A while ago I was having a good conversation on the podcast with Stuart McMillan. Stu is a deep and philosophical thinker, well read, and interested in exploring the perspectives and ideas of those he encounters.
He’s also an entrepreneur at heart.
He likes to create, serve, and innovate, and he likes to collaborate with a select few respected colleagues.
But he is also a bit of a loner, and he prefers to define his path, rather than follow someone else’s.
He’s been a sprints and performance coach for most of his career, but as you will experience in any one of the sessions we did together, he’s seen a lot and done a lot in his life, and it’s created many unique thought streams.
In this episode in particular he spoke to the differences between entrepreneurs who are motivated by the deal, or the win, versus those who are motivated by the sharing of an internal passion.
I was originally uncertain if this was an idea he manifested himself or adopted from his own readings, but I loved the metaphors of missionary and mercenary that he used to describe these two characters.
After some research, I’ve discovered that there have been others to share this thought stream, like Randy Komisar in his book, “The Monk and the Riddle – the art of creating life while making a living”
Randy’s book works through many of the challenges of the business world of silicon valley at the height of the .COM era, the endless VC deal making, and the challenges those in that industry lived to execute the deal and yet at a loss to feel a connection to fulfillment and inner contentment.
As I have experienced in business, especially for those who have grown from the industry of human performance, there are so many who work through a process of beginning as an employee in a position with an organization, then deciding that they want more autonomy, they often move into the world of solo-preneurship.
Solo-preneurship usually means you are the commodity, or you have a service or commodity for sale that you have created and are passionate about exposing to others so you can help them in some way.
When Stu and I spoke, he metaphorically referred to this person as the missionary. What they are selling or serving is something that means something to them, and they believe it has value. They believe it can be helpful for many people and they want people to know about what they have.
One of the problems with the missionary is that they are often attached to what they do, sell, or serve, and they don’t always see how it solves others issues. They believe in it, but they don’t know how to make others believe in it unless they can have their customer experience it, feel it, or live it.
They also find themselves challenged by the idea of the bottom line of business. They will often subjugate their desire to have financial success because they don’t want to cause their customer or client any undue expense or challenge.
Sometimes they find themselves stuck in the business. The business in some way is them, or a reflection of them, and they can’t actually remove themselves and look at it as a business. The missionary compromises the profitability in favor of the sensibility of service.
This is the un-matured missionary.
The more sensitized missionary discovers that the relationship between business success and servitude can be illusive, but it is attainable. It just requires a longer and slower strategy with clarity of purpose, and a recognition of how one is truly serving the customer.
The mercenary on the other hand is the one driven by the deal, the opportunity, and most often the bottom line. They don’t care so much about what they are selling or serving, just that it is something their customer wants, and it has a value that will obtain significant net gain.
This is the characterization of the .COM VC described in Komisar’s book.
Mercenaries are often way better at being unemotional and tactical about their business decisions. They make decisions that serve the win or the bottom line. But they also understand the customer psyche, the problem they have that the mercenary can solve. Mercenaries recognize that the success of a business rests on the ability of the founder to recognize a problem, find the solution, and sell it to the customer that needs it.
Mercenaries are often more comfortable with the word “sell”. Missionaries are challenged by this word. It has a negative connotation, and leaves them with a feeling that they are taking advantage of their customer, or preying on them in some way.
The maturation process in business for the missionary is the recognition that making money, and selling what they do well, is not something shady or misleading, it is the nature of providing something that others value. When you have something valuable the customer will show you their valuation through the engagement of your time or product.
The shift from solo-preneur to entrepreneur happens when the missionary begins to learn about the bigger picture that the mercenary sees quite vividly. But true success as an entrepreneur requires one to recognize that without profitability, the dream can not be sustained.
Earl Nightingale’s quote, “Success is a progressive realization of a worthy ideal.” is a wonderful belief system, but does it pay the bills? This can be the most difficult question for the missionary to solve.
The missionary is hell bent on the realization of the worthy ideal, but often to the detriment of their financial viability.
The Mercenary often ends up lost or empty of real fulfillment. They compromise family, relationships, or character in order to execute the deal, and one day it all catches up to them. Or, they remain on the merry-go-round built on the foundation of the next conquest, constantly hoping that fulfillment lies over the next win.
A lust for making money vs a lust for making meaning out of your life.
The truth lies somewhere in between. The truth of meaningful business and the realization of the worthy ideal of a product or service can be commingled with financial viability, and ultimately profitability.
The great mercenaries of business mature also in their process, recognizing that to ultimately feel an internal sense of accomplishment and fulfillment, they must also find a worthy ideal in their process.
Is it to show others the way, or to share profit with those who have less, or to uplift those that can not see what they see? The great ones recognize they have a gift, and they begin to share it with those who were not so anointed.
Entrepreneurship is not for the faint of heart. It requires time, and runway of sorts, clarity, consistency, and a desire to evolve and grow.
Fundamentally, the hybrid stock of the metaphorical Mercenary and Missionary is the penultimate conclusion. Can one be rich in both fulfillment and wealth? As Komisar’s book subtitle describes, “the art of creating life while making a living”.
I think it’s possible, how about you?