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Dear folks;
please bear with me on this long ramble, I'm trying to get to a point of which I'm not sure of myself yet.
I'd like to talk to you guys about romantic entrepreneurship; not sure if any of you have heard of this term before; if not, I'm coining it right now.
A few weeks ago; I met this lady who was an employee of an interior decorating store in my town which had no real marketing plan. She; a good 47 years old I presume is to day one of the most infatuating and interesting women I've ever met. Working for the firm for a good two decades as a color advisor (and generally the motor behind the growth of the company) she had the opportunity to buy up a nice gentlemans' house with the funds of her boss; completely re-decorate it (all by herself, I must add) and make something out of it.
Now; that something is to this day still unclear. Her boss was a little bit panicky with this project, he being the rational businessman and her being the hopeless, idealistic romantic, I was given the job of laying out a marketing plan for the project, idealistically bringing more people towards the shop. She wanted to inspire creative people of all kinds and cultures to come out there and lounge, exchange ideas and possibly create something; I followed her in her mindset, and she frankly said "V; I think you're the only one who understands me." I understand her all right; just not completely. One day I sat down with her in the house; that is still under construction. I wanted to brainstorm with her about a marketing plan which quickly turned into me personally interviewing her, as I understood SHE is the project. All the while I was asking psychological questions trying to understand WHY she is doing this; alas, everyone must have a motor or thought that drives them to what they do. I kept asking vaguely, and she kept responding vaguely, until we were almost out of time and she asked me.
"V; you desperately want to know why I'm doing this huh?"
- "Why yes..."
"There is no why; there is no meaning and there is no result, there is just is... organically, like you yourself described earlier."
Now; this struck me like a lightning bolt. What she was describing was 'the process' I have read many times on this forum. But this lady, she binded herself to a life-long project that would probably never see an end; and maybe it's just my nature, but I found this thought very romantic; and it kind of gave me a sense of self-validation; before meeting her I thought I was the only one that didn't care about fast cars, luxury or millions in my bank account, let alone the feeling of satisfaction. I may never be satisfied; because I never want to stop. She; in my eyes was the less-extreme embodiement of the protagonist in Ayn Rands' Atlas Shrugged; the type that would want to build a railroad despite knowing railroads never end.
Those of you who know me may know that I started an ad agency a good 8 months ago; I have now left the agency myself. Build a team that is capable of growing this business out, distributed my shares (for free I might add) to those who deserve them and who I trust in protecting the companies interests; and left myself a fair share which one day I hope might secure my pension. I did what I felt was right, build something with people who are better at doing what I did; and let them carry on. On to the next adventure.
If I may be so free as to analyze MJ's life; and I may be completely wrong in my analysis, I suppose he started his entrepeneurial journey because of the pain of working for someone else; now many of us live this pain; but only a few feel it hard enough to change our ways of acting. Whilst reading his book, which I like to think of as a poisoned gift (thanks MJ) I CANNOT believe money was his motivation, or he would not ever write his book and create this forum; and I deeply wonder what it might be? Are we as humans designed that way to strive for something we don't have? Surely it's not happiness we strive after; happiness is not enough; I demand euphoria. And with that, me and theag are going skydiving this sunday; while I'm pretty sure a nice conversation and coffee will be the element that'll describe that day.
I may be going crazy, but at this moment I have no idea what's holding my life together, I have both security and entrepeneurship in life; and I am cursed in the manner that whatever I wish comes true, to that extent that I don't even bother about it anymore. Now, this may seem megalomaniac, but as a kid growing up; I was always deeply afraid that the older I became, the smaller my dreams would become because of reality hitting in. At the moment (and bear with me as I am still young of age; I believe we all are) I'm nearly shitting my pants with the thought that I'll only think bigger until the point I try to one-up Elon Musk and his spaceprogram.
But how do we draw a line between a megalomaniac and a romantic entrepreneur? What's the difference, and why do I care so much about what other people think?!
please bear with me on this long ramble, I'm trying to get to a point of which I'm not sure of myself yet.
