WHAT IS MINDFUL ENTREPRENEURSHIP?
Let’s start with a confession. Speaking as a researcher and as the author of The Mindful Startup, I have to say there is no clear and undisputed answer to this question! But since you made your way to this article, I suppose you are looking for a problem to be solved. Are you overwhelmed by the stress involved in starting or running a business? Are you tempted to bring your idea to life but don’t know where to start? Do you believe that innovation efforts in your organization should be more human-centered or sustainable?
You came to the right place because I decided to give you something far more useful than a universally agreed definition of mindful entrepreneurship – I will give you everything you need to find your own answer. What does it mean to be a mindful entrepreneur to you?
WHY DO WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT MINDFUL ENTREPRENEURSHIP?
First of all, let’s see why we need to have this conversation in the first place. Why can’t we go on running businesses as usual? You might have guessed that my own opinion about this issue is pretty clear.
Starting my own business to give mindful entrepreneurs all the tools they need to be fulfilled and successful didn’t happen overnight. I put my whole heart into writing my book and invested two years of my life in completing the Faculty Innovation program at Stanford University’s d.school. I certainly know the challenges, struggles, and setbacks of turning a bold vision into reality. In fact, I’m still right in the middle of it!
Besides all these sacrifices, I believe that my vision and the work of many other people on similar paths are important for our society. We need all the wild ideas out there to come up with solutions to our environmental, social, and economic challenges.
The world needs mindful entrepreneurs
Let’s start with the bigger picture. My favorite framework to grasp the mess we are in is the United Nation’s 17 Goals for Sustainable Development. These goals summarize 169 specific targets, which are to be realized by 2030. For example, one target for goal number four, Quality Education, strives to,
“... eliminate gender disparities in education and ensure equal access to all levels of education and vocational training for the vulnerable, including persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples and children in vulnerable situations.”
If we are to reach these goals, we truly need to encourage wild ideas all over the world, and we need to promote more diversity among entrepreneurs. Increasing entrepreneurial diversity is crucial because impactful solutions need to consider various perspectives and diverse life realities.
In that sense, the “mindfulness” in mindful entrepreneurship needs to concern the outcome of the actions of entrepreneurs across the world. Indeed, experimental research conducted by Yuval Engel from the Amsterdam Business School shows that practicing loving-kindness meditation can promote more sustainability-driven decisions among entrepreneurs.
I believe we need to stop promoting entrepreneurship as a means to make money fast (although this might still be an outcome of solutions that create impactful solutions)! Entrepreneurs, whether they act in existing organizations or start their own businesses, need to become mindful of the impact they make with the solutions they create.
Luckily I am not alone in this opinion. All across the globe, institutions promote the idea of sustainable, social, and impact-driven entrepreneurship, such as the global network of Impact Hubs! I am a proud member of the Impact Hub Hamburg myself, and I truly enjoy the spirit of fellow impact makers who are working hard to lead change.
entrepreneurs need mindfulness
We can’t stop here, however! Let’s dig a bit deeper. Being actively involved in such dynamic and ever-changing environments also has implications for the inner worlds of entrepreneurs and changemakers of all sorts. They need to navigate the volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA) involved in their ventures. And navigating VUCA can be stressful!
This, I believe, can have consequences for entrepreneurs who don’t manage to prioritize their health and well-being. The scientific discussion around entrepreneurial well-being is in full swing, and many well-being-related advantages of being a founder are known. High autonomy, a sense of purpose, and meaningful relationships with your co-founders can be a wonderful source of meaning in life.
There are, however, also some more critical voices. A study conducted in 2019 by Michael Freeman and colleagues showed that certain mental health conditions, such as depression and substance abuse, were much more prevalent among their sample of entrepreneurs from the US than in their employed comparison group. So, what could be a way for entrepreneurs to prioritize their mental health and well-being?
Research shows that mindfulness has proven as an effective counterpart to dynamic and stressful work environments in many contexts. A commonly used definition proposed by Kirk Warren Brown and Richard Ryan in 2003 suggests that mindfulness is
“a receptive attention to and awareness of present events and experience.”
I believe that mindfulness practice offers several benefits for the inner development of busy entrepreneurs. It can be an early warning system for experiencing too much stress in the first place, a way of skillfully returning to a state of calm, and a means of handling stressful situations in more adaptive ways.
