The Itch: The Alchemy of the Soul Along the Entrepreneurial Journey

By Emanuel Perdis

The entrepreneurial journey begins with a profound and persistent “soul itch”. An itch like no other that can only be soothed and ameliorated by embarking on the epic quest of entrepreneurship.

This very entrepreneurial journey, an odyssey of sorts, is often a magical, transformative and heroic series of challenging experiences that compel the entrepreneur’s soul, step-by-step, toward their much longed for horizon of destiny.
A journey of pursuit, surrender and awe, peppered at times with treachery and triumph. A tale of inimitable alchemy told with poetic symbolism, mythical motif and yet at the same time, nakedly sharing itself in the gritty realism of the uncensored trench-truths of business.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Balboa Press AU
• Release date: Mar 25, 2019
• ISBN: 9781504317269

Emanuel Perdis

Emanuel Perdis has been on the entrepreneurial journey for over 3 decades and has forged a ferociously honest and astutely observed understanding of entrepreneurship and business. He has fueled his penetrating insights into entrepreneurship with a relentless pursuit of metaphysical truth, allegory, psychology and the brute dynamics of power.

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Copyright © 2019 Emanuel Perdis.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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Interior Graphics/Art Credit: Rider-Waite Tarot Images

ISBN: 978-1-5043-1725-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5043-1726-9 (e)

Balboa Press rev. date: 03/22/2019

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CONTENTS

The Itch

Introduction

Part 1: The First Degree of the Itch

The First Degree Schema of the Entrepreneurial Journey.

An Obsessive Passion

Entrepreneur as Producer

Vision, Sense and Intuition

Obsessive-Compulsive Anxiety

The Throbbing Interface

Burning

Part 2: The Second Degree of the Itch

The Second Degree Schema

The Four-phase Journey

The Calling

The March

The Battle

Conquest

Alchemy at the Second Degree of the Itch

The Calling

Fear of Answering the Calling

Refusing the Calling due to Ignorance

Not Answering the Calling due to Distractions

Not Answering the Calling due to Complacency

The March

A Drop of Honey

The King and his Falcon

The Battle

Conquest

Part 3: The Third Degree of the Itch

The Stages

The Knight

The Prince

The King-Emperor

The Mystic-Wizard

The Itch

The Entrepreneurial Experience/Journey and its

Alchemic Transformation of

the Entrepreneur’s Soul

Introduction

I would like to begin by thanking you for honouring me with the time you are planning to spend reading my portrayal of the entrepreneurial odyssey. My purpose for this book is to share with you my observations of what it takes to build an enterprise from a small business to an empire and to thoroughly explain the spiritual transformation that takes place within the entrepreneur on this long and arduous path.

This intimate insight into the entrepreneurial realm of reality has been afforded to me by my experiences along my own journey in helping to forge an enterprise from a small one-store cosmetics business to an international cosmetics empire spanning the Pacific Anglophonic world. The entrepreneurial journey of our business, which was branded after the namesake of its key stakeholder, Napoleon Perdis, began for me in the fortuitous year of 1984, when my brother and only sibling, Napoleon, was just 14 years old.

I have studied Napoleon closely for more than three decades. You can live with someone a whole lifetime and not really know everything about them. Nevertheless 30 years do afford volumes of experiential material to draw from with some accuracy. I have also reflected and met and conversed with numerous entrepreneurs. I have acquainted myself with these entrepreneurs both in person and through biographical reading. My portrayal of the entrepreneurial journey therefore offers a thorough understanding of the archetypical entrepreneurial personality.

Where my story differs from the countless texts written on entrepreneurship throughout the annals of business literature is that it is told within a meaningful framework of the spiritual and mythological allegory, and uses plain language, drawing on universal and historical metaphors and meaningful analogies.

I have mused long and hard to come to grips with the various forces and patterns that have come to shape our brand’s birth, growth and proliferation. I have been afforded a vantage point akin to the fly on the wall witness to how any enterprise is born, grows, expands and dies, whether prematurely or at the twilight of a long dynastic destiny.

My written work here is the outcome of nearly ten years of deliberation about what turns out to be an alchemic transformation that is the entrepreneur’s journey, both in the sense of proto-chemistry science and the metaphysical and magical.

Who the entrepreneur is when they commence the entrepreneurial journey changes profoundly with each stage of their enterprise’s growth. The journey can and very often does magically transform the entrepreneur. He is changed, transformed on all planes of his existence; mentally, emotionally, spiritually, financially, socially, and on other planes that escape my mind at this moment.

