Envy versus Creativity

This would sound a lot catchier in Malay "Bersaing, jangan berdengki".

In our lives as entrepreneurs, massive luck and fortune would most of the time miss us altogether, only to hit our dear friends and foes smack in the face. They were landed with the multi million dollar job and you are left with none. No luck getting some from your foe and sometimes your friends decided to keep it all to themselves.

I must admit, that feeling of disappointment can sometimes lead to envy and jealousy. And that is wrong.

One of the key elements of a Smart Entrepreneur is creativity. Creativity is so essential to Smart Entrepreneurs today that not having one is like driving a car without the rubber tyre. Yes, the car could move forward but it will be very noisy and painfully slow. On certain terrain, it would just spin uselessly in the sand, leaving the car static.

And nothing kills creativity like envy and jealousy. It is a sickness of the heart and blocks the mind. Envy would lead you to focus on him or her rather than you, your situation and your goal. Envy would occupy your time in finding faults with the other person, how he may have bribed, how bad his products really are, how unfair and stupid the world is.

Our religion, Islam, already knows this and clearly states that we must not have envy and bad-faith with our brothers. It knows the consequences of this plague of the heart and from the very onset, prohibits us from being as such - envious. "Hasad Dengki" is the main reason some muslim fail to prosper as a community. Not only it would lead some to sabotage his own brothers, but they are also bereft of creativity, leaving them unable to think their way out of their situation of despair.

To be creative, the mind and heart must be focused at the situation that needs to be solved, resolved and improved. That would be you, your situation and your goals. Only when you have all your faculty focused at yourself could ideas start building up; on making you, your product and your enterprise better. The world would look much much bigger and promising; the path to success much clearer.

So next time someone you know, love or hate received a windfall of good fortune, say "Allah I Great and his bounty is beyond measure, congratulations!" and mean it. Then move on to make your own event that would merit such exclamation. It may not be as big an event as theirs, but it will be a position that is a whole lot better than your present situation. By doing that, by improving yourself, you have been enterprising - you have done amazing!

Work smart people!