Quiddity Higher Purpose Business, help for entrepreneurs, women in business, David Solomon

Because Success Is Personal!

Do you recall when you got bitten by the entrepreneurial bug? Why did you go into business? Or why do you want to?

Like many people you might have “fallen” into business by accident. Or maybe someone said to you “You’re really good at this – you should go into business. You’ll make a fortune!” Or maybe you got sick of working for a boss who didn’t appreciate you. Or perhaps you saw business as your path to fame and fortune.

Whatever the reason you may well now be dealing with the typical business issues that keep entrepreneurs awake at night  - cash flow, sales and staff issues just for starters. And if you go a bit deeper, issues like “Is it all worth it?” Or fear of failure. Or even fear of success.

Undoubtedly many people go into business to achieve some type of “work-life” balance, yet I find this rationale flawed. You see it all depends on your definition of “work”. For many people work is seen as hard and it tends to be an energy drainer. It is a constant battle to stay motivated. But when you are inspired by what you do, work becomes easy. In fact, when you are truly inspired your work will give you energy.

I realise that I’m generalising, but motivation tends to be for “have” goals, whereas inspiration tends to be for the “be” and “do” goals. There’s nothing wrong with motivation – it’s quite necessary in fact – but inspiration will get you up earlier and keep you going longer.

So what is the secret to being inspired by what you do?

Well, it’s personal. I believe it’s all about designing and building a “Higher Purpose Business”.

Women Forging the Future

I came across the following from Elizabeth Debold, Senior Editor of EnlightenNext magazine in an email promoting a virtual seminar they are holding, and I thought it was worth passing on. In part, it helps explains why I work with women to build Higher Purpose Businesses.

“When every woman learns to listen without fear to the voice inside her instead of smothering it, it may lead - perhaps even more surely than rockets into space—to the next step in human evolution.”

A powerful quote, isn’t it? It’s from an article that Betty Freidan (author and founder of the National Organization for Women) wrote for Good Housekeeping magazine FIFTY years ago - in 1960! She was writing to all of the educated, smart women who found themselves strangely frustrated and dissatisfied with their expected roles of wife and mother - and had no other life options.

Today we can’t say that - educated Western women have more freedom of choice than any women in history. The path of marriage and children that defined women’s identities and fulfilled their essential purpose for thousands of years but is now merely one option among many. 

But the vague sense that something isn’t quite right still persists with so many of us - even though we may have it all or have made powerful choices in our lives, so often we feel that something is still missing and we are still craving a deeper fulfillment.

Interestingly, research shows that as a gender, women are less happy today than their foremothers were before the 1960’s revolution. Whilst they have gained options, they have not necessarily found a new essential purpose that puts wind in their sails, empowering them to reach higher and challenge limits, to evolve who they are, and to become creative agents of lasting change.

Why? In a nutshell: while women have broken through one glass ceiling after another, the new frontier is busting the glass ceilings inside ourselves that trap our spirit, our sense of purpose and our deepest passion for and trust in life.

 Building a Higher Purpose Business is one of the many options open to women (and men!) to help achieve this.

If you are interested in finding out more about the seminar, here is the link: Women Forging the Future—Two Days of Myth Busting, Soul Strengthening, and Ecstatic Liberation (November 13 & 14, 2010) (FYI, I have no affiliation with them other than being a subscriber to the magazine)