Entrepreneurship as the Pursuit of Beauty

Entrepreneurship is at its core nothing more than the pursuit of beauty. Although an entrepreneur shares many activities with an employee, the nature of the activity is oriented towards beauty rather than anything else. This is not merely a philosophical preference, but rather the nature of entrepreneurship itself. Beauty is, while not necessarily definable, recognizable to all humans. There are variations in preference, but it is intrinsic rather than subjective. While the various manifestations of beauty that some are able to recognize differ, their circumstances and cognitive architectures cause them to approach and perceive the same beauty from different angles. Although many entrepreneurs make money, the vast majority do not. The choice to create a business is often financially irrational, yet so many smart people still choose to do it. There is something greater than the low probability of high financial success that both draws people towards founding and lets people create new businesses. While it might seem like a roundabout way of looking at entrepreneurship, understanding it as the pursuit of beauty helps us to see the unique creative and artistic element inherent to creating a new business. 

Effective entrepreneurship requires a recognition of beauty, or the lack of it. The world is full of countless processes, institutions, and people, and entrepreneurship allows people to act on their feeling of unease as they perceive the world. Sticking points, industrial consolidation, regulatory barriers, all of these just sit and wait until their natural ugliness is recognized, or the beauty of their alternative is seen. Creating a business requires a yearning towards something that has never existed and may never exist. Rational justifications can assure someone of the feasibility of their idea, but only the beauty of their idea can drive it. Most entrepreneurs cannot put this into words and they merely understand when something feels right. This feeling of rightness comes when the brokenness of the world is matched with an idea that can convince the bearer of its potential. Even the least innovative founders share this spark of recognition. 

Entrepreneurship shares with art a lack of clearly defined ends. There is no process that can distill the steps to create a masterpiece. There is no set of management steps that can create a successful new business. Human creativity and instinct and recognition of beauty are the only guides into uncharted territory.  While it is difficult to know exactly what to look for, it is easy to recognize when a startup has found a good idea or a beautiful piece of art has been created.  In entrepreneurship and art a process of structured thinking and deep domain expertise are helpful and often necessary. The supplies and necessary knowledge however, are not sufficient to create.  Entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs often describe the creative process as one of revealing something that already existed rather than logically calculating specific steps. The baseline knowledge is necessary, but the best ideas are received rather than forced. Greatness cannot be manufactured. Those with an attunement towards beauty will have an advantage in both entrepreneurship and art that cannot be made up for with resources or knowledge. Beauty is shorthand for truth, and those able to recognize truth even in its non-rational forms will have a much better success when trying to integrate with and reshape the world.

Entrepreneurship is statistically irrational. A great majority of startup businesses fail. If entrepreneurs were simply seeking to make money, there would be many more effective ways of doing it. The decision to still start a business despite the massive risk associated suggests that there is something other than financial reward motivating entrepreneurs. It could be said that they merely have a higher risk tolerance, but I doubt this fully explains how many talented people choose to start businesses. The draw towards beauty is able to pull people even at great financial and personal cost. The ability to see a problem that can be fixed can make an entrepreneur throw all of their resources at it, even when the odds of success are slim. Most entrepreneurs hold onto their businesses even when it is no longer rational, combining their own energy with their idea at great cost. The fact that these entrepreneurs are driven by beauty rather than mere hedonistic calculus makes this sort of devotion not only understandable but commendable. In a world with such a lack of imagination and willpower, entrepreneurs stand as a reminder that an understanding of truth and the associated pursuit of beauty can create things far beyond what most humans would accomplish seeking their own financial reward.

Receive SchiffGold’s key news stories in your inbox every week – click here – for a free subscription to his exclusive weekly email updates. Interested in learning how to buy gold and buy silver? Call 1-888-GOLD-160 and speak with a Precious Metals Specialist today!