I am quietly confident that the entrepreneurial experiences gained during this monumental journey that I will be revealing in The Itch will offer truly universal insights and inimitable lessons for all entrepreneurs.

I hope I have captured and described for you the very essence of the epic effort that rages within every entrepreneur’s soul. It is a very real struggle that has feeling, fury, and sensations throughout the body, and embroils the entrepreneur in their quest to conquer so that they may satisfy, once and for all, their all-consuming itch for meaning, importance and happiness.

In reading my story, I hope that you too will witness, appreciate and enjoy the majesty of the entrepreneur’s journey of conquest and the consequent alchemic transformation of his spirit: the transformation from Knight to Prince to King-Emperor and then, if wisdom, courage and justice permit, to Mystic-Wizard. I am excited to escort you along this turbulent yet meaningful and magical journey to actualisation.

PART 1: THE FIRST DEGREE OF THE ITCH

The entrepreneurial journey often begins as a deep-felt urge—an itch— to conquer. Through conquest, the realm to be subjugated can vary enormously from entrepreneur to entrepreneur. The object to be subjugated can be the way people do housework, the way the world does business, the way investments are made; it really can be anything. The itch can also be unashamedly a materialistic urge, or an egotistical urge.

This urge, the itch, is about attaining existential meaning and satisfaction through material, tangible, earthly success. It is also an urge for self-determination. Being completely in charge of one’s own destiny is a key goal, if not need, of the entrepreneur archetype. There is a deep-felt intuition that you cannot conquer and succeed if you are not entirely in charge of your own destiny and thus in prime position to benefit from the spoils of conquest. These two urges, meaning and self-determination, are concurrent and interdependent to a great degree.

Why conquer?

The urge for conquest operates on three profoundly deep levels. I will be repeatedly referring to these three levels as the first degree, second degree and the third degree. The levels will be explained later. The urge to conquer is best understood and most appreciated when the entrepreneur realises the bigger cosmic picture within which it operates. This urge, this ‘itch’, as I believe is most appropriate to call it, is the entrepreneurial soul’s deep and true longing for its purpose, its meaning, and most significantly, its importance.

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We will come to understand this ‘itch’throughout this book in greater depth as our story progresses and explain how it is tapped into and harnessed along a multi-level process of a multi-faceted metamorphosis. It sounds complicated—it felt much more complicated as it was taking place—but I have faith it will be clarified and perceptions illuminated. Now let’s begin …

The Itch operates on three fundamental levels of our being.

In the first degree, our most shallow level, that of our conscious physical being, the itch compels us steadfastly toward our mental, emotional and material goals. By steadfast, I do not mean consistent and even-paced, however it gets the entrepreneur to where he is heading, towards goals such as autonomy, recognition, financial freedom, wealth, ‘success’ and social dominance. The itch at the first degree is experienced in a very real, conscious and temporal way. It irritates and arouses desire and yearning; it frustrates, excites and infuses; its effects are felt physically as an itch to the mind and emotions.

To the entrepreneur archetype, the locus of control is principally external. His awareness of just how much control he exerts over his life is limited and reactive. The entrepreneur is fundamentally responding to his beliefs about himself, his world and the opportunities and resources he senses around him and within his grasp. He is not exactly a ‘victim’ yet; nor is he even close to stepping into creator mode.

I feel impelled at this point to make a very important distinction that will aid our understanding of the entrepreneur’s journey through the realm of spirit. The term ‘archetype’ has its origins in the ancient Greek words archein, meaning ‘original or old’, and typos, meaning ‘pattern, model or type’. Archetype therefore means an original pattern from which other similar objects or concepts are derived.

The psychologist, Carl Jung, wrote about the concept of archetype in his theory of the human psyche, saying that universal, mythic characters—archetypes—reside within the collective unconscious of people the world over. Archetypes represent fundamental human motifs of our experience as we evolved; and therefore evoke deep emotions in the soul.

Twelve different archetypes that symbolise basic human motivations, and each type has its own set of values, meanings and personality traits. They are divided into three sets of four: Ego, Soul and Self. The types in each set share a common driving source, for example, types within the Ego set are driven to fulfil ego-defined agendas. Most people have several archetypes in their personality, with one tending to dominate.

