"All human beings are entrepreneurs. When we were in the caves, we were all self-employed…finding our food, feeding our-selves. That's where human history began. As civilizations came, we suppressed it. We became "labor" because they stamped us, "you are labor." We forgot that we are entrepreneurs.
-Muhammas Yunus,
Nobel Peace Prize winner and microfinance pioneer
Chess is a game of strategy, played by the general inside of us, who loves to call the shots. I wouldn't consider myself a chess player in the slightest, but I enjoy a game once and a while. The first shot is called. The first pawn goes forward two spaces a head of the rest. I always like this first move the most. It's bold, it's swift, and it covers ground. It's the only move in the game of Chess that is indirectly linked to strategy. The idea, it seams, is to move boldly at first, picking a pawn almost at random, and as the game progresses depending on emerging variables only then the general begins to strategize moves thereafter.
What's on the table:
Strategy = a plan of action or policy designed to achieve a major or overall aim.
What's at stake:
In some games. In some places.We simply can't foresee the future. We can only guess, at best. Therefore, grand planning for a future aim means very little to the general who understand that strategy is dependent on many variables.For this kind of general big scheme planning gets in the way of the present opportunity that arrises out of chance. The only way to plan with the lowest risk to loosing the game because of some stubborn need to stick to one strategy is to acclimate to the changing-now, putting masterful, grandiose scheming on the back burner.
Now what's cookin'?
This concept of acclimating to the changing-now is never more relevant for the general who calls the shots in modern times in San Francisco, CA, where I happen to live. In San Francisco, the game is... entrepreneurial, social, technological, and innovative (not your grandfather's game of chess!). There are generals here who play the game standing at attention, or, rather, armed with vegan diets, apple stock, and cruiser bicycles. The Chess board for these humble-looking generals of the West span from the Valley to the City and everywhere in between. Pawns seem to move at leisure here, at times, but the instincts that drive the pawns forward are nimble and creative, riding on current needs. This current is also called the "Wave". Current waves splashing up here in the San Francisco Bay are the ideal conditions for the adventurous minded general who is apt to dive-in head first, of course, with water wings in the back pocket (Just incase of risk).
I left San Francisco in 2013 headed to the shores of Salvador, Brazil, where I stayed for one year at the edge of a more serene tide. When I left my city by the bay I never had the opportunity to join the general quest, to surf the wave of innovation, or to taste the fruits of the Silicon Valley and the treats of Start-up city ventures.
At that time I defined myself as an artist, thats all, who felt no place with generals calling shots in a land of the brave, the free, and the business weekly.
Two years later, after moving from Brazil to San Francisco, San Francisco to New York, and from New York back to San Francisco, I am, for the first time in my life, interested in learning about what Silicon Vally, my city, and all the generals are busy building, and why.
My first step on the board is via a book titled, "The Start-up of You" written by Reid Hoffman, co-founder and chairman of LinkedIn, the company "poster child" of Silicon Valley success. In his book, which I am not fully finished reading yet, Reid Hoffman offers excellent points, that are helping me understand the world that he operates from and within, a world that is not separate from the rest, from where I operate (as I thought previously might have been the case). Actually, Reid's "world" is not a world at all, but collections of mind-sets and a skill-sets and competitive edges, which combine to produce entrepreneurial evolution, innovation, and real answers to real needs.
For so long I fought against new frontiers, which feels like, in the end, you fighting against yourself. I silently protested against learning about technology, business, money, economics, and the ingenuity of the present moment. Somewhere along this road of resistance I had it ingrained that left and right brains don't mix, and that artist minds shouldn't fraternize with the "other" minds or else…….what?
Reid's book (among other sources I am tapping into) allow me to see inside of his mind, his career path, and his expert knowledge on the competitive and inspiring wave we are all riding. Seeing from this vantage point I can overcome my bias opinions about the "tech-world", which were really just built up blockages within myself, preventing me from seeing that in actuality my mind and my aspirations fit nicely in areas I deprived myself from. Pointing fingers is a waist of time, but I can't help but see that I casted myself off. I build barriers to my inclusivity. We do that sometimes, and it's okay. We sell ourselves short of our potential. And then we come up for air one day. Only to breath again from the same source as everyone else, only with greater ease and contentment.
Here are some excerpt from "The Start-up of You" that I cannot forget:
On staying nimble: "Get busy livin', or get busy dyin'. If you're not growing, you're contracting. If you're not moving forward, you're moving backward"
On diving in: "Entrepreneurs penetrate the fog of the unknown by testing their hypotheses through trial and error"
On Humans: "I discovered my real advantage in the Internet industry was having the ability to think simultaneously about individual psychology and social dynamics on a massive scale"
On Good-Ego: "Most supertalented people want to be the front man; few play the consigliere role well"
On grasping resources: "It's often said that entrepreneurs are dreamers. True. But good entrepreneurs are also firmly grounded in what's available and possible right now"
On Ideas: "The most brilliant idea is often the one that builds on the founders' existing assets in the most brilliant way"
On jugulars: "Only the paranoid survive." Success…is fragile…perfection, fleeting. The moment you begin to take success for granted is the moment a competitor lunges for your jugular"
On immediate gratification: "Clayton Christensen once told graduating students at Harvard Business School, "If you study the root causes of business disasters, over and over you'll find a predisposition toward endeavors that offer immediate gratification"
I see so much similarity in Buddhist philosophy and in ethical entrepreneurial mind. Both carry with them the precept of being one with the present moment. The concepts of longevity, sustainability, and long term gratification in the things that we leave behind in the world. The foot print of the ethical entrepreneurial mind walks lightly and accurately on the earth: less energy emission, low coasts, and happy followers. Similarly walk the buddhist monk: less energy, low coasts, and happy followers.
What was once on the table was strategy, a plan to an aim. Now on the table are incredible dynamic times, dynamic markets, and dynamic possibilities. What Reid points at is the importance of flexibility and diversity of trades, talents, and skills when actually investing in yourself as an entrepreneurial venture. Plans don't always go along accordingly. Something falls through. The world shifts. We should be keenly invested in all the parts of ourself that might come together in unlimited combinations to provide our highest potential. When asked to step forward and call the shots on our life endeavors, where are the cobwebs? Where is the general inside? Where are the hidden caverns not yet explored?
I am giving myself a challenge that I want anyone reading to hold me accountable to: I will strengthen the parts of myself that are lacking. I will educate the parts of myself that are ignorant and desiring to be intelligent. I will no longer limit myself in my pursuits to achieve success and make a lasting mark on the world. I will integrate the artist and the intellect, the left and the right brain. I will ask for help, work hard, share, and give back. And above all else, I vow to never stop learning.
Diving!
"The unexamined life is not worth living" -Socrates
