It was April. I’d recently stepped away from the business academy I’d co-founded the previous year. People were surprised.
But I knew I had other work to do. Even if the details were sketchy.
I had a concept. Something about integrating creativity, spirituality and business, and people actually living it as a practice.
I’d created an accurate, yet cumbersome and unmemorable title for it.
“I don’t think the name works Ewan.”
I noticed a sinking feeling as soon as my friend said it. I’d asked him his opinion, and he’d duly delivered.
“But it’s accurate. It says what it’s about, it’s not too definitive, it’s got movement in it. And it took me ages to come up with.”
Despite being highly creative, I find names really hard to come up with.
“Yeah, I understand. It doesn’t work though.”
Shit.
I called him back a little later.
“Hey buddy, I have another name. In fact, it was the first one I came up with during the original idea birthing. But I dismissed it. I don’t want to call it this. It feels arrogant and presumptuous. I’m really uncomfortable about it.
“What is it?” he replied.
“The Realized Entrepreneur.”
“Yes. That’s it. Call it that.”
Shit. (Again).
This is a Business, About a New Kind of Business
This is my fourth, or seventh business, depending upon how you count. But in many ways it feels like my first.
It was born from somewhere deeper, more essential, and I think it’s going to take someone deeper and more essential to manifest it.
I think this is one of the powerful things about creating something from deep inside – it will ask everything of you. And if you embrace the challenge, and kneel to its will, it will deliver the exact realizations that you always needed, but could never see.
For that, is what I see as the path of a Realized Entrepreneur. A mission manifested through business, that was born in the soul, and will be enacted by the integrated human being.
Who is The Realized Entrepreneur?
The real answer is, I don’t know. That’s why I created this space, to discover it, uncover it. And, it’s a question I’ve asked myself hundreds of times over the last few months.
Who is the Realized Entrepreneur?
“The one who, in submission to that which burns in his soul, sets out upon a spiritual journey to manifest the dreams of which she did not choose, but will always be answerable to.”
Under whatever name, I believe this new way of being – the Realized Entrepreneur – will be one of the most revolutionary archetypes of this still young century.
It’s a way of being that I can hear beckoning to many of us.
Who is (s)he?
He is one, I believe, who is dedicated with full surrender to his own inner journey, the facing of his own shadow, the owning of his own essential glory, the dissolution of his own pre-centauric-self-concept.
And yet, she is one who is also, at the very same moment, fully invested in the creation of material value, the building of her business, the freeing of her enterprise, and the transformation of the souls she has been sent to serve.
It is not a path of balance.
It is not about adjusting the expression of his inner world to match with her outer creation. It’s not about keeping them in harmony.
It is about both of these being the expression of one Self, one soul.
It is also, not about simply espousing some abstract philosophy with unnecessarily confusing terms like ‘pre-centauric-self-concept’.
It’s about a lived practice, a living practice. Surrendering to your own unique expression of this universal way. Surrendering, with full commitment, to the one who is called.
One whose quest for real business success, and deep self discovery, are the same journey.
One who masters both meditation and marketing. One who is guided by strategy and soul. One who creates through product design and poetry. One who integrates business plans with being.
One whose artistic expression is their business. One whose spiritual practice is their work.
One. Not two.
This is how I’m going to explore The Realized Entrepreneur
Here are four ways (well, more like 3 plus a mystical miscellaneous) that I’m going to be exploring this way of being.
Or, in other words, here’s how you can learn with me…
1. The Podcast
(a.k.a. Meandering conversations with fascinating friends on the path)
The Realized Entrepreneur is a character who’s expressions are limitless, but who’s heart is universal. A path, not a person.
Which means there are already amazing trailblazers out there, walking this path, even though they may not resonate with the name I’ve evoked.
I’ve begun interviewing some of these extraordinary people, exploring with them what shapes and guides them, and how they’ve created their businesses, and discovered their own nature.
And I will be sharing all of these conversations with you in The Realized Entrepreneur Podcast.
2. The Blog
(a.k.a. Self-revelatory musings and teachings on the living of the path)
In one way, I see this business as a science experiment, with myself as the first guinea pig. What is it to walk the path of a Realized Entrepreneur, like, really?
I see this way-of-being as one of radical authenticity. One of becoming more of yourself as you already are, through the creation of business and free enterprise. And not hiding either side of the journey, but having it be your marketing and brand strategy.
So, I’ll be practicing this self-revelatory strategy, and sharing my own discoveries, understandings and advocacy, right here on The Realized Entrepreneur Blog.
3. The Coaching
(a.k.a Intimate and transformative in-person support on the path)
None of us can walk this path alone. My own friends, coaches and mentors have enabled me to step into places I simply could not have reached were I a solo-traveler.
And so I will be offering coaching and group programs where we can together, reach heights otherwise inaccessible.
As I’ve begun to seriously teach and coach people over the last 12 months, I’ve seen how truly transformational it can be. I’ve seen people create programs and products that looked literally impossible at the start of the journey.
So, this is what we can co-create together, through Coaching, when you’re called to a new level of yourself and your work in the world.
4. The Unknown
(a.k.a. Stuff I haven’t found the grace to discover yet)
If I’ve learned anything over the last 3 years of my own entrepreneurial path, it’s been that true transformation and business creativity come from the field of The Unknown. That place beyond your history, beyond your imagination, beyond your strategic plans and well meant assumptions.
And so, as I sit writing this first blog post, I’m smiling, as realize that I have no idea where this journey will take me, or you. But I’m grateful you’re here, and reading these words.
I’m excited, and humbled that we get to play together.
More soon…
