Blazing a trail…

What it means to be an entrepreneur

I’ve been reading The Daily Stoic. One Stoic philosophy quote per day for a full year. It’s epic.

This one made me think of entrepreneurship…

Respect the past but be open to the future

Won’t you be walking in your predecessors’s footsteps? I surely will use the older path, but if I find a shorter and smoother way, i’ll blaze a trail there. The ones who pioneered these paths aren’t our masters, but our guides. Truth stands open to everyone, it hasn’t been monopolized.

(Seneca, Moral Letters)

I like to think Seneca is advocating entrepreneurship.

“ …if I find a shorter and smoother way, i’ll blaze a trail there.”

This is what it means to be an innovator. To see something about the World — a new way — that others can’t.

Many of the technologies, products and services we take for granted today were once controversial and cutting edge.

Someone had to find a new way.

“The ones who pioneered these paths aren’t our masters, but our guides.”

Acknowledge the entrepreneurs that came before us. They’ve shown us the way — we can see the dead ends and the well trodden paths. We can see what works and what doesn’t. We can learn from this. Use the paths of others to help guide us but never feel constrained by them.

“Truth stands open to everyone, it hasn’t been monopolized”

This is perhaps my favourite aspect of innovation. We each have a unique way of seeing the World. A new path can come from the most unlikely of sources.

It’s more likely to be the experienced and well-informed mind that is most committed to the existing path and closed to new ones. Entire industries have been disrupted by entrepreneurs with no prior experience. Youth, naivety, open-mindedness and simply being less informed can all be advantages in seeing a new way.

One of my favourite lessons as an investor — like all good lessons — comes from failure. Failure to see and believe. When we dismiss a new product as trivial, niche or faddish and yet it goes on to become hugely successful. It’s painful but it’s a much needed reminder that an open mind is essential.

There’s a fine line between healthy skepticism and closed mindedness. As an investor it’s this line that can make the difference between mediocrity and wild success.