What do wisdom, faith and mastery have to do with small business, solopreneuring, or entrepreneuring? If you’ve taking the leap into high-integrity self-employment and business ownership, you’ll know at least one thing: Taking the qualitative-growth, big-vision, small-business path can be very challenging, and thus requires inspiration, faith, mastery and wisdom — sometimes in very large doses.

While life as an employee includes the more trying moments that can broaden perspective, wisdom and skillfulness, someone else ultimately holds the responsibility for ensuring that a business remains viable (and for seeing that the garbage cans get emptied). A small-business owner, on the other hand, has many of the same personal and professional responsibilities as his employees, yet also walks the bottom line as the primary investor, decision-maker, risk-taker and accountability holder of the enterprise. Add the higher standards and ideals of creating and sustaining a business aligned with big-vision priorities and practices, and the crowd begins to thin.

This is why a big-vision small enterprise can be a powerful vehicle for personal, professional and spiritual development. Most wisdom and faith traditions include right relationship, right view or vision, compassionate communication, courage, service to others, and other big-vision principles among their primary tenets. To emphasize them as points of excellence and distinction in your business is to make them high priorities for refinement and development.

Leaders from the far reaches of history to the present day have drawn much-needed inspiration from a variety of wisdom and mastery practices. What is the role, then, of such practices in the health of a visionary small-business leader and, in turn, the healthy evolution and contribution of her business? Regardless of the words used — faith, spirituality, religion, philosophy, mindset management, psychology, personal development — some sort of practice, often philosophical or spiritual in nature, forms the basis for a business owner’s ability to skillfully envision and implement her business — and then navigate the myriad challenges of business ownership.

In turn, the journey of business ownership has the potential to become a vehicle or form of ministry through which one practices and builds competence, knowledge, wisdom and faith. Knowing and practicing this — regardless of what circumstances come your way — helps make the business owner’s journey more meaningful, and truly rich.

For wisdom- and faith-building resources, start with Big Vision, Small Business and the other Ivy Sea resources listed below.

Stay on-track and inspired with Ivy Sea's Conscious-Enterprise, Inspired-Leadership, and Big-Vision Entrepreneur Consulting Services: Learn how we can help you: (1) discover how to define your inspired-leadership, big-vision, or conscious-enterprise principles, (2) clarify and make progress towards your vision and "principles in action," (3) make the most of your individual and organizational strengths, (4) identify ways to "get there from here," (5) rise to greater levels of mastery, success and meaningfulness as a leader, group or organization; and/or (6) benefit from having a "thought and dialogue partner" with whom to discuss ideas, inspiration, issues and perspectives. How can we help you? Visit About Ivy Sea for more info, Or send us an email inquiry.