By Christina Wedgwood

“Entrepreneurs push civilisation forward… [they] tinker with a universe that doesn’t yet exist.” Or so says, Jack Delosa, serial entrepreneur and founder of The Entourage.

That’s a lofty pursuit and could seem like quite a lot of pressure. However, for that 1% (approximately) of the population with that special fire, that true entrepreneurial spirit, it’s the thing they simply have to do.

In late September, Verity and I dragged ourselves out of bed on a Sunday – the first day following daylight savings, might I add – to head along to The Entourage’s Unconvention. Packed into the Bruce Mason Centre were hundreds of other crazy people like us, who were also giving up a day of their weekend to learn something, and be inspired.

And inspired we were! While some of the speakers weren’t amazing (and had us wondering why we had sacrificed additional sleep when we’d lost an hour that night already), Jack was spellbinding. Not only was he a good speaker, he just seemed to ‘get it’, and within moments of coming out on stage, he had all of us eating out of the palm of his hand.

We could go on and on about all the things we learnt that day, but we’ll try not to. At a high level, we learnt the following:

Entrepreneurship should be your life’s work

Your life’s work is a statement about who you are, so the business you start (or work in) should be an extension of you. Do your values align? Do you feel like you’re contributing to, or building, something special?

As millennials enter and achieve seniority in the job market, we’re seeing more of the things that they believe in coming to the fore, such as flexible work hours, accessibility and open communication, and a focus on growth and development. Creating a life more closely aligned to your real self (and your values) is, in today’s market, more commercially viable than ever. Jack asserted that truly great entrepreneurs don’t see work as being separate from them; it’s not something that we just show up for from 9am to 5pm… so it makes sense, really.

Entrepreneurship is a calling – it’s not a rational decision  

Let’s face it, the path to starting a business (or starting virtually anything from scratch) is hard. Nobody wakes up one day and rationally thinks: ‘You know what, today I’m going to leave my safe and secure, well-paying job and strike out to do something on my own, something that I can’t guarantee will work – but… I have a fairly good feeling.’ Circumstances may lead you there, as they did me, or you might wake up one day and think: I can’t not do this any longer! Make no mistake though, you’re not being entirely rational. (We’re not saying you shouldn’t do it – rational isn’t always best – but just make sure you know what you’re working with!)

Entrepreneurship should be to move the world

Because it’s hard, and it sucks sometimes, you’ve got to find some meaning and purpose in what you’re doing – and not necessarily in an airy-fairy way. In fact, your purpose can be as altruistic (or not) as you like, as long as you have one. You’re going to need to hold onto it if you have any hope of getting through the bi-polar rollercoaster of a day in the life of an entrepreneur. It doesn’t matter so much what you do, so long as you view it as a vehicle to change things for the better, to improve things.

Create a community

To succeed, you need a group of people, whether they be staff or customers (preferably both) that share some common values with you and that want to be a part of what you are doing. It’s not just about having your vision, mission and values written on the wall – it’s about how you are aligned to them; whether they are held up as standards to hold ourselves to; and whether they influence who we show up as each day.

Jack said, and this really stuck by me, that “the extent to which we achieve our vision is the extent to which we can move other people towards it.” To do this, you need to have a community that believes in what you do, and you need to be a good leader, which he talked about as requiring two key things: authenticity (being you, with all your vulnerabilities) and caring (with every cell in your body).

The last thing that stood out (as it well should) is to make some noise (and share your opinions) – no one wins by being small and quiet! So get out there, be loud and proud about your passion, do your life’s work, create a community, and move the world. We certainly try to!