Entrepreneurial Spirit:

A mindless attempt to explain the unfathomable


I’ve mulled over the impact my entrepreneurial buddy had on my life. I’ve tried to determine why and how he made such a contribution.

Of course, one can easily discern cracks in the foibles that make up one’s personality. One can also choose to polish the brass of the inner self and make it shine.

For this particular piece, I will elaborate on the latter.

He definitely had an entrepreneurial spirit about him. Some would say that he was just trying to make a quick buck. I, on the other hand, thought that he was using his innate skills to make the best of any bad situation.

He had an adventurous bend that I tried to emulate but could not. I remember him deliberately failing in order to succeed at achieving his own personal goals. Those internal goals were more important to him than the perceptions others had of him. When he was very young, he would have been considered down and out by most casual observers, but in his own mind’s eye, he was hurtling toward his inner goals at lightning speed.

What those inner goals were and how he was attempting to achieve them were unknown to everyone but himself. However, everyone who came in contact with him felt that inner drive and purpose that would only surface later in his life and only to a chosen few.

He had an inner peace and an ability to transcend the burdens of the past and the potential chaos of the future. He was engrossed in the power of the present and the accompanying joy of living.

Why would be choose to befriend the lowest caste at every opportunity? He could have chosen to affiliate himself with the rich and famous, but chose to clean up the mean streets of ignorance, stupidity and intolerance.

Of course, one could put a negative spin on it, and declare that he was of those streets and therefore felt most comfortable walking there. But, no, that was wrong. He ventured down onto those dark alleyways to pull up those lost souls until they felt tall enough to peer out and see the light and be warmed by the knowledge that hope and joy do exist.

Deep down inside, I hope that most people have that drive and determination which he so honestly and subtly applied. But, unfortunately, that spirit is slowly dying and being eaten up by the emersion in the environs of the self obsessed.

He may be the last of a dying breed. But, he does exist. He will be easily forgotten by an uncaring public but, as always, he’ll revel in his life and feel comfort in the fact that he achieved those unfathomable goals of his youth.

Who is he? He is everyman. He is no man.