Pocket Philosophy

There are types, shades if you will, of knowledge. There are facts and theories, rumors and rationales, but the most elusive—the subtlest and rarest shade of knowledge—is wisdom. I am a bit young yet to lay claim to vast stores of this valuable resource, but I have watched the rise and fall of more than a few start-ups. Thus I reserve Wednesdays’ essays for wisdom and weirdness, for the ephemera of enterprise, entrepreneurs, and existentialism.

I have read a lot of entrepreneur-targeted books. I have read personal accounts and ‘How To’s, histories and inspirational screeds, disaster stories and ‘lighter side’ collections. From all of them, once you dig deeply enough, a few common themes emerge:

1. Running your own business is hard.
2. Be smart.
3. Do what you love.
4. Change the world for the better.

Maybe this is all a little too high level, but there it is—the sum total, the crux, the very rub of entrepreneur-targeted literature. Contained within those four tiny points is all the wisdom in all the books for all the entrepreneurs in the world; after that, it is all details.

I will almost certainly return to this list in the future. I promise to come back to deconstruct it, explain why I chose the wording I did, and why I chose the order I did, but not today. Today I simply look over the list and ask, “Why think small?”

The fact is, drop point one and you have one of the most concise philosophical frameworks the world has ever seen. I cannot come up with better advice to someone searching for a few rules to live by or a simple path to happiness.

Today’s lesson: Live like you work. Work like you live.

Be smart. Do what you love. Change the world for the better.

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