Entrepreneurs are interesting people. There has been a lot of ink used to discuss what it takes to be one. In truth, it would be interesting to spend some time listing the characteristics of a good entrepreneur. However, that is not my purpose.
I truly believe that many of us have a hidden entrepreneur in us waiting to be unleashed. What I want to do is speak about the issue of what it might take to release your hidden entrepreneur and how your world could change if that happened. If you are interested in walking away from the crowd, if you are somehow hearing a different drummer, or if you are in a dead-end situation hitting a glass ceiling and looking for an exit, this is for you. There is a way out. It is difficult and sometimes scary, but in the end, it will set you free. To find this road, we need to seek it in a most unlikely place.
It is hard to believe that it has been so long since the first Matrix movie was released. Actually it came to theaters for the first time in 1999. It is even more difficult for some of us to believe that after all this time, this movie and its two sequels are still available and continue to be re-released. The latest version is now on new Blu-Ray discs.
In some ways the Matrix trilogy was groundbreaking. They are evidence that you could have films that are full of all of the most breathtaking and jaw dropping fast-paced action, blazing guns, and car chases that adrenaline junkies could ever want. At the same time, they are not the normal mindless drivel that is all too common to this genre. Instead, they are movies that make you think. They are fiction to be sure. Even so, it was not difficult to see the parallels between that world and ours. You could hear people saying things like, "You know, this stuff could be true." Or, "They exaggerated some to make a movie, but yeah, my world is just that out of control."
I know it seems like I have gone pretty far afield from where I started talking about the entrepreneurial spirit. I assure you, though, there is a connection. If you've seen the Matrix movies, you will remember that in the first film Neo (played by Keanu Reeves) is taken to meet Morpheus (played by Laurence Fishburne) for the first time. The two men met in a large room. In his normal life Neo is a computer programmer named Thomas Anderson who senses that the world is somehow all wrong. At night in his apartment, he uses the alias Neo to hack into various computer programs seeking to understand some things that puzzled him and in the process begins his search for Morpheus. Now the men are face to face. In his turn Morpheus has been looking for someone he calls "The One," the man who has been prophesied to come to set the world free from the Matrix and restore it to what it should be. Morpheus is convinced that Neo is the One.
Morpheus makes a speech to Neo which contains the lesson we need to learn here. He begins by suggesting that Neo that considering all he has gone through Neo is bound to feel like Alice just after she fell down a rabbit hole. Neo agrees.
Morpheus asks whether Neo believes in fate. Neo says that he does not. He adds that he doesn't like the idea of anyone having control over his life. Now, it is Morpheus' turn to agree.
Morpheus then takes a few minutes to explain that the Matrix is all around them. It is a pervasive reality controlling everything and everyone. Neo was right to think something was wrong with the world. The world as they know it is nothing but a giant computer program controlled by the Matrix, and everyone and everything in it are nothing but pawns being moved around.
Morpheus gets to the point. From a small silver box he takes two pills and holds one in each hand. One of the pills is red, and the other is blue. Morpheus gives Neo a choice - Will it be red or blue?
Morpheus says to Neo, "This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill, the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes."*
Neo reaches out and takes the red pill from Morpheus' hand, puts it in his mouth and swallows it with water. All of the remainder of the story in the trilogy is the result of the decision to take the red pill.
Now, what does all that have to do with being an entrepreneur? It is this. There are no successful entrepreneurs who have not done what Neo did. In other words, entrepreneurs are people who are willing enter the unknown on faith and follow their own visions into the future.
If you are not that kind of person, then the blue pill is for you, and that is okay. You can stay where you are where it is safe and live the life you are leading now and just forget you ever read this. No harm in that.
However, if you want are willing to launch out into the deep, chart your own course, follow your own star with all its associated risks and dangers, then take the red pill, and join the journey because that is what being an entrepreneur is all about. It is about faith and risks and sometimes, standing alone.
So, what will it be for you? Red or blue?
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