We're told that "entrepreneurship" is the ideal. Work for yourself. Stop working for The Man.

Yet, as one of my friends puts it, that's [male bovine scat]. He was referring to the idea that everyone can take on a business by themselves and do everything to make it profitable alone, without the help of others.

Bovine fecal matter indeed.

As famed management consultant Peter Drucker said, "the purpose of business is to create customers."

Creating a business is about meeting the needs of those customers. Quelling their "pain."

Another friend of mine gives this advice: "Help an earlier version of yourself."

I think about this often. What would I tell a previous generation of myself who told his mentor that he wanted to be an entrepreneur? I'd imagine the conversation would go similarly:

"I want to be an entrepreneur," says previous me.

"Great," says present-day me. "What's your idea?"

"Here's the thing … I don't have an idea. Yet."

"Do you want to know what I think?"

"Yeah."

"You need to go down to your favorite burrito shop and ask them for a job."

"How's that being an entrepreneur?"

"It's not. But if you learn how to fold—roll, whatever—a burrito properly, that's half the battle."

"Half the battle for what?"

"Well, I know you love burritos and then you won't have to spend as much money on them. Customize the burrito any way you want. You can make them yourself once you learn the skill."

"But I want to be an entrepreneur…"

"Son, you don't. You don't want to be an entrepreneur. You want to make money without doing the work. Start with working the mexican food angle and see what comes of that."

I never had that discussion, of course, but if I did, I may have been operating a chain of fast food stores.

...Or arrived at the same spot I am now.

Either way, we help earlier versions of you become the best "future you."

As always,

Brian

P.S. –  Gobble, gobble.

https://youtu.be/owUJN-fSozc

From Planes, Trains, and Automobiles (1987), one of the best "Thanksgiving" films ever made.