Once Upon a Time, There Was the End

Inscribed in the temple of Apollo at Delphi is a well known aphorism, attributed to Socrates, who — incidentally — was proclaimed by the Oracle to be the wisest man in Athens:

Know thyself.

This admittedly simple, yet profound statement is as meaningful today as it ever was. Gary Vaynerchuk, entrepreneur and thought leader, recently said, "If there's one thing I could do that would be awesome, it would be to create a test that would allow people to become self-aware." He continued, "I think everyone lies to themselves and wants to be something more, and I believe what we need to do more of is audit who we actually are."

Duuuude!

That sounds deep. But I think what he's getting at here is that most people, in their heart of hearts, yearn to be business owners.  But here's the rub. Most people don't always behave in concert with their own inner conviction. Let's dive into that can of worms, shall we?

Belief vs. Behavior

Ask yourself, "Do I want to be an entrepreneur? This sounds like a trick question. Of course you want to! You are reading this right now after all! And that's great! Next, ask yourself the following:

1.) Am I setting concrete goals and accomplishing them each week?

Or,

2.) Am I consistently dawdling with time-wasting, unfocused, unproductive behaviors?

Seriously! I'm not trying to be un-Spiffy-thetic right now at all, but I'd like you to take an honest inventory of your behavior. Can you quantify what actions you've taken and link them to a real result, whether positive or negative?

In the eloquent words of entrepreneur and thought coach, Peter Drucker, "If you can't measure it, you can't manage it.” Without such an assessment we can't address whether there's a disconnect between what we think and what we actually do. It's not enough to want to own a business, you have to act as if you already do.

Look, this process is nothing of which to be afraid or ashamed. We all know it may benefit our health if we go to the gym, eat better, and floss daily. What's more is we also know we should probably save more money, but how many of us actually do these things even half as regularly as we know we should? Right. We all could stand a bit of work in these areas. The good news is that it's never too late to change your behavior, and to reconcile your divided house.

How -- exactly -- do we even begin getting our behavior in line with our beliefs?

Serious business.

Baby steps. 

Commit to taking action.

It all begins with intention.  But again, it doesn't matter what you think as much as it matters what you do. If you implement the right behaviors, you WILL get results. Period. It's that simple. In fact, I challenge you to write down, or type out one priority business-building activity you're going to do today, and then do it. Repeat the process again tomorrow, and before you know it, you will have generated data;  data you can analyze and improve in the following days/weeks/months ahead.

It's that complicated.

When the Oracle revealed Socrates was the wisest man in Athens, he was perplexed. He claimed to possess no such wisdom. In fact, the 'Socratic Paradox' is named after one of his most famous statements, "I know that I know nothing." 

But what did Socrates do with this knowledge? He got busy asking questions in attempts to gain the self knowledge necessary to demonstrate the Oracle wrong. He took it as a challenge. His quest was futile, however, for the pursuit of one’s ignorance is wisdom. This may sound like quite the conundrum to some, but that's okay. It is. Ignorance is the beginning of wisdom. Wisdom is the beginning of ignorance. Once upon a time, there was the end.