I'd like to talk to you guys about romantic entrepreneurship; not sure if any of you have heard of this term before; if not, I'm coining it right now.
A few weeks ago; I met this lady who was an employee of an interior decorating store in my town which had no real marketing plan. She; a good 47 years old I presume is to day one of the most infatuating and interesting women I've ever met. Working for the firm for a good two decades as a color advisor (and generally the motor behind the growth of the company) she had the opportunity to buy up a nice gentlemans' house with the funds of her boss; completely re-decorate it (all by herself, I must add) and make something out of it.
Now; that something is to this day still unclear. Her boss was a little bit panicky with this project, he being the rational businessman and her being the hopeless, idealistic romantic, I was given the job of laying out a marketing plan for the project, idealistically bringing more people towards the shop. She wanted to inspire creative people of all kinds and cultures to come out there and lounge, exchange ideas and possibly create something; I followed her in her mindset, and she frankly said "V; I think you're the only one who understands me." I understand her all right; just not completely. One day I sat down with her in the house; that is still under construction. I wanted to brainstorm with her about a marketing plan which quickly turned into me personally interviewing her, as I understood SHE is the project. All the while I was asking psychological questions trying to understand WHY she is doing this; alas, everyone must have a motor or thought that drives them to what they do. I kept asking vaguely, and she kept responding vaguely, until we were almost out of time and she asked me.
"V; you desperately want to know why I'm doing this huh?"
- "Why yes..."
"There is no why; there is no meaning and there is no result, there is just is... organically, like you yourself described earlier."
Now; this struck me like a lightning bolt. What she was describing was 'the process' I have read many times on this forum. But this lady, she binded herself to a life-long project that would probably never see an end; and maybe it's just my nature, but I found this thought very romantic; and it kind of gave me a sense of self-validation; before meeting her I thought I was the only one that didn't care about fast cars, luxury or millions in my bank account, let alone the feeling of satisfaction. I may never be satisfied; because I never want to stop. She; in my eyes was the less-extreme embodiement of the protagonist in Ayn Rands' Atlas Shrugged; the type that would want to build a railroad despite knowing railroads never end.
Those of you who know me may know that I started an ad agency a good 8 months ago; I have now left the agency myself. Build a team that is capable of growing this business out, distributed my shares (for free I might add) to those who deserve them and who I trust in protecting the companies interests; and left myself a fair share which one day I hope might secure my pension. I did what I felt was right, build something with people who are better at doing what I did; and let them carry on. On to the next adventure.
If I may be so free as to analyze MJ's life; and I may be completely wrong in my analysis, I suppose he started his entrepeneurial journey because of the pain of working for someone else; now many of us live this pain; but only a few feel it hard enough to change our ways of acting. Whilst reading his book, which I like to think of as a poisoned gift (thanks MJ) I CANNOT believe money was his motivation, or he would not ever write his book and create this forum; and I deeply wonder what it might be? Are we as humans designed that way to strive for something we don't have? Surely it's not happiness we strive after; happiness is not enough; I demand euphoria. And with that, me and theag are going skydiving this sunday; while I'm pretty sure a nice conversation and coffee will be the element that'll describe that day.
I may be going crazy, but at this moment I have no idea what's holding my life together, I have both security and entrepeneurship in life; and I am cursed in the manner that whatever I wish comes true, to that extent that I don't even bother about it anymore. Now, this may seem megalomaniac, but as a kid growing up; I was always deeply afraid that the older I became, the smaller my dreams would become because of reality hitting in. At the moment (and bear with me as I am still young of age; I believe we all are) I'm nearly shitting my pants with the thought that I'll only think bigger until the point I try to one-up Elon Musk and his spaceprogram.
But how do we draw a line between a megalomaniac and a romantic entrepreneur? What's the difference, and why do I care so much about what other people think?!
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