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Entrepreneurs Are Homesteaders, But They Don’t Know It
The homesteader wilderness and its similarities to the world of entrepreneurship and the qualities needed
“I went to the woods because I wanted to live deliberately…and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.” — Henry David Thoreau
What does it take to be a homesteader? The question may seem unrelated to your current pursuits, but it is intimately connected to everything you will do now or in the future. You are a homesteader, but you may not realize it.
Homesteading requires a certain mindset, which I believe you assume you have. If you didn’t think you had “the right stuff,” you would have been extremely skeptical and wouldn’t have embarked on this venture into the wild.
Yes, it is into the wild because you don’t know what you will meet there. We humans are limited by our current ability to imagine the unimaginable. Perhaps that’s where AI could be a faithful servant.
But AI doesn’t know either because we don’t have the skills to provide it with the algorithm that it needs. No algorithm, no path forward provided by artificial intelligence.
What the mind does not know, the eye does not see — East Indian proverb
Lessons Learned From Homesteaders
The past is a treasure trove of important clues to navigating an uncertain future, and entrepreneurial homesteading is that future you’ve chosen. What can history teach us?
Forget about the fact that these people were clearing land in the middle of the wilderness. They were trying to find water and provide what they needed to survive incredibly cold, snowy, and wet winters. No, you won’t need these specific things, but you will face challenges just the same.
