Work Doesn't Work Anymore: Enter the New Entrepreneurship

We humans thrive in an environment that affirms our identity, gives us purpose, a sense of community, and empowerment. Unfortunately, many businesses are so focused on their mission and short term profits that people are disempowered and work at the level of survival. The “New Entrepreneurship" provides a way that not only affirms identity but also creates community, purpose, empowerment, and profits as well.

People thrive when they work at what they love and what they are good at. In one sense, this seems intuitively true, but for the cynical it may seem too good to be true. Fortunately, the work of prominent psychologists like Martin Seligman and James Hillman confirm that doing what we love and what we are good at is not only the key to success, but also to a fulfilling life. Look no farther than Steve Jobs and listen to his Stanford commencement speech to see a great example of how he followed his heart and did what he was good at in building Apple Computer.

When you remember this you realize that most businesses have it backwards and many of us sell ourselves short. Most large organizations are driven by a particular mission and short term profits. The mission is expressed through a series of objectives and outputs, and people are hired to fulfill particular functions. The process begins with the end in mind and people are squeezed into slots to fulfill that end. No wonder the Conference Board reports the majority of Americans are dissatisfied with their work, and two thirds could care less about their company’s objectives. Not a healthy way to live. Work just doesn’t work anymore.

Enter the “New Entrepreneurship” as an answer to these and some other problems in the workplace. New Entrepreneurship starts with the person, deep inside, to pull out what he really loves, and then find out what he’s good at. These two factors are than vectored and research is done to see where they can be used to give people what they need. Jim Collins describes this winning set of intersecting circles as finding what you love, what you’re good at, and what people will pay for.

But it’s more than that and it’s more than just a formula for success; it’s a statement of individual integrity. It’s wanting to be whole and have a real life instead of being a drone. Living life on your terms rather than someone else’s. It’s about “Identity”.

But it’s more than that as well. It’s about community and generosity of spirit. We can’t function and most don’t want to function alone. Like Max Weber said, “we live in the web of our relationships”. We need family, friends, and community. We need to be part of something greater than ourselves, and this is where the New Entrepreneurship really distinguishes itself.

New Entrepreneurs are particularly interested in two communities that they serve: the one inside the organization and the one outside. It’s not about building a firm, a company, or market, so much as it is about building a tribe, a group of people with common interests who want to go in a common direction, united by leadership, communication, and action. Tribes are about empowerment. The depth of common interests, fueled by leadership, communication, and action, empowers the members, bringing out their distinct talents, making them bigger and more of who they are rather than trying to wedge them into a function. People thrive in tribes and tribe thrive through the mutual empowerment of their members.

This empowerment manifests in some members of the tribe working to create something for the other members who support them. Think Apple Computer, a tribe united by a love of technology, high style, and a devotion to breakthrough products. Tribe members who work there love the culture, the values, and the product, and the leadership tries to bring out the best in them and give the tribe members who support them the very best they can, not just the excellent, but the extraordinary.

The result? Members (not staff or workers) that are excited and proud to be working as part of a new technology movement, and other members who can’t wait for the next product to come out. Sure it’s business; but it’s much more than that: it’s a movement, and movements are about empowerment and purpose and change.

And then comes the part that we all crave and are at the same time often uncomfortable with: the New Entrepreneurship embraces transcendence and values. That means that New Entrepreneurs don’t invent new brands of cigarettes, strip tropical forests for hardwoods, or exploit children. Their mission is to make people’s lives better, not just make a buck; and they also know that there is something bigger out there, something intangible, like an idea, bigger than an idea, indefinable, exquisite, just past our understanding that seems to hold things together and pull us forward.

It has a lot to do with faith and little to do with religion. People often confuse the two. Faith is knowing what you know, even if you can’t prove it, that certainty which you don’t know where it comes from. Religion is a set of beliefs, doctrines, maybe the faith that others expressed in the language and conditions of another time that has ossified into dogma. The former is animating; the latter can sometimes be deadening.

Identity, empowerment, community, purpose, and transcendence, that is what the New Entrepreneurship is about. It’s not for everyone, but it’s like rain in the desert for those who are ready for it.



Keep the faith
Live your life
Take care of each other,

Leonardo

Next Blog: How to be a New Entrepreneur and start a tribe: Step 1 of 12