The Entrepreneur as Hero Storyteller: Jobs, Branson, & Aristotle's Three Acts

Start a blog and read the Great Books. ‘Tis the first steps towards your media conglomerate. –Dr. E

When Steven Jobs rocked the music industry with the iPod, was it because he was a master musician? Does he even play any instruments? Is he an expert in technology? Does he program or design computer chips? Is he a master of business—does Jobs have an MBA or even a college degree? Is he an expert in the law behind digital rights management (DRM)? Or does his classic vision and leadership derive from some higher entity?

First and foremost, Jobs is a classic storyteller. The iPod rocked the world because it obeyed the three-act structure of Aristotle’s Poetics: it had a beginning—Apple’s online music store and contracts with major and small labels; a middle—the internet and millions of PCs and Macintosh computers; and an end—the maverick iPod. Because Steven Jobs saw the bigger picture—because he was able to tell a classic story to the record labels, to his design team, and to the public, he was able to beat out far larger competitors such as Microsoft and Sony and Time Warner.

He actually cast his larger rivals as the Death Star, the Matrix, and Sauron, with the iPod being the light saber and the One Ring. You too could join the rebels and fight the Orcs and forces of evil by thiking differently and buying an iPod. The story Jobs told made the iPod experience as much about fashion, music, and art as technology. Look closely, and you will see that every successful company tells a classic story, as story is the heart and soul of brand.

Joseph Campbell’s Hero With a Thousand Faces has perfect parallels with entrepreneurship. From the Call to Adventure, to the Meeting of the Mentor, to the Crossing of the Threshold, to the Belly of the Whale, to the Road of Trials, to Battle with the Dragons, to the Seizing of the Sword from the Stone and the Return on Home, Entrepreneurship shares all the high adventure of any movie based on Campbell’s classic, from Star Wars, to the Matrix, to Harry Potter, to the Lord of the Rings. To teach entrepreneurship is to inspire entrepreneurship, and as the purpose of all classical art is to inspire and awaken ideals within our souls, there is no better way to teach entrepreneurship than with the Great Books and Classics and movies that share their themes. For every entrepreneur who sets off on their own must live by higher ideals—by an absolute code of honor. Without deep knowledge of higher law, the 45 Revolver is rendered useless in the service of the Good.

Our heroes, from Odysseus, to Neo, to Luke Skywalker, to Frodo, to Stephen Jobs, to Richard Branson, are never specialists, but instead they must master a wide array of skills en route to Destiny. They must act courageously and think on their feet, and while such talents cannot be taught, a vast wealth of knowledge that can assist artists and entrepreneurs may be found in the mentorship of the Great Books and Classics. Although our heroes must brave the ultimate tests alone, they have much to learn from Morpheus, Obe Wan, and Gandolf—from Shakespeare, Dante, Campbell, and the Bible.

And so it is that this book constantly seeks to point you towards the greatest that has been spoken and written. For in studying Artistic Entrepreneurship, one must begin by asking that fundamental question of all art, which bleeds on over to all business, law, and technology—what grants a work immortality? Look behind the poetry and all that is lost in translation, and long after the superficial semblance is gone, the skeleton yet remains—the scaffolding—the classic, immutable story. The Odyssey, though originally spoken in ancient Greek, thrives in every single language today via Story. Hero is a most often misunderstood word in this postmodern day and age. In this era of Wall Street and NY publishing scandals and Hollywood hype, our heroes so often turn out to be boisterous, plagiarizing, thuggish, self-serving, lying, downright inconsiderate, dishonest, and selfish. While it makes for good reality TV, there are those higher heroes, so often unsung, jepordizing their lives and freedom to protect our lives and freedom. And the Great Books remind us of this—true heroes throughout classical literature were ever the most humble. From Odysseus who rejected a Godess and immortality to return on home to his wife, who dressed as a beggar to regain entrance to his kingdom, to Socrates, Moses, and Jesus who had little in the ways of means, but eternity in the way of morality.

Look closely at Steven Jobs and Richard Branson—there is a humility about them. Both lost their original startups—Steven Jobs had Apple taken away by MBAs, and Richard Branson had to sell Virgin Music to save Virgin Airlines. They both know that everything they do hangs in the balance at every second—they both know that the greatest risk in this life is to take no risks. They both understand Benjamin Franklin’s words on a deeper level, “He who trades freedom for security deserves neither.”

From Odysseus using his infinite cunning and courage to return on home to Penelope, to Dante crossing through Hell itself to win Beatrice, to Frodo enduring a thousand battles to get the ring to Modor, artistic entrepreneurship—living life in the service of some higher, romantic ideal—is the highest of all adventures. And this book—the 45 Revolver—is your light saber and One Ring. May you use it wisely.

While the goal of the modern corporation, academy, and Hollywood often seems to deconstruct myth and deny story so as to bolster bureaucracy at the individual’s expense, the fundamental right, and duty, of every free man and woman is to find that higher Story that they were created for, and to live it. America the Beautfiul has presented you with that rarest of all opportunities in the history of the world—to say what you want and own what you do—and to make your passion your profession.

Story is your most valuable entity on this journey. Never forget it. Always keep it by your side.

Welcome to the Renaissance.