Now, back to the planes where the itch operates. In the second degree, at the unconscious and intuitive level of being, the itch drives us through a path, a multi-phase process that allows the itch in the first degree to be realised and ameliorated. It scratches the itch in the first degree. The itch at the second degree level, however, is experienced in a very surreal and intuitive way, in contrast to it being experienced mentally, emotionally and physically like in the first degree. At the second degree, it is felt and expressed largely through our dreams, our hunches, our serendipitous encounters and our random thoughts. It is the higher powers of the entrepreneur’s mind and energy field that are marshalled whilst trying to satisfy the itch at this deeper second degree level.

Importantly, the itch at the second degree level also compels us along a cyclical four-phase path. The path made up of these four phases is repeated over and over again in perpetuity for most entrepreneurs. A useful analogue would be the path of four types of competence that learners move through every time they begin a new challenge and ascend from ignorance to mastery. First we move from ignorance (unconscious incompetence) to conscious incompetence with self-honesty, then with masterly instruction we move to conscious competence and finally transcend our deliberate awareness of what we do to unconscious competence. Unconscious competence is mastery and can be witnessed when we see veteran surgeons or professional athletes in action. The four phases of this second degree itch’s path, though, are 1) the Calling, 2) the March, 3) the Battle, and 4) the Conquest.

This four-phase process relentlessly repeats itself with a thrust that pushes the entrepreneur with a loving cruelty that does not heed fancies, temporal readiness, comfort, or any other earthly limitations. This four-phase process creates an evolutionary drive for the entrepreneurial soul to grow from one alchemic state of being to the next. These spiritually alchemic states of being I am referring to exist and operate at the deepest possible level of our self and being, at the third degree.

The third degree level is the deepest level of our being. It operates at our eternal spirit level, our soul, what some may say spirit. It exists and functions along with the same metaphysical truth of the eternal nature of impermanence: the constant reality of impermanence.

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This itch nudges us along an all-powerful and mystical continuum of archetypal growth and development. Sometimes it drags us along kicking and screaming. At other times, it pushes us over the edge, needing us to discover our psychic wings within a split moment’s notice. This magical continuum that it moves us along, our soul evolving every step of the way, is a holy continuum, a seamless path of life and evolution.

I have structured and imbued the continuum model with significant benchmarks of development and segmented it with watershed thresholds. Movement along the continuum means a critical acquisition of authority over matter–energy and I have labelled each threshold to correspond with historical states of power initiation.

These historical states of power initiation are Knight, Prince, King-Emperor and Mystic-Wizard. They begin with the Knight’s executive privileges over the lay-folk—artisans, merchants and clerks—and this stage then moves into that of the Prince, a ruler of certain territory and superior resources. The Prince is then succeeded by the King-Emperor stage of the continuum, which concludes at the highest spiritual state of the entrepreneurial path, that of Mystic-Wizard. The legend of Merlin is an exemplary representation of this stage of the continuum.

The way I have structured and portrayed the entrepreneurial odyssey allows the reader to gauge which stage of the continuum they are at, the key lessons that have been acquired and those that are yet to be learnt or mastered. The entrepreneur does not need to wander around aimlessly, wondering where to, for me, next. Also, it can serve as encouragement to the challenged and suffering entrepreneur that the trials and hardships serve a higher purpose and will deliver handsome dividends in the future. For the entrepreneur prone to smugness, the model within this text serves as an important instrument to prod him out of his complacency.

Each of these four archetypal states along the continuum of authority and development entails a unique band of traits, strengths, weaknesses and an overall ability to manifest their object of focus at will.

A sobering point needs to be made at this early point of our story. Not every entrepreneur completes their journey to the very end of this archetypal continuum. We are not dealing with sugar-coated Hollywood endings here. Not every entrepreneur succeeds in becoming an Emperor, let alone manages to harness the potent magic of being a Mystic-Wizard. Some entrepreneurs, in fact, do not even want to become Kings or Emperors. They set out to achieve glory and favour as the archetypal Prince of their chosen domain. The baker, for instance, only wants the one shop but he wants the best bakery that everyone loves and talks passionately about. The baker may not want to have a franchise chain started that may end up broadcasting his success all over the country. Most of the key reasons why this aversion to epic success exists are discussed throughout this book. Presumption is one of the most damaging mistakes you can make in the realm of enterprise.

