Expert Interview: Encore–The Single Most Important Thing Entrepreneurs Can Do for Future Success

Joel Solomon

Joel Solomon is the author of the book “The Clean Money Revolution: Reinventing Power, Purpose, and Capitalism.” He is the Chairman of Renewal Funds, a $98 million mission venture capital firm. He has invested in over 100 early growth-stage companies in North America, delivering above market returns while catalyzing positive social and environmental change.

What Is the Most Important Thing Entrepreneurs Can Do for Future Success?

“You can know all the mechanics and the necessities of business, but if you skip learning how to handle conflict, how to understand your own feelings, and how to be in relationships, you will likely wreak havoc. You might succeed financially, but you may die unhappy and leave a tainted legacy. Financial success and power can have big value, but there is much more to life than that. We must be successful as human beings.”

Why Is This Important?

“Money, finance and business so dominate the world that we need to be able to look at the bigger picture and understand that each of our actions—that we’re doing either consciously or unconsciously—creates our world. You’ve got to find inside yourself how to make choices with a clear heart and mind, choices that are actually making the world the way that you think is right and best. That is your contribution and reason for being alive on the planet.”

What Are the Key Lessons Learned Here?

“Consciousness is a big word, but to me it just means paying attention and making choices. I am just a guy struggling to figure it out. We are choosing constantly, whether it is what words to say next, what products to buy, what to do with our life or how to deal with conflict. Life is a practice, and it actually needs to be practiced. These things we’re talking about, like learning inner skills, being a good human being, can and must be intentionally practiced in all we do.”