Entrepreneurship of the mind

A few weeks ago while listening to NPR I came across the phrase "entrepreneurship of the mind."  While I immediately loved the wording, I wasn't completely sure of it's meaning.  However, the last few weeks have brought me to a place where I am living it out...or getting thoughts on how to live it out.

I am a thinker, a dreamer, a philosopher.  I am the "idea" guy in the brainstorming meetings.  Rarely, if ever am I the one that figures out how to implement the idea.  No, I am the one that first gets the idea.  I plant the idea in others.  I cast the vision.

The other night I went to see a play at the local university.  One of the professors wrote the play about his experiences growing up in a Christian home with questions that just wouldn't go away.  Eventually he accepted that he was an agnostic.  The play was really great look at traditions and holidays.  However, I took something else away from the play.  I took a sense of empowerment, I was encouraged.  I saw how ideas can be communicated through art, specifically theater.

What is the role of the artist in culture?  That answer has always been changing, evolving, being challenged and redefined.  In my opinion the true role of art isn't merely to provide entertainment, but to challenge our world and the society which we have created.  Society is also evolving, and it is the artists that provide a unique perspective on where we are heading.  

Being a recent college graduate people are always asking how I am "using" my degree.  Some, in asking the questions take for granted that I am one of those that have bought into the idea that you to college to get trained for a particular field and then spend all your energy getting paid from that field to support whatever lifestyle you are wanting to live.  Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on the perspective) I have not bought into that system.  I haven't dismissed it, I don't even know if I want to.  All I know is that like the play I saw the other night I too have plaguing questions that will not go away.  And like in the play, no one is allowing me to voice my questions or lack of answers.

Someone recently told me to find what I enjoy and figure out how to make money doing that.  It's hard when one enjoys thinking.  Seriously, thinking and exploring life's deep questions is what I find fun and what I do in my free time.  I love to think.  That is one leading reason I pursued a theology degree, because at some point when we start to ask questions "God" will come up.  I also have a psych degree for similar reasons.  I want to understand why we do what we do.  Thoughts are never isolated from the world around us.  Thoughts are meant to be lived in the flesh.  That is where psych comes into the conversation.  So if I want to think, I need to figure out a way to allow those thoughts to generate income.

Ahhhh the artist's plight.

I believe that I have had the thought on how to make money by thinking.  I will share my thoughts through film.  Just like the professor wrote his play to communicate his questions, I will share my thoughts on the social absurdities and put them in film for others to reflect on.

I also heard another saying recently, "all good things will get criticized."  So bring on the criticism.