{"id":78375,"date":"2018-02-12T13:31:06","date_gmt":"2018-02-12T21:31:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/?p=78375"},"modified":"2018-02-12T13:31:40","modified_gmt":"2018-02-12T21:31:40","slug":"entrepreneurship-101-growth-and-innovation-over-self-preservation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/2018\/02\/12\/entrepreneurship-101-growth-and-innovation-over-self-preservation\/","title":{"rendered":"Entrepreneurship 101: Growth and Innovation Over Self-Preservation"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re an entrepreneur, you must seek growth over everything else.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n “If you’re not busy growing, you’ve busy dying.” – Bob Dylan\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I see growth in many different ways:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Growth of self-confidence in yourself <\/li>\n
  2. Growth of knowledge and wisdom <\/li>\n
  3. Growth of your skills and abilities to do or make stuff <\/li>\n
  4. Growth of influence (gaining more followers, or deepening of influence on the followers you already have)<\/li>\n
  5. Growth of physical strength and size (growth of muscle mass)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Why grow?<\/h2>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    My philosophy is that life is all about growth. If you think of the ecology of life– life strives towards growth.<\/p>\n

    For example, consider a tree. A tree always strives to get bigger, by ingesting more nutrients from the soil and the air. Slowly but surely, the size, strength, and height of a tree is augmented.<\/p>\n

    As human beings, we must grow. We must grow in our wisdom and knowledge of the world, and the more we grow, the more powerful and strong we are, and the more we can share with others.<\/p>\n

    On self-preservation<\/h2>\n

    \"self<\/p>\n

    As an entrepreneur, you are a risk-taker. Specifically, you take risks in your personal life for the sake of the greater collective of humanity.<\/p>\n

    Of course you cannot allow yourself to die. It is essential that you stay alive. You stay alive as an entrepreneur by being able to pay your bills every month, and ensuring that your expenses don’t supersede your income. You must stay profitable as an entrepreneur (your income being higher than your expenses), and also it is good to have some financial buffer (in the form of cash savings).<\/p>\n

    \"tree<\/p>\n

    But the thing I want to emphasize is this:<\/p>\n

    \n Often we let the self-preservation instinct become more powerful than our instinct of growth. To thrive as an entrepreneur, you must focus on growth over self-preservation.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    \n

    Self-preservation kills us<\/h2>\n
    \"Blue
    Blue salt and red background. Boston, 2018<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    For example, by focusing too much on self-preservation, you will fall victim to the ‘status quo bias’ — you will stay consistent to what has worked in the past, which will prevent you from innovating, making new things, and experimenting with new processes or ways of doing things.<\/p>\n

    For example, as I write these lines, I am currently #1 on Google<\/a> for ‘street photography<\/a>‘. I have been able to make a profitable living teaching street photography workshops and being a specialist in street photography. However I’ve been having the feeling the last few years that my destiny is something greater than just street photography. Also, my aspirations in life are greater than just the small sphere of ‘photography<\/a>‘.<\/p>\n

    \"red,<\/p>\n

    I’ve been really fascinated with all<\/em> forms of visual arts (painting, sculpture, photography, etc) and have also been interested in poetry, cinema, theater, film, music, and other forms of creative self-expression.<\/p>\n

    I’ve also been fascinated by entrepreneurship and the art of making a living from your passion<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    \"Selfie<\/p>\n

    So if I let my self-preservation instinct supersede my other artistic curiosities, I would trap myself in the small bubble of only street photography. By focusing on the growth-mindset, I benefit in several ways:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Avoidance of boredom<\/a><\/li>\n
    2. Long-term survival\/thrivival<\/a> (personal thriving in life)<\/li>\n
    3. Augmentation of my knowledge, and future ability to further share more ideas<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Once again said simply,<\/p>\n

      \n Focusing on growth is more important than self-preservation, if you want to achieve grandeur and fulfill your personal maximum in life.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

      Don’t just stick to the tried-and-true. Keep innovating!<\/p>\n

      \n

      How to grow<\/h2>\n

      \"Growing<\/p>\n

      Now that we have established the fact that it is essential to grow as an entrepreneur (and a human being) — what does it really mean to grow? How can we track growth, should we track growth, and is it even possible to track growth?<\/p>\n

      Against self-quantification<\/h3>\n

      \"WAIT.<\/p>\n

      The problem is that a lot of us track growth via numbers. A lot of people track their personal growth by the 1, 0’s, or commas in their bank accounts, by how many likes\/followers\/page views they get, or other quantified measures.<\/p>\n

      The reason why a lot of people track progress with numbers is because tracking growth with numbers is tangible. We as humans can easily see growth via increased numbers, increased percentages, and charts\/graphs that show upward numerical growth.<\/p>\n

      \"London
      London selfie, 2018<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

      But it is of my opinion that we shouldn’t track our personal growth with numbers. Rather, we should only track our own personal growth by our own self-assessment of ourselves<\/strong>. That means, track your growth by looking within yourself and asking yourself:<\/p>\n