June 16, 2010

from my notebook…

"Hugh's Daily Cartoon" Newsletter. A new cartoon sent out every weekday morning to your inbox [RSS version here.]. A wee chuckle to start your day off right etc.

25 Responses to “from my notebook…”

  1. Joann Sondy says:

    Inte­res­ting that you make that conc­lu­sion. I tend to think of the man more as a teacher.

    What finan­cial risks did he take?
    What profit/loss did he incur in a busi­ness deal?

  2. Jeff Fulcher says:

    Isn’t that what a lot of social entre­pre­neurs are Joann? They teach their clients to do their pro­duct better…

    Jesus’ pro­duct was simply a rela­tionship with God and eter­nal life.

    But even more than that, isn’t an entre­pre­neur someone who sac­ri­fi­ces the easy way (a cubicle job, being a car­pen­ter, etc.) to stake out on his own? Some­ti­mes you can see that as a finan­cial risk — it is “easier and safer” to keep your desk job rather than go try to start a your own thing. I think most entre­pre­neurs go do their own thing because of their pas­sion as much as they do it to make money.

    Hugh, I just found your blog the other day and have been blown away almost every time I come by. This is one of my favo­rite insights yet.

    • Hugh MacLeod says:

      @Jeff, Thanks for the kind words :)

      PS I totally con­cur with your reply to Joann (although she was kind and right to ask)… I’ve been an entre­pre­neur for a while now. Not once have I defi­ned myself in terms of finan­cial risk or profit/loss. Those are just basic mecha­nics… the sco­re­card, not the actual game itself.

      Pro­fit? Loss? All my busi­nes­ses I’ve star­ted were pretty much pro­fi­ta­ble from Day One… set­ting them up cost no more than it would cost your ave­rage wor­king sch­moe to go to Vegas for the wee­kend. One of the bene­fits of being a cheap, tight, Scot­tish bas­tard ;-)

  3. He gave him­self as a ran­som for the world. – His busi­ness was to seek and to save that which was lost.…
    Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, and hath redee­med us to God by his
    blood, to receive power, and riches, and wis­dom, and strength, and honour,
    and glory, and bles­sing.
    Bles­sing and honour, glory and power, be unto
    Him that sit­teth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, for ever and ever.

  4. Tim harrap says:

    Car­pen­ters don’t take risk? When was the last time you cut a mor­tice & tenon Jeff?

  5. I agree. Jesus was an entre­pre­neur. But that does not mean that ever­yone calling him/herself an entre­pre­neur is as enligh­te­ned as Jesus was.

    :)

  6. Oh yeah, and there are still plenty of self-employed pro­fes­sio­nal reli­gious gurus out there, not all of them neces­sa­rily impro­ving the world. I’m rea­ding a bri­lliant book called “Under the Ban­ner of Hea­ven” right now. Nasty stuff.

    Um, sorry for being a dow­ner on your blog, Hugh :-)

  7. JohnO says:

    Its wrong to inter­pret Jesus in the regime of busi­ness. The goal here is to inter­pret the regime of busi­ness in terms of Jesus.

    It’s inc­re­dibly anach­ro­nis­tic. But the true defi­ni­tion of an entre­pre­neur. All others are false Messiahs.

  8. Kevin Marks says:

    Hm, I’d say Paul was the entrepreneur…

  9. Abso­lu­tely Hugh! And boy would he turn around in his grave if he knew the mes they made of his legacy — but that’s just history

    He was ori­gi­nal, not afraid to be an indi­vi­dual, kic­ked the group’s shins, rede­fi­ned the mea­ning of sins, he had a clear vision and road­map of the near and medium-term future, and knew exactly where his mar­ket and strength was: nurture

    And he trea­ted ever­yone around him as an equal. He’d kick ass at e.g. the #e2conf now, among others

    http://www.martijnlinssen.com/p/gospel-of-thomas.html

  10. Dear Hugh~
    Your words made my heart leap.
    I con­cur ~
    Though actually
    JESUS IS KING
    and
    KING OF KINGS at that.

