Last year, my niece won her college’s entrepreneurship department’s “complete the sentence” competition by responding to the question WHY DO YOU WANT TO BE AN ENTREPRENEURIAL ROCK STAR?
Her answer – short and sweet, yet packed with such deep wisdom: “…BECAUSE YOU GET TO WRITE YOUR OWN SONGS.”
I asked my brother, a life long entrepreneur, what he thinks about his life of business building and entrepreneurship.
He first addressed his daughter’s winning answer with a philosophical response.
“At first that sounded trite to me, but the more I thought about it the more I liked it.  It has depth.  Because we all yearn to truly create, just as we all long to worship. These are aspects of what it is to be made in the image of God.  God creates: we are made like Him, and therefore desire to create as well.
I keep “entrepreneuring” because it is the best position from which one can help direct outcomes that matter in the lives of people.  But I use “entrepreneur” in a broader sense than most do.  An entrepreneur in my view is somebody who understands how to “create new value,” no matter their field of endeavor.  The mother who is innovating her child’s educational experience and the engineer who devises a new way of looking at making buildings resistant to earthquakes are both entrepreneurs.  My experience in working with renowned entrepreneurs has taught me that the term “entrepreneur” applies horizontally across all areas of work; it is not a vertically defined group limited to those who start and run their own business.  That’s why I think “Introduction to Entrepreneurship” should be a required class at colleges and universities that are serious about preparing their graduates for the challenge of changing the world in which they will live.
I like working with entrepreneurs because they bring an unmistakable energy to finding solutions.  They also exude a sense of determination and self-reliance that is so refreshing in our day when the “entitlement mindset” seems so prevalent.”
Brainstorming creative solutions for earning additional income encourages us to “write our own song.” The spirit of entrepreneurship arises from those moments. Any songwriter realizes the risk of putting their music out there. She writes and rewrites. She may start with the chorus and then contemplate the verse. She realizes the tempo may not quite work with the syncopation, so she scraps her melody and starts over. Months have been poured into this outlet, but when her song is finally written, she steps back and listens to what she has created.
It took work. It took time, but when her passion was realized, her song was written and it was all hers.
The same theme runs through our brainstorming process for making money from home.
So what would your answer include. Fill in the blank.
WHY DO YOU WANT TO BE AN ENTREPRENEURIAL ROCK STAR?
For me, I don’t need to be a rock star. I don’t necessarily even want to be one,  but writing my own song is a dream that can be realized.

Is there a melody running through your mind yet? Have you started humming it?
(Read here for all of the 31 Days to Balancing Beauty & the Budget.)