Aspirational Entrepreneurialism

Entrepreneurship isn’t selling things – it’s finding innovative ways to improve people’s lives http://t.co/qMsDBLJqjO

— Richard Branson (@richardbranson) November 14, 2013

Through your work, do you improve people’s lives?

Successful entrepreneurs are a wonderful sort of people: They create sustainable businesses that provide great places for wonderful people to earn a living for themselves and their loving families. They create and sell products, services, and experiences that people need or want. They care for their customers with a sense of gratefulness and humility, knowing that without them, none of it could exist.

These sorts of entrepreneurs are masters of the craft, and there isn’t a whole lot farther they can go. But if there is another level to reach, I’d call aspirational entrepreneurialism.

The aspirational entrepreneur does all that the successful entrepreneur does, plus something special: the company’s output improves people’s lives.

As our businesses grow, let’s remember that it’s not about selling more things, faster. We can, of course, do just that, and inso doing we can create a good place to work, give customers what they want at a price they can afford, and make some real money along the way. But if we aspire to something more – if we accept the challenge to improve people’s lives through our work – then we won’t have to wait until we sell the business to begin our philanthropic journey, because we’ll have been doing that very thing every day for as long as we’ve been on the entrepreneurial journey.