The Entrepreneurial Spark, What does it do to us?

The Spark that caused it all.

It all starts out with a great idea. A bright “spark” in a moment of inspiration. That defining moment that comes seemingly so innocently but is so powerful it will alter the rest of your life. It has the potential to change and challenge every aspect of your life. You cannot predict if this will be good or bad, light or dark but one thing I can promise you is that your world will never be the same.

For those of us afflicted with the condition of being an Entrepreneur. I can assure you that this spark can become like a sirens call. Some of us only get it once in our lifetime. Others seem over and over again to succumb to it. I myself have been bitten by this 4 times, each time with very different results. But I can tell you this that the journey has been one of fantastic, tragic and epic twist and turns that no one could have predicted. Nor would I trade it for anything else.

Over the past fourteen years I have had the pleasure of meeting and working with some of the most talented and amazing people on the planet. Whether it has been for but a short glimpse along the path or a longer journey. I have been fortunate to travel all over the globe and see some amazing things. I have had days that were the highest of highs and then others were I was sure that the world would swallow me whole and crush me; that and everything in-between. The more that I have grown accustomed to moving in the circles with other entrepreneurs and hear about their own journeys the more I realize how vastly different we all are yet at the same time how similar all of our roads have been. There is no other group of people I have found that knowingly welcome strife, struggle and adversity into their lives. While at the same time have some core belief that none of that matters, because the “Spark” can be fanned into the next inferno. The overwhelming trait that I have seen in most if not all of these people is, an undying love a life. The feeling of being truly alive. Their days are seldom routine nor are they easy, but on most accounts each and every day is amazing. The are filled with self learning, discovery, doubt, reflection, and yes again the burning desire to create and change things. To disrupt the world that others have accepted. This is when they feel alive. If they stopped to check the numbers its more often than not going to end poorly for them. They know this and yet it does not stop them. If anything has stuck with me over the past years of doing this is that I have learned much more from my failures than I have from my successes. The wins are the easy ones.
 
I did not realize how compelling these sparks would become through out my life and each one found me in completely different ways. A Hardware store, a chance meeting in an office lobby, A coffee shop, a lecture room on campus; These are the spots where I was besieged by the “Spark”. On the first one I did not know what was going on. I was young, naïve, and not yet able to understand that changes that where taking place in and around me. Later as I gained more exposure to this condition I would start to realize the signs yet be completely amazed at how different they were this time around. Each one full of promise, the excitement is almost a tangible thing. As it starts consuming parts of you; you feel a vibration that is starting to emanate from you. It can be come infectious to those around us. This often happens with a selfish compulsion not being aware of the ripples that we cast out around us to the ones we hold dear. That is the selfish side of the Entrepreneur that does not often get talked about. But with some time learning and temperament we can learn how to focus those ripples to have the desired effect we are looking for. This was one of the hardest life lessons for me to learn and in some ways I am still learning this lesson.
 
Recently I was fortunate enough to be at a cocktail reception filled mostly with other Entrepreneurs; A room full of dreamers and Doers. Many of them very accomplished others of more humble points, like myself, but none the less one of the most interesting crowds that I have ever been involved in. There was no dull or routine chats, no two conversations where close to the same. But all of them filled with passion. You could almost see the vibrations coming off of each of them. Talking and yes at time arguing impassioned for what they had seen. I thought to myself what other group would I want to surround myself with. Some have literally already changed the world. Others are on their way to do so. Many of them have now or will some day fail epically along the way. Knowing that this can and most likely will happen is part of the accepted risk, it is part of the price of admission. The one undeniable tenant that rings true in all of them is that they have been vastly changed down to their core because of being bitten by that “Spark”.
 
The world is not safe. No future is set in stone or fate certain. But If I can impart anything to you it would be this. If you want to live a full life, one the feels truly alive both epic and tragic. Then I implore you to find your “spark” be open to it when it finds you (as it most likely will) and I guarantee your world will never be the same once this happens to you.
 
Be good to each other.