rule of hard corps

Another excerpt from my upcoming book ‘hard corps – the order of entrepreneurship’ and how this Type 1 TRIES to live

I once said that being an entrepreneur was a calling, like perhaps a priest – rabbi – imam. That was not a flip remark; I have great respect the people who answer that call.

Staying with this analogy because of the shared ‘nakedness’ of the roles – your personality, traits, strengths, weaknesses are on public display for all to see. Human nature seems to relish ignoring the 95% good to see the 5% bad: those times when behavior does not match our words. Since perfection is not possible, these high profile roles are performed in a most unfavorable environment of gotcha and the called have the farthest to fall. Integrity is easy to lose and the most difficult personal failing to overcome.

Like a priest or even better a monk, if we are going to self-manage – we need rules to live by. Taking a page from the Order of Saint Benedict and their Benedictine rules, here is my operational version, the rules of hard corps:

1. Embrace objective reality. With so much riding on how we spend our time, what decisions we make, and how we follow through – you must deal from a solid base anchored in reality. The truth is and has always existed separate from the observer and is not relative to the interpretations of you and me, it is not subjet to how we 'feel.' You must seek it out.


2. Understand your talents (and weaknesses). Given the all-encompassing nature of entrepreneurship: your first choice is whether to join the ranks of the self-employed, and the second is what value can you create. You must have the ability and the passion to survive what few can endure.


3. Clarity of purpose (and results). There is a strange dynamic afoot in the universe – people who are clear about what they want create those opportunities. Do not ask me to explain it, I have witnessed it enough to believe there are forces at work I do not understand. If you have accurate information and match that with talent and passion – you will know if this life is for you and over what you will do an all nighter. The nature of this journey is self-absorption and many sleepless nights.


4. Courage to walk your path. Living on purpose is difficult enough in today’s feel good everything is relative culture. But when your path is unique, when it is big, when it requires unfathomable levels of confidence – the sheepeople attack. You make them look (and feel) bad and their role becomes looking for your 5% to use as tools to ridicule and destroy. “How dare you be so sure of yourself!” Also, when the first rule is to embrace truth (objective reality), this involves much discomfort. You not only need courage just walk your path, but the courage to deal with the consequences of your actions. It is the dealmaker or breaker for success.


5. Persist. So many success stories are less about business models or better mousetraps than how the founder, the visionary, the leader stayed the course through all of life’s unsettling events. If it were easy, it would have been achieved already. I have been working on a business idea that has survived three failed startups, a sure contract, an in-the-bag VC funding deal, and a bunch of liars. Now after 8 years – I am months away of realizing my dream.

These are my personal rules, the rule of hard corps. Only you can manage yourself and only through self-management can you succeed in business or in life.