Book 2, Lesson 3 – EXCHANGE
WORDS
BUSINESS: a company or other organization that buys and sells goods, makes products, or provides services
SCIENCE: the study of the physical and natural world and phenomena, especially by using systematic observation and experiment
SPIRIT: the vital force that characterizes a human being as being alive
PARTICLE: a very small amount of something
WAVE: a mass of something
EXCHANGE: to give and get something for something
LESSON
I’m in South Africa educating on business, entrepreneurs and corporations and after 22 year of studying the relationships between the 3……… I feel very confident I understand the relationships between the 3. I can say with no doubt that it is the spirit of all 3 three that is the most important aspect of all 3 thoughts or energy forces.
A Business owner is a different thought process than that of an entrepreneur and corporation/government is different again. The common binding relationship is the spirit of each human involved in the human exchange. It is a forgotten aspect of humanity. All three thoughts/entities mostly exchange with each other to make meaning for their existence. In others words, Entrepreneurs, Business Owners, Corporations and Governments are all part of humanity and require each entity to coexist as a harmonious whole. Short version…. each needs the other for each to exist.
My question is always………
Why is each thought process (ENTREPRENEUR/BUSINESS/CORPORATION/GOVERNMENT) not supporting each other to be the best they can be?
I’m certain that it is about the exchange mechanisms that are used to link each relationship together.
Where to start?
To “ME” it is simple…. The relationship BETWEEN ME and YOU!
Now….. if each of the 4 relationships are clearly defined and understood, could all humanity work towards abundance for all?
Let me give you my thoughts or definitions between ….. ENTREPRENEUR/BUSINESS/CORPORATION/GOVERNMENTS.
For the record, I don’t think an Entrepreneur and a Business Owner/Manager are the same person. I believe that an Entrepreneur is very different from a Business Owner/Manager. For me, very different skill sets are required.
I consider myself to be an Entrepreneur in spirit. I am a very capable Business Owner/Manager. And yet management is not my true calling.
I have a track record of getting ideas to a certain stage and for a Business Owner/Manager to then take over and apply their skill-set…..only to find that most Business Owners/Managers have a very poor definition of their role in the business.
Why?
The 2 words are so interchanged that they have become interchangeable, when in my opinion, they are not.
ENTREPRENEUR:
Entrepreneur Origin: 1875–80; < F: lit., one who undertakes (some task) usually with considerable initiative and risk.
Key: a risk taker
Entrepreneurs are risk takers.
BUSINESS OWNER/MANAGER:
Business: a person, partnership, or corporation engaged in commerce, manufacturing, or a service; profit-seeking enterprise or concern.
Key: profit seeking
Business Owners are risk adverse.
CORPORATION:
Corporation: an association of individuals, created by law or under authority of law, having a continuous existence independent of the existences of its members, and powers and liabilities distinct from those of its members.
Key: In other words, the risk is deferred to others ….the risk for the corporation is non- existent.
I add corporation because I think it is a different animal all together and a lot of books have been written about corporations that don’t really apply to business owners/managers, yet we tried to apply them.
To the best I can, I’m going to give definitions of Entrepreneurs vs. Business Owners/Managers. As a bonus for this book, I will keep it in the world of Entrepreneur/Business Owner/Manager. Most books I have read are not written about small to medium business (SME)…. they are written for Fortune 500 company scenarios. This book is written for people who are tired of reading these books and then wondering how to apply them to their businesses and their lives.
Entrepreneur: A person who creates everything from nothing…… Because it is already there.
For me, an entrepreneur sees patterns of events, puts them together and creates or discovers a way of doing a process better than it was done before and then creates something else or a new pattern. This usually means creating a scale or economy that allows the process to be done better, faster, cheaper or “More with Less”. This is not about money…..Money is the by the bi-product of the creation. It is about less time, less energy used, less space taking, a better use of materials and always creating greater value for the consumer of the idea. It does not matter if it is physical or metaphysical. It must always come down to the deep fundamentals of universe.
“Time, Energy, Space and Matter”.
When I think about businesses like McDonalds and how they started and where they are today, I ask myself, “What did Ray Croc see when he started?” I ask myself, “Was Ray a Business Owner or was he an Entrepreneur?” I think he was an Entrepreneur that ended up creating one of the best businesses of all time.
Did McDonalds create cows?
Did McDonalds create the potato?
Did McDonalds create the milk for the milk shake?
Ray Croc combined different products and created a process that most of us could not see. He took a risk and “Hey presto!”, 50 years later, McDonalds is one of history’s great business stories. His story combined to make up the fast food industry. Look at Colonel Sanders’ great chicken recipe… we are sold it was the herbs and spices that made the day. I don’t think so…. it was a combination of factors.
Did the Colonel create the chicken?
Did the Colonel create the lettuce?
Did the Colonel create the oil that the chicken is cooked in?
Colonel Sanders was another great Entrepreneur who took a risk with combining things that were already there and then created a world class business.
Entrepreneurs are our driving forces of thought and energy. Combine great Entrepreneurs with great Business People and you have a recipe for world class performance. I’m not saying that Entrepreneurs can’t be good at business ….
I’m saying there are 2 different skill sets that are needed to be a great Entrepreneur or Business Owner/Manager. Much of it comes down to risk management. Whether people tend to be…..
1). Risk Embracing, or;
2). Risk Adverse.
I have not been able to come to terms with having both in me. The best example I can think of is my wife, Anna and me. I am an Entrepreneur. I embrace risk (and I know how to manage risk). Anna is a Business Owner/Manager. She is risk adverse and knows how to run businesses well. The 2 concepts are paradoxical… opposites. And yet opposites attract. As in a marriage, there are differences with opposites in a business. And yet if the risk can be embraced and then managed well, the co-operation between the 2 styles can truly complement one another to build something that is bigger than the sum of the individual parts. IE: Synergy.
Entrepreneurs often think they are automatically great Business Owners/Managers. Hmmmm …..I don’t know about that. Conversely, Business Owners/Managers often think they are great Entrepreneurs… not sure of that either.
Or Anthony Robbins would say, “Your past doesn’t need to equal your future”. For me, I want to play to my strengths and get out of the way of the skill that will create A FUTURE. This is not right or wrong…. for me, this is just my reality. I worship the Business Owner/Manager!! Every day, I thank the ground Judy Struggledork (my wife) walks on because in our relationship, Judy is a very good Business Owner/Manager in skill and she puts up with a hard case like me.
Can a person change from one role to the other? Can a person learn the other role? I say yes…. as long as the roles are well defined and there is respect for each role.
Until next week, JDS out.
Comments