The French Don't Have A Word For Entrepreneur

“The reason the French economy is struggling is because the French don’t have a word for entrepreneur.” — George W. Bush (allegedly)

Its funny because entrepreneur is a loanword from French.

Its also funny because its partly true.

We have more entrepreneurs (per capita) in America than in France.

Perhaps a better saying is “The reason the French economy is struggling is because the French don’t place a high cultural value on entrepreneurship.”

But that doesn’t have quite the same ring to it.

Acme vs. Coyote (vs. Entrepreneur)

The coyote is a metaphor. He represents our relentless pursuit of a desire, even to our own detriment.

The roadrunner is our desire. The more we seek to grasp it, the further out of grasp it seems.

The Buddhist answer is to relinquish the desire.

The American answer (Acme vs. Coyote) is to sue the companies that provide the (failing) means to get our results.

Neither is wrong, necessarily.

But the entrepreneur might say try different things (different company, different state, different animal) until you find success.

Gratitude Means The Time Is Now

“Now’s not a good time.”

We hear that a lot. In sales, getting in shape, starting a new business, a new relationship.

And sometimes it isn’t. But sometimes it’s a great time to start, but we’re fooling ourselves.

Gratitude shifts attitude (as the studies show).

But why?

When we remember all the good, we signal to our body that now is safe. Now is secure. Now is good.

And if now is good, it’s a good time to start.

Three things we can always be grateful for:

  1. Today is the youngest I’m ever going to be.
  2. It’s never been easier to start (if you’re reading this, you probably have a smart phone).
  3. It’s never been easier to make it (you can make money doing almost anything these days).

There are often times where its not a good time (generally speaking). Health crises. Deep family issues. Home and economic insecurity.

But for most of us. We’ll never be younger. It’s never been easier to start. It’s never been easier to make it. And a host of other things that are going in our favor.

And if you practice gratitude, you may see that the time is now.

The Third Skate

A couple weeks ago, I went recreational skating with a speed skating coach.

I was curious about skating technique, so we started from the ground up.

Most of it was intuitive, he said. Starting. Stopping. The illusion of two skates on the ground when you’re dancing and grooving to the music.

But one idea stuck with me, unique to speed skating.

When you’re on rollerblades:

  • put one foot forward and one foot back
  • tip forward the back skate so (that only the front wheel is touching)
  • tip backward the front skate (so that only the back wheel is touching)

When you do this, you create the third skate.

The third skate is controlled like regular rollerblading.

You can maneuver it, even accelerate with it depending upon your body position.

You maintain balance, because it keeps your center of gravity directly below you (between the first and second skate).

In vintage jazz dance, we have a similar concept: what is created between you and your partner and your relationship with the music.

I’m now tempted to call it “the third dancer”.

The pattern is pretty clear.

The third thing is the intangible thing that’s created as the outcome of the dynamic interplay between two tangible things.

Or, the “invisible” but very real relationship that comes from two parties.

In counseling, when they say both partners need to prioritize “the relationship”? That’s the third skate.

The relationship created between a business and customer, made up of either the warm feelings (or broken promises)? The third skate.

I’ve heard it said that a brand isn’t a logo, or typography, or a product. Or that a brand is the consistency you show in the marketplace.

Perhaps another way of looking at it: your brand is the third skate.

Creativity Rhymes

An easy intro point to the creative process is rhyming.

Poetry is obvious.

Yet pretty much every creative discipline has a rhyme pattern. Here are a few:

  • contraction-release (modern dance)
  • shot-reverse shot (filmmaking)
  • high-low (fashion)
  • but-therefore (storytelling)
  • setup-punchline (standup) -call-response (jazz)
  • text-context (teaching)
  • text-subtext (drama)
  • event-interpretation (hermeneutics) -thesis-antithesis (rhetoric)
  • action-reaction (acting)
  • tension-release (architecture)
  • plant-payoff (narrative)
  • figure-ground (visual design)
  • straight man-comic (comedy)
  • real line-metaphor line (songwriting)

Even AI has picked up on this, in ways we don’t like:

  • it’s Not X, it’s Y

And sometimes, longer patterns are just back-to-back rhymes, like this 5-piece:

  1. Knock knock.
  2. Who’s there?
  3. Who?
  4. Who who?
  5. What are you, an owl?

If you want to engage your creativity, give rhyme a try.

The Art of War (and Chess and Fiction Writing)

“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles." — Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Sun Tzu gives us two states for success:

  1. Know thyself
  2. Know thy enemy

But in chess, this is not enough.

You also need to know your openings, know your principles, and know the game you’re playing (a one-minute bullet match online is a different game than a 3 hour classical over-the-board tournament).

Which together might be something like:

  1. Know the players (psychology)
  2. Know your point (plan)
  3. Know ideas (principles)
  4. Know the parameters (sport)

Fiction writing is like chess, in that knowing your strengths and weaknesses as a writer, and the challenge of getting published before you, is not enough.

You also need to know your characters, your genre, and the audience you’re writing for.

Which together might be something like:

  1. Authorial truth (what you want to happen)
  2. Genre truth (what the conventions expect to happen)
  3. Character truth (what feels true to those experiencing the story)
  4. Audience truth (what needs to be true for the reader)

The strategy of chess is the interplay between what you know about yourself, what time control you’re playing, what opening you’re in, and which chess principles apply right now.

The strategy of fiction writing is the interplay between the story you want to tell, the story your publisher wants to promote, the story your audience wants to read, and the story that does the characters justice.

From that perspective, strategy is, indeed, an art.