So can authentic entrepreneurship currently work? Only if you’ve invested in your self-development beforehand.

This is the big question of my project, right? Is there such a thing as “authentic entrepreneurship” and can this actually constitute a new way of living? The results so far are, frankly, a bit discouraging, however nonetheless interesting.

First, authenticity. Meaning, to deeply know who you are (not externally defined), what brings you sustainable joy (thus also no external reward mechanisms), and how to live your life from that place (your own rules, boundaries, decision making mechanisms, all of which are deeply personal to you and also not externally defined). As I’ve said a thousand times before, chances are that none of these things are very clearly outlined for anybody, given that this is the first time in human history that we are collectively moving beyond survival. It’s a lonely path, and one that is absolutely not well sketched out, understood, or even supported by mainstream society. Thus, for most of us, it will be a lengthy and highly experimental journey outside of established systems.

Which brings us to entrepreneurship. No matter your product, you need to engage the current market systems in order to make money consistently and in large enough quantities. Even if your target customers are generally aligned with your authentic and perhaps unconventional product, they will still follow the usual rules for purchases. Meaning, they want to be targeted with a precise problem statement, compare your product to competitors, expect a website and/or social media presence, and, especially for high-ticket items, might need a lot of convincing through well-crafted email chains. And so forth. Entrepreneurship best practices. And though they might be more fluid than the old economy customers, these mechanisms are still pretty much “your usual systems of human operations”.

And that’s where the great dissonance lies. Finding your authenticity apart from the system, yet trying to work as an entrepreneur from (mostly) within the system. Growing and changing profoundly and probably pretty quickly as you get to know yourself better, yet having the need of a comparatively steady product (like a coaching business or startup idea) to grow beyond the first customers in order to generate a sustainable income. It doesn’t work.

Instead there is a clear delineation between prioritizing one over the other.

If you focus on finding your authenticity, it’s either an investment-in-yourself decision (using up savings etc) or a hand-to-mouth one (freelancing/working for the minimum amount of hours possible). Which pretty much would provide you with the necessary time, in theory and if you don’t live in an expensive city, to find your authenticity.

If you focus on entrepreneurship, it’s either the classical entrepreneurship path (because business is an intrinsic interest for you, not much reflection needed) or you have done the majority of the authenticity-finding work beforehand. If it’s the latter, you have already gone through the bulk of major personal changes, found what lights you up, crafted a product out of it that fits your new values, now “simply” implement it using tools of decision making that continue to bring you joy.

Summarizing, authentic entrepreneurship usually comes with a hefty price tag and will only be truly entrepreneurial after the majority of self-discovery is already behind you. My initial hypothesis of doing true entrepreneurship in tandem with a deep-dive into authenticity is only available to a few lucky ones (like accidentally hitting a nerve of the time and going viral etc) but not for the great majority. It’s just not possible to constantly rediscover one’s own product-market fit as the product changes with each personal growth spurt. Thus, authentic entrepreneurship as a life path is predominantly a one-two-punch, requiring different tools and (coaching) foci depending on which stage you find yourself in.

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From Daily Shot of Insight, Dec 13, 2021

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