The Code of the Entrepreneur

I’m borrowing (again) from my entrepreneurship guru, Dan Sullivan. Dan identifies a statement that every entrepreneur makes to him or herself—whether she does this consciously or not. It’s the entrepreneur’s code, the independent businessperson’s declaration of principle:

I will expect no remuneration until I have created value for someone else.

Let me repeat that:

I will expect no remuneration until I have created value for someone else.

Dan Sullivan of Strategic Coach

“Create value” is a hard-boiled business term. There’s no art to it. No romance. But you and I as writers and dancers and actors and photographers live exactly by that dynamic—whether we realize it or not.

We write a book. It’s got to find readers. It’s got to sell. It has to “create value” for the person who lays out hard American greenbacks for the privilege of scanning through its pages. Otherwise, we’re not artists, we’re artistes. We’re living in a dream world.

We must remember always that art is a transaction. The viewer or reader or gallery-goer brings to the table something precious—her time and her attention. In return, you and I must deliver something—an image, a song, a story—worthy of our reader or viewer’s faith and expenditure.

Why do I cite this code? I do it to get our feet planted firmly on the ground. So that you and I as musicians and filmmakers and videogame designers can operate in the world as it really exists—and not in some “artistic” fantasy.

I will expect no remuneration until I have created value for someone else.

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