See contrary to popular belief, being an entrepreneur and running your own business is anything but glamorous to those that do it. Of course we hear and read about the success stories of the Reginald Lewis, Oprah and Bill Gates etc but the true stories of entrepreneurship are of those you seldom hear or read about.
Small businesses drive the US economy. While the media and others celebrate and congratulate the top of the food chain, it's the other millions of small businesses that really drive the economy, create jobs and opportunities and give back to the communities they serve. This is the servanthood that often gets overlooked.
When most if not all small business owners signed up to start their own business, while making money, controlling ones own destiny or whatever may have been the impetus, after a while there is a shift that often goes unrecognized. That shift is one where regardless of how much success or failure the owner may experience, being in business for oneself allows that person to take on the higher calling of servanthood. You see it all of the time across racial and gender lines of business owners that take their resources, money and otherwise, to create actionable social change that is important to them. Take Oprah for example. Started out as a reporter, to having the worlds most recognizable talk show and now owning her own network where she controls the programming. So now what you get is a slice of Oprahs life and whats important to her from her Super Soul Sunday's to the books and thought leaders she interviews and endorses. As an entrepreneur she created a platform to deliver what she wants and ultimately what some consumers want.
It's no different from the mom and pop operations that provide all types of goods and services in their immediate community. They sometimes employ the so called unemployable, provide jobs for their family and friends and are proud to be a business in their community. They contribute to causes that affect them and others and make a difference in their own way. They serve.
Society has given servanthood this image of only feeding the poor on holidays, volunteering at their kids school or church or whatever. While all of that is admirable and very noble the gift of serving doesn't stop there. It extends to the millions of people that have found the courage to risk it all by following their passion in life, found a way to monetize it and thereby make a difference in the lives of others. It's not always the life that they chose but the life that chose them. Why? Because entrepreneurs are just different. That's the reason why we are who we are. We are passion filled calculated risk takers, goal achievers, multi task masters and best of all servants of our community.
So I encourage you to support all small business owners in any way that you can. Support that persons restaurant or bar, consulting service or other business in any way you can. Trust that you are getting way more than what you spend with us through the good deeds and services that we provide to the community as a whole.
We appreciate the love and we are doing what we can in our own little way to change the world. My best friend and I always would say that we were going to change the world and in our younger years we never really knew how we would accomplish such a task. But being an entrepreneur since the age of 15, I now recognize and understand I'm doing just that by employing others, providing opportunities and just by being a ready and available servant.
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