Again, I am not alone in the view that inner development is crucial for the future of our world! For example, the nine Inner Development Goals have been developed as a framework to accelerate the work towards the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. I see mindfulness practice, in turn, as a beautiful means of promoting the inner development goals of Being, Thinking, Relating, Collaborating, and Acting – five dimensions proposed by the Inner Development Goals initiative.
Mindful entrepreneurship starts within ALL OF US
Taking an inner development perspective, mindful entrepreneurship can only become a thing if changemakers cultivate entrepreneurial mindfulness. Combining the need for mindful entrepreneurs and the need for entrepreneurs to be more mindful, what could entrepreneurial mindfulness mean?
The combination of entrepreneurship and mindfulness is really just in its infancy – whether we talk about practice or research – but sometimes we need something to get a discussion started.
In my book, The Mindful Startup, I dug into the existing literature, talked to experts in the field, and conducted my own entrepreneurial mindfulness self-experiment to come up with a first definition. Here is what I offer:
“Entrepreneurial Mindfulness empowers changemakers to sustainably create the future from the present moment. It combines an entrepreneurial mindset with the ability to consciously envision a desirable future while mindfully acting in the present moment. A mode that I also refer to as “Being-while-Striving.” Furthermore, Entrepreneurial Mindfulness implies having the compassion to appreciate our planetary and our individual boundaries.”
This definition tells us a little bit more about what entrepreneurial mindfulness might be, and what it might do for us. But how do we facilitate the inner development necessary to cultivate this future-proofing mind- and skillset?
HOW TO make Mindful Entrepreneurship a thing
As I wrote earlier, the systematic integration of mindfulness-based approaches into the world of startups and entrepreneurs is just emerging. First initiatives, however, look promising! In a conversation with Professor Yuval Engel, who conducted the first experimental studies on meditation in the entrepreneurial context, he pointed me to a very exciting accelerator program at MIT – one of the leading global academic institutions.
In 2019, the MIT Sloan delta v accelerator ran a 12-week entrepreneurial self-awareness program – combining business-related tools with tools that helped participants to prioritize their well-being, handle difficult emotions, and manage stress. Surveying the 60 participants before and after the program, MIT announced that:
40% were more aware of their emotional experience than before.
88% had established their personal systematic mindfulness or meditation practice.
34% of those who established a mindfulness routine became more confident communicators.
93% indicated that practicing self-awareness can help entrepreneurs create more successful ventures.
MIT SLOAN Self-Awareness Accelerator RESULTS
These results show that mindfulness practice can not only help entrepreneurs to prioritize their well-being more effectively but also become more successful entrepreneurs! Sparked by Professor Yuval Engel’s research and the MIT Sloan results, I decided to take mindful entrepreneurship to the next level and launched mindfulstartup.school.
The mindfulstartup.school vision
What is the only way forward for entrepreneurial minds who find a problem and believe in a potential solution to this problem? Exactly, they take this idea forward and into the world! Driven by the vision of supporting entrepreneurial ecosystems in promoting mindful entrepreneurship, I developed offers aiming at the various stages of the entrepreneurial process.
I believe different points of the venture-building process require different types of support. Hence, today, I deliver keynotes at universities to raise awareness about the importance of prioritizing one’s own health and well-being as a founder, offer mindfulness-based workshops in accelerator programs, and offer mindfulness retreats for founders.
However, I believe this is only the beginning, and I am always looking for ideas to collaborate on, wholesome partnerships, and cheerleaders for the idea of mindful entrepreneurship.
do you meet your passion with compassion?
I wrote this article to provide a source of inspiration for fellow changemakers who want to know more about the why, the what, and the how of mindful entrepreneurship. We need mindful entrepreneurs to tackle the many challenges of creating an inclusive and sustainable society and economy. Entrepreneurs need a counterbalance to the dynamic environment they have to navigate, and mindfulness is a wonderful tool to achieve this balance.
I encourage changemakers all over the world to prioritize their well-being and meet their passion with compassion by cultivating entrepreneurial mindfulness. One thing is clear though – just as building and running a venture, this requires the right skill set and mindset! It requires clear intention and grit to actually do the self-care work.
If you need support in learning how to meet your passion with compassion, check out my solutions, and please get in touch with me. I am always keen on connecting with fellow changemakers!