Entrepreneurship as the Pursuit of Beauty

Entrepreneurship is at its core nothing more than the pursuit of beauty. Although an entrepreneur shares many activities with an employee, the nature of the activity is oriented towards beauty rather than anything else. This is not merely a philosophical preference, but rather the nature of entrepreneurship itself. Beauty is, while not necessarily definable, recognizable to all humans. There are variations in preference, but it is intrinsic rather than subjective. While the various manifestations of beauty that some are able to recognize differ, their circumstances and cognitive architectures cause them to approach and perceive the same beauty from different angles. Although many entrepreneurs make money, the vast majority do not. The choice to create a business is often financially irrational, yet so many smart people still choose to do it. There is something greater than the low probability of high financial success that both draws people towards founding and lets people create new businesses. While it might seem like a roundabout way of looking at entrepreneurship, understanding it as the pursuit of beauty helps us to see the unique creative and artistic element inherent to creating a new business. 

Effective entrepreneurship requires a recognition of beauty, or the lack of it. The world is full of countless processes, institutions, and people, and entrepreneurship allows people to act on their feeling of unease as they perceive the world. Sticking points, industrial consolidation, regulatory barriers, all of these just sit and wait until their natural ugliness is recognized, or the beauty of their alternative is seen. Creating a business requires a yearning towards something that has never existed and may never exist. Rational justifications can assure someone of the feasibility of their idea, but only the beauty of their idea can drive it. Most entrepreneurs cannot put this into words and they merely understand when something feels right. This feeling of rightness comes when the brokenness of the world is matched with an idea that can convince the bearer of its potential. Even the least innovative founders share this spark of recognition. …