The Fabric of Entrepreneurialism – How to Stay Strong When Stretched
Mike Carey
Co-Founder, Advisor & Partner | Future of Space & Defense | Satellite Communication Innovation | Strategic Leader & Mentor
Fabric is made up of individual threads woven between seemingly significant threads. Each contributes to the strength of the other while, at the same time, relying on the strength of the adjacent thread. As an entrepreneur, you have woven a fabric of unique skills and offerings to create a value proposition within a particular ecosystem. At this time, when COVID-19 is applying unprecedented stress on our economy, our society, and ourselves, the threads of your entrepreneurial efforts must be tended to.
I’ve discovered the top five threads in my entrepreneurial fabric that need strengthening:
1. Take care of relationships. There are key people in life that you depend on and who you depend on in return. The strength of this fiber provides you with a vital support group who understands your challenges and helps you navigate through them.
2. Take care of your enterprise. It creates value and livelihood for you, and so many others depend on its cultivation. Now is the time to hone the core of your value proposition and to consider new opportunities. Perhaps a pivot is appropriate, or maybe an increased focus on the core elements of your work.
3. Tend to the needs of your community – it is the ecosystem in which you’re able to thrive and enjoy your life. You may be in a situation where you need to draw on community for support, or you may be the one offering strength and structure. Either way, the community thread is a powerful one.
4. Increase your depth and/or breadth of knowledge. Don’t look at weeks or months of isolation and slow down as a time-out. Investigate, read, listen, learn, and write. Now is a wonderful time to engage your mind.
5. Take care of yourself because without caring for your own fitness, emotions, education, etc., you cannot thrive or protect any other thread in your life fabric.
Trust in yourself. Now is the time to rethink, revisit, reevaluate the fabric of your endeavors – what you have created and the direction you are taking. Does it still feed your soul, yourself, and your people? If yes, continue. If not, get back in touch with what motivates and inspires you. Ask yourself the big questions, the right questions, and pivot toward the life you want and need to live.
You are key to the very fabric that makes you so strong and resilient. Never forget that.
LooUQ enables the rapid create smart, connected devices using our communications hardware and cloud software technologies.
4 年Great retrospect and road map for personal reflection. Often when faced with adversity, we find ourselves ineffectually trying harder to return to the previous sameness. This is possibly the worst thing you can do. As you suggest, reflect and incorporate the new condition in your thoughts, plans, and direction. “Business as usual” should never really exist. At LooUQ I am using this pause for distanced customer discovery and product improvement.
Co-Founder & Director of Science at Kall Morris Inc
4 年Great thoughts Mike! I'm focusing on improving Spaceship Me, so I can be ready to give back my best to Spaceship Earth when we all return together.
General Partner @ Stealth Startup | Relentless Team builder
4 年Awesome Mike...basics are often forgotten, and are the foundation of our lives. Thanks for posting this.
Well articulated, Mike! I am hopeful that when we look back a year or two from now, we will discover we are stronger coming out the other end. Staying positive and productive is so important!