"To Make Gentle the Life of This World"

One thing that never ceases to amaze me is the depth of caring and human kindness that I find in the entrepreneurs that I meet. During much of my schooling, I was left with the impression that business was primarily about greed, Adam Smith's invisible hand crushing the weak. Nothing could be further from the reality that I have experienced with the entrepreneurs I have been privileged to meet. 

In our recent interview with Owen Fuller, one such entrepreneur, he shared a favorite quote from the Greek poet Aeschylus:

"To tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world."

I have heard it said that a person's economic value in society is directly proportional to the number of people whose lives they can make better. Isn't that what entrepreneurship is really about? In spite of what I may have picked up in school to the contrary, here's what Adam Smith had to say on the topic:

“How selfish soever man may be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortune of others, and render their happiness necessary to him, though he derives nothing from it except the pleasure of seeing it.”  

I see that "interest in the fortune of others" in so many of the entrepreneurs and business leaders that I meet and often wonder how much better the world might be if there were more of them. We might all do well to ask ourselves, "What have I done today to make more gentle the life of this world?"

Click here for our interview with Owen and his insightful answers to this question. I hope you'll enjoy our conversation as much as I did.