My decision to draw these parallels between feudal states of power and glory were intuited to me and it made perfect sense once I articulated the framework in its entirety. Our sense of the mythical is richly populated with motifs of kings, warriors and princes, and enigmatic figures of magic. The allegories that we all grew up on using these icons of power, adventure and fame were deeply enjoyable, translucent and easy to understand. I am confident that you too will find a precious gift encapsulated in the framework of business folklore that I have developed here in my story of the Itch, the alchemic transformation of the entrepreneur’s soul as it evolves along the entrepreneurial journey.

The theatres of war, politics and empire building resoundingly resemble the competitive world of enterprise, and as such not every knight survives all the battles they engage in. Nor does every prince’s competence and skills rise to the mark of their self-aggrandised image of themselves or their destiny. The commercial landscape of any economy is littered by mounds of failed businesses. Countless obstacles occur along the path of ascent from knightly and princely acquisition of territory to imperial domination. The obstacles demarcating each power state along the evolutionary continuum of authority must be successively overcome to progress toward the next stage. These obstacles not only change along the path but magnify in scale and complexity as well.

The First Degree Schema of the Entrepreneurial Journey.

Our deepest craving, from the moment we become conscious, self-reflecting and critically thinking individuals, is our craving for MEANING: a quest for understanding what is of true value, importance and the purpose of it all.

Tantalising questions torment us: What is all this about? What is my part in the big scheme of things? Do I even have a part? What am I meant to do with all these ideas in my head, all that I know and am deeply passionate about? Will anybody care about it or even understand me? These are just some of the many questions that afflict the entrepreneur on a daily basis, often well into the late hours of the night. In one way, these existential queries are no different for the engineer, the artisan, the peasant tilling the fields or the scientist gazing at the stars. We all share this angst in the existential quest for meaning. It is a fundamental aspect of our human condition. What is the whole schema of life and our personal place in it?

One of the defining characteristics of an entrepreneur is the ability to translate this fervent, mortal quest into a profound, self-made meaning. It is no coincidence that we often refer to successful entrepreneurs as ‘self-made’. The entrepreneur does not sit on his crossed hands, waiting to have the meaning handed to him. No way! Since he was a wee lad he has felt deep stirrings in his heart and belly that he has been struggling to understand and channel. He has wrestled with the overwhelm of sensory input, spontaneous creative ideation, and uncanny premonitions of opportunity. As a professional category of sorts, I have found the entrepreneur very capable of arriving at a meaning, and a compelling meaning at that. For some, these ‘powers’ awoke within them in childhood, in others throughout adolescence and early adulthood. For others, these stirrings arose in middle age. The key difference for entrepreneurs is that they are in the middle of it all. They are more concerned about their personal role in this drama called life, rather than being too caught up with the meaning of it all. It is a highly egocentric perspective and mindset overall. By egocentric, I am not necessarily implying an obnoxious kind of selfishness. For the majority, this egocentric view of purpose and place may indeed have expressions of undesirable selfishness in the sense of an external locus of control. It is up to me versus why me or poor me. The entrepreneur’s search for meaning brings him to an immodest definition.

This itch for meaning is personalised and harnessed by the entrepreneur into an extraordinary personal drive to make his very own stamp in history to let everyone know he is here and means to make a difference: to leave an indelible mark, and a vast one indeed. A significant way that the entrepreneurial archetype deals with his struggle with his mortality is a legacy. Often he dreams of his legacy being of such a magnitude that it reaches every part of the world, every aspect of living. His brand’s impact on human history becomes his form of immortality.

The entrepreneur satisfies his itch for meaning in the midst of a philosophised resolve that his life, and all in it, is about him. If he is not seeing it from an infantile, me-me perspective, it is then viewed from a perspective of gross responsibility, a mandate from heaven, one might say. He feels special, almost chosen, and there is finally an unequivocal explanation for this life-long visceral agitation, this itch that perpetually afflicts him.

He quickly comes to realise how he needs to satisfy his itch: the path of entrepreneurship. What he does not know is what exactly it will demand of him and how transformative a journey it will be, on all planes of reality and existence.

This personalising habit of entrepreneurs manifests as a deep and long-running vein throughout all their actions and thoughts. Everything is personal to them. Everything. From the experience a customer is given by a staff member in the most distant outpost of their enterprises to a clumsy mistake an accountant or lawyer makes in the course of their counsel. They take everything personally. Everything. It is their vision, their identity, their very meaning. The entrepreneurs’ enterprise is the vital extension of their essence, their critical success factor.

It