Encourage Entrepreneurship
“Lord, you previously mentioned the Start-Up Nation and being nimble as a young business. Do businesses need to be entrepreneurial and always changing to make things work? It seems that so many organizations undertake change just to do something.”
“Sam, No. Things do not always need to change. But if you don’t change and adapt, you will become obsolete. Take for example baseball. The average age of baseball fans is getting older, and it is hard to replace older fans with new fans. The purists are shouting to Major League Baseball not to change the storied game. However, the league knows it needs to change and speed up games to attract younger fans. The league could just sit back and hope that younger fans learn how to appreciate a slow low scoring game, but that could lead to disaster, and I would not like that. I have season tickets to every team and try to catch several games a night during the season. I am still a Brooklyn Dodger’s fan after all these years.”
The Lord went to his desk and took out an old-looking baseball from a drawer. “Be careful with it, Sam,” the Lord said as he handed me the ball. It was signed by the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers team. “It is one of my prize possessions.” The Lord picked up the ball and put it back into his desk.
The Lord then continued. “I like a quote from Ann Landers. She was so great on earth, and her column in Heaven is even better. She gave some great advice in Heaven on how to make real snow angels. She said years ago, ‘opportunities are usually disguised as hard work, so most people don’t recognize them.’ Undertaking any change is tough and pursuing something new is even that much more difficult.”
An image of the world popped on the screen.
“Son, I didn’t build the world with countless committees and focus groups. True genius is to launch something, see what happens, and then modify and evolve the idea. True failure and cowardice is failing to launch an idea or to launch something and stubbornly stick to it even though logic dictates changes need to be made. I made everyone with a neck, and it behooves people to stick out it out occasionally, rather than trying to hide like a turtle and only come out when it is completely safe.”
The image of the world now started to spin across the screens.
“In terms of the world, I made several elements people might not understand. Did I intend for there to be all the earthquakes, volcanoes, and crazy weather? Yes, because a flawed world allows humankind to try to make it perfect. I did something, I created a world. It is like parents when they have a child. They will love it, warts and all. That is the ultimate entrepreneurial project. As Theodore Levitt expressed, ‘creativity is thinking new things. Innovation is doing new things.’”
The world was now bouncing off all the screens. It felt like I just entered a pinball machine.
“Most geniuses have been considered fools during their initial march to greatness. What is true greatness is the ability to spot a genius parading as a fool and to help them reach their true potential. That is skill. Spot the outlier who has passion and a wonderful positive mindset, empower them, and then watch them take off.”
All this talk about creation got me thinking about my kids. Warts and all, they are great, and I made them with my wife. It took the family, friends, and community to help raise them. But we started with the idea to have a family and we acted on it.
I wondered about some of the great companies that were launched by doting founders who were like open eyed parents. How many organizations also failed due to neglect or abuse? I thought to myself that a great idea without any buzz or internal support will die a painful and expensive death. Unfortunately, a weaker idea with significant enthusiasm and support has a much greater chance of generating traction. It is a shame that so many novel ideas did not launch or take off for whatever reason.
“Sam, it does not always work. I helped launch with my people the concept of monotheism. It was a risk but look how it has paid off with billions of followers. Sometimes you just need a little time…and several big miracles.”
“I guess when launching something new, just like being parents, you need to take risks, pay attention to the details, and pray for some miracles. Organizations cannot plan for miracles, but if the right ingredients are put together, the possibility to be ready when miracles happen, is significantly increased.”
“Sam, getting up every morning is a miracle for some. You plan to get up every morning, but doing it is no small miracle. That is why everyone needs to appreciate the little miracles…because everything we do and accomplish is a miracle. Thus, make sure your readers understand that they should embrace miracles, because they should not be looking for the big miracles which rarely happen, but embrace the small miracles that happen every day.”
