At some transformative moment, consciously or unconsciously, and with or without the promise of good money, the entrepreneur becomes an emotive entrepreneur and falls deeply in touch with the emotional story about what they do for people.
His or her 'business life' and emotional life, fuse together.
For the emotive entrepreneur, it's bigger than simply leaving an oppressive job.
It's more than just an opportunity to call "their own shots".
The emotive entrepreneur works to uncover the symbiotic power--the affirming link--between what they do, and how they change the lives of others for the better.
For the emotive entrepreneur the experience of being one is what matters most when stacked up against everything else that is supposed to really matter.
Go ahead, dismiss the emotive entrepreneur as soft, I dare you...
On any given day of the week, the emotive entrepreneur experiences a heart that races wildly, or gets choked up when they think of how interconnected their work is to higher themes that matter beyond the literal nuances of generic business transactions.
They don't need extreme sports to feel alive, the connection to what they do pushes the boundary of what's emotionally acceptable, what's feasible, and opens a door to a world of meaning.
The emotive entrepreneur accepts the business world's aggression, and yet, their compassion for others is intrinsic, inherent. Wow, huh? After all, aggression is OK. Compassion too? Empathy even? Such duality is an asset and a liability, for most of the business culture, and is probably a switch hitter depending on what might impact the Profit and Loss sheet. And can aggression be fused with compassion? After all, compassion has got to get along with the idea of crushing competition, even though nobody says that in good company. (mixed meaning of "good company" encouraged).
Such contradictions are fun to watch play out in the shadows, don't you think? Nothing like a good unconscious contradiction in plain view and yet living in the shadows of the business culture at large...eh?
The emotive entrepreneur balances such dualities. Do they have higher themes? Emotive entrepreneurs never leave home without them.
For me, the literal side of business is a strategic foundation for something bigger. That foundation is the stage where the act of plunging a siphon into the heart of what's not considered safe or comforting, or average is essential for surviving as a business owner and helping others.
The emotive entrepreneur: powerful and feeling alive, bro. Sometimes believing in her audience more than her audience believes in themselves.
She's there to jumpstart an entirely new phase of life for her audience, her customers; the emotive entrepreneur is often the catalyst. And she feels more whole as a person as a result, to boot. Of course, there are those who would snicker at this Jungian notion. But I think snicker at Jung and you're a philistine bastid, ok?
Yet who could blame the anti-emotives for eye-rolling? An impervious cool head, strategically devoid of sentiment, is still a prized modus for business warriorism--so any form of "emotivity" has to learn how to stand up to the analytical
we're-so-busy-no-time-to-talk-
bottom-line-driven-better-faster-cheaper-
we've-got-to-post-big-profits-at-all-costs
part of our business culture.
Can you blame our pal, the business culture? Naw. We place a high price on straightforwardness. On efficiency. The contradiction of course is that efficiency needs a dose of inefficiency to be truly effective. Efficiency's yin is the yang of unadulterated, un-caged discovery.
A secret weapon that's no secret:
The emotive entrepreneur's secret weapon is the contradictory act of stepping into metaphor and the realm of emotion to help others see the literal more clearly. That's the whole point of empathy, (a key trait of the emotive entrepreneur) and the ability to think abstractly and symbolically (the tools for the work of empathy). Such tools help define the reason why we need to be so efficient in the first place, and help us see what is literal in another way, so we can do a better job-literally.
That's why she, the emotive entrepreneur, a believer in the higher meanings, the emotions behind and in front of what we do, always rings the bell. (That means she 'made the sale' in addition to feeling fulfilled, in addition to helping others in a deep way)
Ding.
To avoid others who don't understand her, she finds her tribe of people who appreciate what she does.
Da-Ding.
She knows this form of business spiritualism is what inspires the imagination in others, and her work is alive with possibility and housed in an infrastructure to make it all happen--for her audience, of course.
DADA-dingding.
Next: The key way for the emotive entrepreneur to have an impact is to learn how to express their differentiation in the marketplace. That's not as easy to do as it sounds. Most entrepreneurs or small business owners would have a hard time delivering a quality vision of differentiation on the spot. So what can the entrepreneur do? Next time!
I have printed this blog and I carry with it with me at all times. I read it before I go into meetings and before I go into networking events. I am an emotive entrepreneur and I am proud to stand tall and say so. I am passionate about what I do and who I am and I make no apologizies for how these components meld into my life. Thank you for writing this account of what it means to be an emotive entrepreneur and for opening a conversation about the future of this ever growing segment of business people.
-Rachael West
Rachael...thank you so much for your heartfelt comment. I'm going to have to print your comment out too and use it as my own mental currency. You sparked that bigger convo about the EE that day on the radio program, and I'm very grateful for that. j