Introducing the entrepreneur with soul

It occurs to me that there are broadly two ways of looking at business.

The first way is that business is about making money and delivering profit. Everything a business does should be viewed as a means to increasing profitability and delivering a return to owners and investors at some point in the future.

The second way looks at profit as a by-product of serving the needs of people well. Everything a business does should be viewed as creating and delivering value (not necessarily money) to all those involved in the business at some point in the future. This includes the founders, investors, customers, staff, suppliers, local communities and the world in general.

Both are valid view points and there should be no judgement over either. But my views are firmly grounded in the second mindset

There is definitely a softer, philosophical side to building and running a business based on this second mindset. A mindset of business and brand building based on a higher sense of purpose. I know most entrepreneurs and business people will be driven predominantly by profit. But I also know I’m not alone in promoting the second, purpose driven approach. In fact, I suspect the desire amongst the business community to be more purpose driven is growing rapidly. That’s because our natural instinct to find meaning in life appeals to our human brains and helps us feel fulfilled.

From this point of view, I totally buy in to the observations and thoughts of Charles Handy as outlined in his book “The Hungry Spirit”. Mr Handy is one of the world’s leading business thinkers. One of the original management gurus and academic super-brains. This book’s sub-title is “Beyond capaitalism; a quest for purpose in the modern world’ and in it he argues passionately for a future global economy with values more sustaining and enriching than those we are currently witnessing in the profit hungry, investor centric global marketplace.

It’s a grand vision and one that starts with a quest for purpose in our own lives. As individuals, as entrepreneurs, as managers, as employees and as consumers we should each attempt to leave the world a slightly better place than we found it. By breaking free of the world created for us by money orientated, big businesses, we can, by example and initiative, slowly change the bit of the world around us for the better.

Making such changes requires a fundamental change in the way many of us think, feel and act. I believe that this change occurs in humans naturally as we experience more of life. It’s a change that is well documented by people such as Dr Wayne W Dyer in his book “The shift; taking your life from ambition to meaning’.

It’s a change that is reflected in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs; from meeting basic survival needs to self-actualisation. What I believe is important to bear in mind in the context of building a breakthrough business idea and purpose-fuelled brand is that this is not just a warm and fuzzy, feel-good notion. This is a fundamental, physiological and basic human drive. Every single one of us will feel the need and desire to find a bigger meaning for our lives at some stage. However, we must first satisfy our survival instincts of food, drink, shelter, sex and the needs of our ego. The trouble is that our ego, driven by our chimp brain trying to keep us safe in the jungle, encourages us to think and act in quite destructive ways which aren’t very helpful in modern life.

Dr Wayne describes some typical ego mindsets as;

1)   Who I am is what I have

2)   Who I am is what I do

3)   Who I am is what others think of me

4)   I am separate from everyone else

5)   I am separate from what’s missing in my life

I think we can all recognise these modes of thinking. It’s that relentless voice that makes us believe we should acquire more stuff, achieve more in our life, show off our triumphs in public, improve our social status and earn more and more money. It’s never ending. It’s draining. And it never makes us happy.

So how do we keep our chimp brain ego instincts at bay? How do we break out of the cycle of more? How do we make ourselves happy?

The simple answer, I believe, is we make the choice not to think that way. We take responsibility for our own happiness and choose to look at things in a different light. When we change the way we look at things, the things we look at change.

So the most important thing we can do to keep our egotistical chimp brain in check is to state loud and proud that we’re ready. We’re ready to live a life based on our heartfelt values and in-born sense of purpose. We’re ready to live in a different way and different world than our ego-self was used to. We’re ready to live a life filled with meaning. And we’re ready to apply all these principles to the businesses we run and become an entrepreneur with soul.

Are you ready?