Years ago, a friend introduced me to Teddy Roosevelt’s “Man in the Arena” speech and the idea of how being an entrepreneur was like being that sole man in the center of the arena surrounded by cheers, boos, olés, amens, and hurled insults of onlookers- a true spectator sport. This arena looks less like a football stadium and more like a boxing ring or a bullfighting pit. Lots of people will have comments, criticisms, well wishes- but not get anywhere near the ring. The same people cheering for you in one moment can be the ones taking bets on your downfall in the next. The things that come with that- loneliness, fear, isolation, misunderstanding, invigoration to burnout, discouragement- can run deep, yet these individuals persist.
There’s something really interesting about what goes on in the hearts and minds of entrepreneurs. Whether they are an entrepreneur on paper or in spirit, there is some key foundational belief, driver, and revelation that not only is there something worth fighting for, but that there’s something worth being fought for. From the attacks and pushback from society to our own mental / psychological / emotional / financial wellbeing to judgments from people who don’t understand (and many times the people closest to us), a battle ensues from all different angles yet we continue to eye the vision that lies before us and keeps us up at night. “Worth being fought for” is where most people would tap out and opt for another way, but we get beat down and knocked out many times, getting up and going again, willingly and seemingly insanely embracing the ring.
These are your frontierspeople. These are the early adopters and adapters. These are the ones who make survival in the next era possible and who help create the next era. These are the problem seekers and problem solvers, the hustlers, creators and dreamers. These are society’s astronauts treading where no man has been before, visiting new lands and searching for future livable spaces and other ways of being. In them there is no true failure, for learning and experience ignite their way forward.
They go into the unknown, the uncharted, the uninhabited, the sparse, the wild, beyond bounds and founded territories, venturing out to make life better for others.
More than folk heroes or unicorns, these are people. These are your fathers, your daughters, your friends, your cashiers, your passerbys. Support them. Care for them. Don’t just watch. Encourage, feed, sustain, fund, listen, connect, open doors, check in, give water, get in and fight, get out of the way.
Whatever support looks like for you right now, do it. The fight is very real and relentless, but so is the entrepreneurial spirit.
“The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly…” (excerpt from “The Man in the Arena”)
To my fellow entrepreneurs: I see you. I hear you. I care about you. I’m here for you. I stand with you. I am inspired by you. I thank you so so much for all you have done and endured, and for the impact you have had and will have on this world.