stuck in tormented mediocrity. Most settle, deciding that life is magically dictating their moderate results. The few that press on, find the truth even more disturbing.
They find they are not the first person to reach this achievement summit, more so, they realize, there are rules to doing it. Their world is torn apart when realizing that many have traveled this difficult path and live to tell about it. Worse, others did it much easier and suffered much less.
The entrepreneur, within a moment, swings violently from naïve to enlightened, crushing their spirit to proceed. What visionary likes following rules, guidelines or other’s suggestions? They define themselves as intrepid explorers, carving out a new future that everyone was too blind to see. Now they are faced with the realization that perhaps their idea is simpler than they believed, it transformed into their worst nightmare, a task list. Paralysis sets in as the begin realizing that much of what they experienced could have been avoided by applying reason to their ideas.
The world just spat in their face. Crushed by enlightenment, they no longer see their dreams, but they see checklists, statistics, education, research, and analysis. Embarrassed by their discoveries, few escape. Those who stay become teachers, blaming the system for the lack of knowledge and paradoxically teaching what they knew least early in their quest. They chalk success up to calculations and the analytical business type, not understanding they just finished their journey 180 degrees from where they started.
Those that remain are downtrodden, but are too stubborn to quit. They contemplate finishing their quest here, but they begin to understand their position. Looking at their previous endeavors, they realize the original idea was problem ridden. Surprisingly, they begin to take the persona of the anti-entrepreneur, lamenting that they only need a solid idea to proceed. Neither the naïve nor the critical mind wins. It is a fight for balance that must ensue within.
Time passes too quickly between decent ideas when one has reached this stage. Their mind is sharp, criticizing ideas as they form. Many ideas are suppressed as they fail to meet the basic standards. Frustration mounting as this self torture progresses, the entrepreneur praising themselves for the ingenious ideas while condemning the now-obvious flaws in each. The harder they try, the more annoying the task. Most fail to recognize the powers acquired through the journey. They are too close to the solution.
These entrepreneurs are capable of making smart decisions without thinking. Their mind is fine tuned to the art of business, opening their eyes to the world of simplicity. Before the journey, their mind was unbounded; it spewing random incoherent excitements. During the journey their mind was limited, seeing only the method to the madness. Now it is wise, capable of momentary evaluation of every idea that crosses its path.
The mind now has the discipline to succeed; one must give it experience to fuel the fire. The entrepreneur must journey into new fields and witness different challenges faced by their unenlightened brethren. Undoubtedly, the journey tarnishes all the previous experiences as they dull when evaluated. One must escape the traps of mediocrity by maintaining their knowledge, growing their experiences and being unreasonably stubborn towards a reasonable quest.
