Aristotle was a great philosopher, but entrepreneurship
was one thing that he never managed to understand. In the "Nicomachean
Ethics," his essay on justice and morality, he views society as a market
where human desires are stable, where the demand for each product is
constant, and each purchase has a predictable price.
Changing conditions
You don't need to look at the world for long to rate Aristotle's view as highly
unrealistic. The truth is that, in the field of work and commerce,
prices vary incessantly. New products appear daily on the market.
Growing ventures create jobs, while old-fashioned industries are
reducing the number of their employees. Trading conditions change,
markets move, and money circulates.
Businessmen are conscious of
the fact that initiative leads to success. Entrepreneurship is the
lifeblood of innovation. Economic growth begins with one person making
the first move and showing the way. In order to surpass average results,
a man has to step out of the routine.
In the world of business,
clients and profits are the result of entrepreneurship. A company that
has profitable sales can always borrow money. Bankers seldom refuse a
loan to businesses that generate positive cash-flow. Personal initiative
fuels innovation and drives companies to higher levels of performance.
Take the initiative
The
situation is not much different in the area of relationships. Friendship and love grow stale without personal initiative. Developing a
happy social life requires a certain type of entrepreneurship. This is a
factor that cannot be replaced by any amount of wishful thinking.
Unfortunately,
the entrepreneurial factor in love and happiness is frequently
underrated or denied. Television repeatedly shows stories where success
happens by chance. Films love to portray heroes who attain happiness by
coincidence without any effort from their side. Those tales are mostly
made-up and a wise man should never take them as a fair representation
of reality.
Entrepreneurial activity involves shifting resources
through time and space. A businessman might, for instance, borrow money
at 6% interest in order to invest it for a 10% return. If he does that
several times with growing sums of money, chances are that he will
become very wealthy.
The princople can also be applied to the field of
relationships. If you wish to enjoy a great social life in the future,
you should make the effort to establish new contacts regularly. Even if
you just meet one new person per week, sooner or later, you will get to
know a few individuals who share your values.
Fresh opportunities
Friendships and
love relations can begin in the most unusual circumstances. The key
requirement is that individuals should be open to an initial contact.
Brief introductions may lead to further interactions that develop into
long-term relationships. This is why entrepreneurs are always alert to
fresh opportunities to meet new people. You will observe
the same attitude in those who enjoy happy social lives.
Entrepreneurial
minds can be spotted by their extreme impatience at school or during
their apprenticeship. They dislike slow motion and are driven towards
activities that produce tangible results. They want to lead a life of
growing improvement and continuous progress. They view speed as a
synonym of efficiency.
Interesting people
Let me encourage you to adopt an
entrepreneurial attitude in the area of personal relationships.
Everybody has constrains in terms of time and resources, but those
limitations should not prevent you from seeking out opportunities to
meet new people whom you might find interesting.
Conferences that
revolve around your favourite subjects constitute great places for
meeting like-minded individuals. In the majority of cases, those initial
contacts will not lead to friendship or love and that is precisely the
way it should be.
Entrepreneurs are only interested in
opportunities that are right for them. They know that, before they can
embrace one successful idea, they will have to discard many others that
lead nowhere. Resources are always
limited, but possibilities are infinite.
Text: http://johnvespasian.blogspot.com
Image by PlaitsandBows under Creative Commons Attribution License. See the license terms under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us
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