Talking about mindful entrepreneurship – where to start?

A couple of weeks ago I participated in a panel session at the Brisbane Ideas Festival – a five-day festival of ideas, innovation and invention.

The one hour session, titled Creative Entrepreneurship: The Artists of Commerce, generated some great ideas around what it means to be a creative and mindful entrepreneur, touching on many of the issues I’ll be talking about here in the coming months.

So this post is serving double duty as a selective summary of the session and a taste of what to expect from notes on mindful entrepreneurship.

Introducing the artists of commerce

I loved the title of the session so much I thought it was worth repeating – it says a lot about who we are and what we do…

Michael Doneman (Founder, Edgeware Creative Entrepreneurship) chaired the panel which included:

• Jane Ryder – Freelance photographer from Townsville specialising in portraiture.
• Mike Boyd – Founder of Coolybar Keg Hire (at age 19) and now also QLD Director of The Hive (not-for-profit networking group that connects entrepreneurs) and Business Analyst at a Brisbane-based consulting firm.
• Ron Crump – Principal of Human Productivity Consultants, with a long resume of corporate consultancy achievements.
• Natalie Duncan – Founder of Qld Film Locations.
• and of course me!

Between the five panellists and the chair we had a representative from each decade from age 19 to 60-something. The age range was created deliberately to guarantee alternative perspectives, but what struck me most was how similar our views were as creative and mindful entrepreneurs.

Starting thoughts…

As I mentioned, this is a mashup of the themes I drew from the discussion, and my ideas of what we’ll be talking about in this notebook in the future.

Because the session involved free flowing discussion between the panellists and our very enthusiastic and interactive audience (the small theatre was full), I can’t give proper attributions to individuals for their contribution. But I will say that all the panellists, and every audience member who offered a comment or question, added a great deal to the conversation.

Why do we do it? Why be a weirdo?

There’s a lot to lose when you go into business for yourself, and the big financial successes like Richard Branson are in the minority, so why do we do it? Most entrepreneurs are not chasing the big bucks (you could probably make as much for less stress in an office job), they are choosing a path that gives them freedom and meaning. This path is different from the social norm. It is a creative choice, and it often marks entrepreneurs as weirdoes.

Creativity is not only to do with the arts.

Creative entrepreneurs are creative makers of enterprise. They use their creative ideas to create novel goods and services that have value, usually financial value but sometimes social or cultural value.

Creativity is not just about arts and crafts, nor is it measured only by ‘big ideas’. It is buried in everyday choices (aka innovation) such as how you choose to interact with your customers or how you market your business when you have no cash flow. It is about knowing your creative potential and making conscious choices to it in your work. This is an inherently mindful process.

Rejecting external judgements, definitions and rules.

People can become caught up in models and definitions. Are you creating a business that is financially and creatively independent and can be sold? Are you building an enterprise which is your life and can encompass many commercial and non-commercial activities? Are you creating a job for yourself that is no different to working for someone else?

Creative entrepreneurship is an expression of the individual. The framework and the measure of its success is defined by the individual. For this reason, it is difficult to copy the entrepreneurial success of another. You must find your own path.

Business is life and life is business.

Some people want to work for themselves to have better work-life balance, but anyone who’s taken the leap can tell you there is no work-life balance in entrepreneurship! When you’re an entrepreneur, thinking about what you want, what’s working and what’s not, and what’s your next step, is a 24/7 occupation (some would say obsession).

But for us, this is fun (most of the time). We do it because it is a challenge, and there can be fantastic satisfaction in enduring, overcoming, discovering, learning, and doing it all on our own terms. It is an experiment in life itself.

The secret is: there is no risk.

Entrepreneurs aren’t gamblers. They take calculated risks. To an entrepreneur the biggest risk is reaching the end of their lives, realising they never tried and wondering what could have been. If you have a passion and a dream, then not following it means losing a part of yourself, or at least the opportunity to know a part of yourself.

Entrepreneurs believe that when you follow your passion, whatever the outcome, you have won because you reap the rewards every day you are doing it. The best part is you can not know all the answers, and still make the leap. Take the first step. Learn from everything. The opportunities will come, will be created, when you take action.

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Whew, what an amazing grab-bag of ideas! There were more, but I think I’ll leave it there with the observation that we definitely have a lot to talk about around here. I hope you’ll join the conversation by leaving a comment…

13 Apr 09   |   Read more on Mindful Business   |   6 Comments »