Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert was one book I’d been avoiding, as I tend to shy away from anything “spiritualâ€? (See my post, “That’s The Secret?”) or reeking of an “Oprah” pick. But it finally got enough recommendations from people I trust that I just had to pick it up. And I’m glad I did, because this became my second book in my “what does religion have to do with entrepreneurship?” series.
Eat, Pray, Love is the story of a woman who recovers from her divorce by eating, praying and loving again while she traveled the world–specifically to Italy, India and Indonesia.
Again, this is not a book for entrepreneurs, but it did give me some entrepreneurial inspiration. The author was often making choices that did not follow the normal path of getting married, having children, etc. This is similar to the life of an entrepreneur, who steps out of the “norm� of corporate America to try something new and different. It’s a very hard thing to do and with every new entrepreneur I meet, I try to feel him or her out as to whether he or she can handle a day where everyone tells them they’re crazy, nuts and/or completely wrong. (I had one of those the other day and, fortunately, today was quite the opposite …)
But, this book had one section that really struck me as a great entrepreneurial lesson. The author is a lover of language and words and, while she was in Italy learning Italian, her friend told her that there is always one word to describe a city. The one word to describe Rome was “sex.� She decided the one word to describe New York City was “achieve,� and LA was “succeed.� Other people in the book contributed their suggestions that Stockholm was “conform,� and Naples was “fight.�
I thought about this with regard to Boston (my current town) and the word that popped into my mind was “provincial� as in “something that lacks urban sophistication or broad-mindedness.� Hmmm. Not a great place for me to be launching a global business, is it? But it might explain why my biggest supporters have usually been outside this province that natives like to refer to as the “Hub of the Universe.�
Fortunately, my business is internet based, so my location is fairly irrelevant. Yet, in the book, the author took this concept beyond cities and onto individuals. What is the one word for you or your family? And, this is where I want to challenge entrepreneurs: What is the word for your company? Does it match the one for you? I once did a similar exercise and came up with the word “catalyst.� I like to make changes and empower others to do so, too. And I try to make my company live up to that, too. And, hey, why not be a catalyst in a provincial town? It could be interesting.
So, what’s the word for you and/or your company, or even your city?
The Top Shelf Bottom Line: This book is a really fun and entertaining read and, as for the spiritual aspect, it’s not too “New Agey.” I was won over by the author’s first “conversationâ€? with God, which was kind of a matter-of-fact interaction from the floor of the bathroom where she had been sobbing uncontrollably in the middle of the night over her inability to make a major life decision. The great commandment from “Godâ€? was a simple statement: “Liz, go back to bed.â€? Sometimes we all could use such a reality check.
This entry was posted on Sunday, November 18th, 2007 at 3:20 pm and is filed under Nonfiction. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.Leave a Reply
