Small Business Inspiration: A Quote From Ernest Hemingway ...

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?Man is not made for defeat. ?A man can be destroyed but not defeated.??

Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea

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This quote from Ernest Hemingway?resonated with me for two reasons:

1) It reminded me of Howard Roark, the protagonist in Ayn Rand?s The Fountainhead. ?Roark was a modern architect that struggled in obscurity, professional criticism and sabotage as well as romantic heartbreak, but whose human character, integrity and independent-mindness prevails in the end. ?The Fountainhead is an amazing book that every entrepreneur and small business owner should read.

2) Doesn?t this quote capture perfectly what being an entrepreneur and small business owner is all about? ?For every step forward, we encounter roadblocks, twists or turns that take us a few steps backward. ?That might mean pivoting our business model 90, 180 or 360 degrees. ?That might mean struggling day-by-day to make payroll and pay our suppliers. ?That may even mean shutting the business down, which just might destroy us. ?But our human spirit will persist as it is not made for defeat.

Icebreaker:?What quotes or other works of literature inspire you as an entrepreneur or small business owner?

-To contact the writer on this story: Philip Nowak in Chicago at philip.nowak@firmology.com.

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