Enterprise?

In 1705 the Royal Navy launched  a 24 gun frigate named HMS Enterprise.

Some years later during the American War of Independence the USS Enterprise was launched.

The current USS Enterprise is a huge nuclear powered aircraft carrier.

In 300 years according to the Star Trek story the USS Enterprise will be a warp drive Starship capable of travelling through galaxies.

So what?

This illustrates three things.

Change itself, which I was talking about last time, with an element of continuity, but also change over time and how mind blowing it can be, and third, the reason for change and this is what I’d like to talk to focus on.

The question is why? Why do you and I change? Why do you and I decide to change? Why do we seek change? What’s the point?

This may be on a personal level or on a societal level as I alluded to last time, but there’s lots to think about on the reasons for change.  I’m not talking about change for change sake, more about deliberate change and specifically positive, rather than negative change. (that’s another story entirely).

My thesis, at least for this message, is ‘positive change is the outcome of enterprise’.

What is enterprise? With my project manager hat on I’d say it was a project – but bigger than a project because it’s not just about construction but about more, and probably many more, significant changes.

Do you have an enterprise? What I mean is do you have an overarching ambition or purpose to achieve something not just great but specific, significant for you, and life changing

if you do how’s it going? Is it on track? Is it doing and achieving what you mean it to do or is it maybe stuck in the Doldrums not going anywhere or not where you want it to?

A good friend of mine just bought a sailing ship built in 1909. Her enterprise is to bring it back to Liverpool from Sweden and set it up as a resource for Mersey Heritage providing teaching and various other services. She’s a very resilient person and the ship, her current ‘enterprise’, has a few problems. But the process is still proceeding, and the enterprise is still in place despite the setbacks, thanks to her fortitude resilience and passion in carrying it through.

Our enterprise, like the starship or the aircraft carrier is something big, all encompassing, complex, but at the same time, discrete, specific and unitary. It’s just one thing, the one thing we are dedicated to achieving. More than a project as it will consist of many.

Also, it isn’t something you or I could do by ourselves, it’s too big for that. It needs supporters, facilitators, contributors, providers and so on. Neither is it a short term thing – more a five year plan, or at the very least three years from start to finish and that doesn’t count the years up front when we are conceiving and honing the idea.

The enterprise to land men on the moon and safely bring them back undertaken by the United States took around ten years but was thought of long before then. Building and creating the medieval cathedrals took a lot longer.

Once you create and initiate an enterprise its inevitable and essential other people become involved and it’s worth noting that the Cathedral builders and the NASA engineers took possession of their piece of the overall operation – it became their enterprise alongside whoever conceived it.

Back to my question. What is your enterprise and then, do you have your own or (no less valid) are you an integral part of ‘someone else’s’ enterprise? And if the latter have you taken personal ownership of your part?

If neither, what are you going to do about it? It’s all well and good having a dream, vision, purpose or goal, but without an enterprise to support it its highly unlikely anything will come of it.

Enterprise is about putting your dream into practice.

Let me know your thoughts and questions.