Airplanes and Entrepreneurship…

Sometimes the story behind it is not so pleasant (or pretty)

Have you ever had a flight canceled without any notice? I hope not, and I hope it doesn't happen to you in the future.

If we opt for a flight and not for a trip by car or other means of transportation, it is most likely because we will travel a greater distance and we need to do it quickly. If we reduce our travel time, we reduce the opportunity cost of not being able to work during the time it would take us to travel by a different, much slower, medium, or not at all. But, we increase the difficulty since we have to coordinate not only ourselves but also our children, family, work team, etc.

If the fixed cost of undertaking the trip is already high, let's not even explore the variables when there are mismatches in our planning, especially those that have to be paid. All this is combined with high quotas of stress, frustration, a vulnerable state that triggers our emotions (you know, like those times in which a hug would break us completely).

It may sound like an exaggeration, but it's real, isn't it? Above all, if it's at this time of the year when we’re completing a year of work, the holidays are coming up and we want to see our loved ones.

And yes, my flight was canceled, and I had to listen to all the stories at the counter. Some rang more true than others, but all of them made me think that we are much more similar than we think and that finally we are urged and comforted by similar things, from timely advice, or a call of support, to an account with enough money. And it made me think of entrepreneurship.

Entrepreneurship as a journey

I like to think of entrepreneurship as a journey, full of surprises, sometimes not pleasant but always bringing the opportunity to learn, sometimes not monetizable for ourselves but for those who come after us. So I think of it as, not only a journey but a generous one; where everything we do is important for others. Whatever happens to us, we are as prepared as possible and that our experience is useful for someone who may come after us.

Maybe it’s not in the way we planned it but, the important thing is that we have the disposition to think of alternative ways that could work out. And that’s life too. It’s highly likely that things won’t turn out as we imagined. This is true 99% of the time. But they will happen in unexpected ways. And if we get rid of expectations and embrace what’s coming, we will surely be surprised by the outcomes and the ways in which things turn out.

Sticking to our original plans and ideas only deprives us of the joy of experiencing the way things are unraveling.

I thought about giving up on my trip. I got the feeling that it was all too much effort, not worth it. But, true to the entrepreneur inside me, masochistic to the core, very contrary to what I would like and not making me feel proud sometimes, I forgot why I was traveling and I concentrated more on the task.

Focusing solely on the task right in front of you can wear you out. And yes, now I am talking about entrepreneurship, which often leaves me exhausted, not wanting to talk, wanting to suspend meetings and burn the paperwork, and wanting to scream at people and cry. Sometimes all of those things at the same time.

EBELI (Evidence Based Entrepreneurship & Lean Innovation) has a lot of this behind it, not said in such a bitter way as this article, but once you have it, please think about the human stories that were behind it to achieve it. Deep down we do not want them to cancel your flight, but if they do, we hope you know how to leave without crying so much in the attempt.

In the EBELI handbook you will find that which I talked about earlier, the things we have in common, and that we are all comforted by. It is like having a partner throughout your journey telling you it’s ok, that it happens to everyone, and that the important thing is to keep moving forward. Because although we love to feel that we’re special and that our experiences are unique to us and that we are oh so lonely and that nobody understands us, it’s not true.

Even though another person’s experience may differ from ours in form, in the end, we are experiencing the same feelings and we want to be comforted by having someone who understands what we are going through.

EBELI is composed of more than 200 methodologies and 1,700 tools that make supporting entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs a simple linear process. It has been curated and improved for the last 20 years; and it has been tested on more than 50 cohorts for 100,000 entrepreneurs in the last 10 years.

It is an example of how the value of a community and its shared experiences and support can create a multiplier effect, drive creating and form the basis for success.

You can find it at www.bit.ly/EBELIBook