Entrepreneur of the Soul - by Ransom

Recently, very recently, I drove a relative to the pet hospital. It was the first time I'd driven her van. It had that odd “push-to-start” button that I've never felt comfortable with. She had to give me directions from the back seat where she was trying to cradle her dog.

We arrived. I stayed outside with the dog, letting her walk back and forth on the leash while my relative spoke interminably with the receptionist. The dog was anxious and wouldn't rest.

Eventually we were called in.

We were sent to a little room where we waited. The dog ascended through levels of anxiety approaching panic. She didn't know, but she knew enough. My relative cried, snarled about the long wait, cried again.

After too long the veterinarian came in. They spoke briefly, then the vet took the leash. We left through one door, they left through the other. I watched over my shoulder because I knew it would be the last time.

I drove back again, my relative in the front passenger seat, my hand on her shoulder. We were about half-way home when she asked if I thought her dog was gone now. I nodded. “I think so.” She cried some more and reminisced about first meeting the little brown pup eleven years before.

“We didn't know about chocolate labs,” she said more than once. Her husband had tried to give it away but she told him that they couldn't abandon a commitment just because it was difficult.

The commitment was now concluded.

The Entrepreneur

The entrepreneur is a creature of high reputation. More people call themselves entrepreneurs than properly are, but that doesn't change the facts. The entrepreneur is someone who takes the risks that have never been taken before, who takes the unknowns and makes them fit. Where there is a gap and the structure does not align the entrepreneur undertakes to discover something new and make it work, taking all the risks and uncertainties upon himself and transmuting them into serviceable certainties.

Where the engineer is, the entrepreneur was there first. Where the business is, the entrepreneur was there first. The entrepreneur turns the mist-covered chaos into clear paths which others may reliably follow, taking upon himself the risks of doing so and reserving for himself the rewards.

Where most of us say “it cannot be done and is not worth speaking of” the entrepreneur fills the gap with his will, his energy, and his mind and makes it work.

He who solves new problems in business is the entrepreneur. He who solves new problems in life is the entrepreneur of the soul. Where there is a hole and the pieces do not fit, he pours his soul into the gap and makes it fit.

In a business the owner pays himself last. In a military unit the highest-ranking officer eats last and sleeps last. In a family the leader cries last if at all.

The Family Head

I have seen my share of deaths in the family. I have lost relatives by marriage, relatives by blood, my own father. In each case I had responsibility for maintaining the family order. I had to be that rock that created a safe harbor so the others could cry the way they needed to cry.

The death of an old & beloved pet is a little thing compared to that of a family member, but there is still grief. The others still need to know that the world will be held together.

A family can be safe and healthy only when its members know that things will be taken care of. Though they are surrounded by a sea of chaos they dwell on an island of certainty. That sea of chaos is not just events over which they have no control, but unknown unknowns – problems of undiscerned dimension and unknown solution. The island of certainty does not simply happen to exist; it is of a ruler who tirelessly orders his proper domain. The chaos waves always lap at the peaceful shore, and sometimes the tide comes in, but each wave must be turned away or else the island is eaten up and disappears.

This is not to say that the head of the family has this responsibility exclusively -- every adult has this responsibility in some portion of life – but the head of the family has the highest responsibility for the family, the final responsibility to be the entrepreneur of the soul.

An Addendum for Christians

As a Christian I think there is an additional facet to this role.

In being the head of my family I learn by experience about the relationship with God for which the family is but a “type.” I think leadership is humbling because we learn to see the great need & supply around us, culminating in the Sustainer Himself.

Leadership is also humbling because, in filling these gaps, we are worn down and inevitably encounter challenges for which we have no answer. At these times we are broken down and learn to rely on God, with an appreciation for His work we would not have if we had not tried to echo it in our own little spheres.

In doing great things we learn to appreciate greatness.