What is Journey Entrepreneurship?

 

This video clip from my March 2014 Capture Your Flag interview asks the question: what is Journey Entrepreneurship?

The term “Journey Entrepreneurship” captures the deeper essence of bootstrap entrepreneurship with the unique missing ingredient: meaning stewardship. This is the “Inner Journey” line added to the Bootstrap Map after we read Joseph Campbell’s “Hero’s Journey” at the Bootstrap Book Club. Without stewardship of its meaning, a venture exists purely as an economic entity. Stewarding meaning is a distinct process separate from other activities we commonly focus on such as building a product or selling to a customer. Journey entrepreneurs learn how to master this capability for themselves and their ventures. 

In Steve Jobs we find a skilled steward, both of his personal meaning and that of Apple’s. He articulated his personal meaning beautifully during his 2005 Stanford graduation speech. His stewardship of Apple’s meaning evolved at key moments: in 1984 with his announcement of the Macintosh; in 1997 with his return and the “think different” campaign; and near his death, expressing Apple as the intersection of Liberal Arts + Technology at the iPad launch.

The JOurneY Model describes how meaning can be continuously stewarded for all beings: people, organizations, cities. The Essence Mining Model by Danny Gutknecht is a process for meaning articulation. We will declare the shift from authority to process at our SXSW 2015 talk along with the Declaration of Meaning which you are invited to sign!

We will continue the JOurneY Experience after SX, starting March 23. Join us!