Independence and Entrepreneurship

It's Independence Day in the US, my best wishes to everyone celebrating.

Many entrepreneurs started their first businesses in a fit of independence-seeking ... they wanted to be free of petty bosses, financial worries, earnings ceiling or structured hours. Surely, a business is a way to get away from those things and have something different.

But the entrepreneurs who move from "success" to greatness ... people who "make a dent in the world" (dontcha love that saying???) as Jobs would say ... do so by moving beyond independence from the stuff they don't like and to embracing and claiming themselves. They discover who they are at the deepest level, what makes them unique, what they care about ... and then express that truth through an extraordinary business. Entrepreneurship, ultimately, isn't a race against others but an opportunity to discover yourself.

Any fool can make a million in a business, but how many can say their business is a perfect expression of who they are and wish to be in the world?

Freedom isn't just something that lets us get away from the stuff we don't want ... it's also the responsibility to claim the birthright that has always been yours.

Happy 4th.