Have you ever thought of the process of starting and growing your business as a “hero’s journey”?

When we are called to entrepreneurship (and I believe it is every bit as much a calling as the one a minister receives!), it becomes so compelling we cannot ignore it. It is the “call to adventure” in the classic hero’s journey cycle.

It may come through an apparent “accident” – an employee embezzles funds and the company closes, you or a close family member is diagnosed with a serious illness requiring time off, or you are offered a position by a competing firm and begin to question your future. Or it may be a deliberate choice – but even then, the decision to become an entrepreneur often comes after years of restlessness, feeling like you don’t “fit” in a corporate environment, or sensing that you have a deeper mission to fulfill.

Once we say “yes” and cross the threshold to being a business owner instead of an employee, it truly is as though we have entered a new land. No more bosses, no more taking the office and its furnishings and equipment for granted, no more support staff (unless we hire them!).

And as we surrender to this calling – which feels bigger than us, irresistibly drawing us forward – and we walk the entrepreneurial path, we find that the old markers for “success” and “failure,” for “good” and “bad,” are no longer valid. We feel like we have lost our way…and then we notice the challenges and temptations along the way.

We attract the mentors and helpers we need…but ultimately, if we are to succeed, the journey inevitably leads to an abyss in which we die to our old ways. We may lose friends – or relate to them in a different way. We will lose the sense of security that came from having a paycheck – and we will even lose the excitement that we had when we started the business. It must give way to an even deeper sense of service and sharing our message that was planted in us from the beginning of time…a calling that must be fulfilled. But its fulfillment – and the accompanying rebirth – requires us to become a new version of ourselves…and therein lies the pain, the fear, and the difficulty.

Now, in 2010 as I write this, the death of the old way of doing business is right on time with the hero’s journey in the world of business. Even mainstream media and the nightly news speak of the “new economy” – and acknowledge that we do not yet know the rules of this new economy, but that it is clearly emerging. This is not a comfortable phase of the process – but a necessary one nonetheless!

If you are feeling uncomfortable – like you are wearing “clothes” that are too small as you continue to market, deliver services and sell in the way you always have…you are not alone. The new consciousness of your customers and the planet at large requires that you also evolve. What are you being called to become now? What call to growth are the challenges in your being beckoning you to?

Thankfully, our hero’s journey continues with a transformation, unexpected gifts, and often, a whole new life – for us, the business we run, and the people we serve. We traverse the dangerous territory of the abyss, learn the important lessons, and return to our staff, our customers and ourselves with a new perspective. Somehow we can now bridge the two worlds of the known and the unknown, the material and the spiritual, with ease. We know that entrepreneurship is, at its roots, a path for discovering who we are…and for offering our gifts to the world. It is a transformational journey, and in the end, we realize that we are one with our clients or customers. We do not have to “market to” them, “close” them, or “find” them – they are us.

See other entrepreneurs’ stories – including Lisa Sasevich, James Roche, Alexis Neely and more – and find out how following their purpose works in real life!

Comments are closed.