    You have ins­pi­red me in many ways and I appre­ciate your attitude.

    I am a rich and famous artist (yet to be dis­co­ve­red or paid). I first dis­co­ve­red you by quo­tes pos­ted from your “How to be Crea­tive” book on http://www.quotationspage.com.

    I have spent the last 2 days stud­ying your work and web­site, and today subsc­ri­bed to your Newsletter.

    It is nice to vir­tually meet you
    Jam

  11. Harl Delos says:

    Tim Harrup should note that Jesus was NOT known to be a car­pen­ter (although his mother’s hus­band was.)

    An entre­pre­neur is a per­son who orga­ni­zes and mana­ges any enter­prise, esp. a busi­ness, usually with con­si­de­ra­ble ini­tia­tive and risk.

    Jesus was a com­mu­nity orga­ni­zer, rec­rui­ting mem­bers for the Society of the Poor at Kum­ran and rai­sing funds for their sup­port. The Poor were a group devo­ted to overth­ro­wing the Roman rule and res­to­ring the Jewish faith. They fai­led, but that doesn’t mean that Jesus was not an entre­pre­neur. It’s just that the enter­prise fai­led after Jesus died.

    Paul was also an entre­pre­neur, in a cou­ple of ways. First of all, his family made tents for the Roman mili­tary. Second of all, he crea­ted a reli­gion that was con­si­de­rably dif­fe­rent than the Judaism that Jesus prac­ti­ced (which was why he was reca­lled to Jeru­sa­lem mul­ti­ple times, each time given a severe bea­ting for blasphemy, the punish­ment for which was one stroke short of death.)

    (Anyone who thinks Jesus died in order to give man­kind ever­las­ting life needs to read the book of Daniel, and find that yes, it was pos­si­ble to gain ever­las­ting life before Jesus lived.)

    But the real ques­tion perhaps ought to be, since YOU are a child of God, why aren’t you an entre­pre­neur, too?

  12. DJ Coffman says:

    Jesus was also one of the first peo­ple to teach the prin­ci­ples of the law of attrac­tion, which are pretty ama­zing when applied to business

  13. raimundodiaz says:

    The big entre­pe­neurs came later…but there were a lot of his con­tem­po­ra­ries that prac­ti­ced the biz too.

  14. Nigel James says:

    Who do men say that I am?

    I’d like to think he has moved into the VC business.

    Cheers,
    Nigel

  15. nakedpastor says:

    If we take the wiki­pe­dia defi­ni­tion of entre­pre­neur: “is a per­son who has pos­ses­sion of a new enter­prise, ven­ture or idea and assu­mes sig­ni­fi­cant accoun­ta­bi­lity for the inhe­rent risks and the out­come”, it really has nothing to do with money but with something new that the per­son is pas­sio­nate about and willing to put everything on the line for. Thanks for the peek into your note­book Hugh.

  16. Hugh, I read your blog and your news­let­ter every day without fail. I have to say, this is my abso­lute favo­rite ever. Well done!

  17. Sarah Mikulis says:

    And he did it all in snappy san­dals and a robe… hmmm… I’m really begin­ning to see the con­nec­tions here.

  18. John Seiffer says:

    I’m more inc­li­ned to believe he was an adver­ti­sing guy.

  19. Mauricio Henao says:

    Jesus was an idea­list… Saint Peter and the other dis­ci­ples were the real entre­pre­neurs.. pro­bably the big­gest entre­pre­neurs in the modern history

  20. raul says:

    Jesus show us The truth in the earth.

    Jesus explain the mode to be bet­ter persons.

    Jesus are the most risk entre­pre­neur, because he entre­pre­neur with is own life.

  21. Robert Bruce says:

    Jesus was an entrepreneur?

    Did he do stuff by design or let them evolve? Oh silly me, one of the two was his dad’s thing?

  22. @Martijn Lins­sen Actually, he did turn around in his grave. That’s the other half of the story!

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