Last Thursday I spoke at the monthly luncheon for the Utah Valley Entrepreneur Forum (UVEF) down at the Novell campus in Provo.

I gave my Adventures in Entrepreneurship presentation. I’m hoping they put my slides and the audio from it up so that I can link to it. I really enjoyed the event, and I met some great people afterwards.

One of those people was John Pilmer. John is the President of PilmerPR. One of the 7 Laws for Entrepreneurial Adventurers I present is to “Leap before you look.” John told me afterward that reminded him of a quote he was familiar with:

But when I said that nothing had been done I erred in one important matter. We had definitely committed ourselves and were halfway out of our ruts. We had put down our passage money–booked a sailing to Bombay. This may sound too simple, but is great in consequence. Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, the providence moves too. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way. I learned a deep respect for one of Goethe’s couplets:

Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it.
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it!’

That quote is from The Scottish Himalaya Expedition, 1951 that was written by W. H. Murray, a Scottish mountaineer.

It’s great. Here’s an adventurer talking about how they leaped before they looked. Entrepreneurs definitely fall into the group of those that dream and of those that begin their dreams with boldness. And if that means as an entrepreneur I can also lay claim to genius, power, and magic, I’ll take it.

P.S. - For those interested, the “Goethe couplet” referred to by W.H. Murray is from an extremely loose translation of Goethe’s Faust lines 214-30 made by John Anster in 1835. For more info, see what the Goethe Society of North America found in their research.

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Next week is a whirlwind.

I head to California Monday morning with Blaine for some Doba meetings Monday and Tuesday. I get back to SLC at 11:15 p.m. Tuesday night and drive directly to Logan. Wednesday morning at 8:30 a.m. I’m presenting on Adventures in Entrepreneurship for Partners in Business as part of the business school there. It’s the 24th Annual Information Technology Seminar part of the Partners in Business series. (BTW, since I converted to an Apple Fan Boy a little over 3 years ago, I’ve never been more proud of my accomplishments. My time slot at the seminar is officially the “Apple Computer Company Distinguished Lecture.” Whoo-hoo!! )

I get done at 9:30 a.m. and jump in the Mini to try to get back to Orem as soon as possible without receiving any moving violations–I’m assuming my Valentine 1 will help in that regards. I’ll stop by the house, change my clothes and load up my gear, kiss Amy and the kids, and head out at noon with a group of 7 other guys for my 6th JerCore trip to the Grand Canyon. We’re doing the Royal Arch loop off the South Rim, a roughly 40 mile loop that gets us to Elves Chasm, the highlight of the trip.

I get back Monday night March 3rd, and then attempt to dig out from what is the inevitable result of any whirlwind: a mess.

Don’t worry about me finding a Dark Spot on the Map to clear my head. And IMHO, the mess when you get back is always worth it.