Ethics and Values: November 2008 Archives

Dawn Rivers Baker, the editor and publisher of The MicroEnterprise Journal, has joined her voice to my debate with Professor Shane in her blog The Journal Blogger.

Here is part of what she writes:

But there's something else about Professor Shane's position that bothers me -- something I've said before in this blog.

It may be true that policy makers seek to create jobs and promote growth but it's worth considering why policy makers do that. Isn't the point of jobs and growth supposed to be their ability to allow people to achieve financially sustainable and comfortable lives so that they can live happily?

Is making people happy something to be sneered at?

A great point!  Success for entrepreneurs is almost always so much more than the financial outcomes of the venture.

If you recognize the quote in the title of this post, then you have probably read The Shack, by William Paul Young.

If you have not read this book I highly recommend it.  It is not a book about entrepreneurship, per se, but it is about life and what is really important in our lives.  So I guess, in a way, it is about how we choose to conduct ourselves as entrepreneurs. 

One of my favorite quotes from this book comes from a conversation between Jesus and the protagonist of the book named Mack.  Jesus says to Mack the following about why we work:

Men, in general, find it very hard to turn from the works of their hands, their own quests for power and security and significance, and return to me.

Thanks to Robin Anderson, Dean of the College of Business at University of Portland, for handing me a copy of The Shack when I was there to give a talk on our new book a couple of weeks ago.  I recommend you order a copy of your own.