The Greatest Gift You Can Give an Entrepreneur

As I looked at photos of Richard speaking in front of a crowd tonight, I thought about the road that has lead us here. It's been a bumpy one, full of sacrifice and bruises. But it has brought us to our destination, however vaguely we imagined it. And when we arrived, it felt so much like home we couldn't deny that we had reached something for which we'd been longing.

But we would never have gotten here if I had not given Richard the greatest gift you can give any entrepreneur:

The freedom to change his mind.

I think that's part of the entrepreneurial spirit. It's about breaking away from the well-travelled road and forging a new one. You can't expect someone to stay exactly on a path that doesn't exist yet. There are no quarterly promotions and annual dividends to help you measure your success. There's only "there" and "getting there." This often involves detours and hacking away at branches again, even after you were just getting used to being surrounded by familiar things again.

Sadly, I have spent many years being embarrassed by how untraditional our life has been. I would look for rational explanations when someone would ask, "What's he doing now?" Or, "You're moving again?" This put distance and resentment in my relationship and even distance between me and my ability to live. I was too busy waiting for things to settle into the rhythm I thought my life should take.

Over the last few years, I've come to better understand Richard, and the things that make him tick. I've come to trust his intuition and admire his unconquerable spirit. I've seen him build cities, watch them crumble to ash, then fearlessly start building again. It's hard not to love someone like that. So many times I would have given up; so many times.

Now that I have a better perspective, I wish I could reach across time, give myself a big hug of compassion, and say, "I understand. It's okay; things are going to turn out fine."

There sure have been a shortage of people in my life that did understand. But I can't blame them, really. After all, I didn't understand. And besides, being an entrepreneur really is about swimming upstream, and breaking away from the masses. It's about doing things different - not reinventing the wheel, but using the wheel to take you to brand new places. It's being a pioneer.

All of these things imply that you will be alone.

I used to wait for my life to calm down, and for it to take on a more "normal" cadence. Only now that I've seen the pattern worn deeply into my life do I understand that this is my life. No. It's our life. And when I look at it that way - as an adventure that we are embarking on together, and not something that is happening to me - I can better see it for what it is, and I am excited to be travelling with someone who aims so high.

My sister recently posted the following quote on Facebook:

That sure sums up my life. And so I will always give Richard the space to change his mind, because he is not really changing his mind at all. He is merely calibrating his course.

And I get to go along for the ride of a life time.