Reshid Dervishi on
Business, risk and the character of the person building a company.
Entrepreneurship is often presented through its beginning and its result. An idea, courage, investment, and then a picture of what we built. Between those points there is far more life than that story usually reveals. There are decisions made without complete information, obligations to people, money not yet collected, and questions that experience has yet to answer.
When I speak of the philosophy of entrepreneurship, I mean our approach to the realities of that work. Why are we building a company? What are we prepared to take on, and what do we promise more easily than we can deliver? How do we protect our interests without losing our character? These questions do not replace calculation, knowledge, or organisation. They help us understand the business we are creating and the people we become while sustaining it.
At the beginning, I learned many things only once my lack of knowledge already had consequences. A good idea does not mean we understand finance, people, or sales. Energy cannot replace judgment, just as someone else’s persuasive manner cannot substitute for our own experience. An important part of maturity is recognising what we do not know and involving people who know more, without turning every decision into proof of our own ability.
The business world requires firmness. We need to negotiate, secure payment, say no, and sometimes change a plan we have defended for a long time. But understanding interests is no justification for humiliation or a promise that holds only while it suits us. Trust has business value, and how we spend it remains part of a company's story even when today's result is no longer remembered.
I do not consider entrepreneurship a measure of human worth. Not everyone needs to own a company to work seriously and responsibly. Companies exist thanks to many people whose names will never appear in the company register. Respect for their choice is not a favour from the owner. It is part of understanding that business is never solely the story of the person who started it.
Growth has its own question too: can what we built live without our constant presence? Sometimes the owner must change roles for the company to move forward. Here I connect essays on risk, learning, values, and responsibility as the foundation of the perspective behind The Philosophy of Entrepreneurship. They offer no simple formula. They try to look honestly at what business demands and what remains after it.
That is why every important decision deserves examination in terms of how it changes the way the company works, our relationships with people, and our everyday lives.
Selected reading
Four essays on what starting and growing a company asks of a person. Begin with experience, then examine character, choice and the need for control.
01 · Examine what you do not yet know
Twenty years ago, I started my business. I didn’t know what a balance sheet was. I didn’t know what an income statement was.
Why vision cannot replace knowledge or the people who have it.
For reflection: Which important assumption about the business have you not yet tested?
Read essay02 · Protect your character under pressure
A harsh business world is no excuse to lose our character, trust or the boundaries we refuse to cross.
Boundaries that still matter when business interests put them to the test.
For reflection: Which boundary do you want to protect even under strong business pressure?
Read essay03 · Reconsider your choice
Today, entrepreneurship is often presented as proof of courage, ambition, and personal worth—as if you’ve only succeeded when you start something of your own.
Respect for people who choose a different professional path.
For reflection: Are you building your own business because you want to or because you feel you must?
Read essay04 · Let the company mature
There is a moment that is rarely discussed. Not because it is rare, but because it is difficult to admit.
The owner’s changing role when the company begins to work independently.
For reflection: What could you entrust to the team without taking every decision back under your control?
Read essayChoosing entrepreneurship is not the only measure of serious work.
Knowledge and testing need to accompany the energy of a beginning.
The interests of a company do not require a loss of character.
The Business World Is Harsh. That Is Not Permission to Lose Our Character.
Organisational development also changes the founder’s role.
The business world is harsh. That is not permission to lose our character.
The Business World Is Harsh. That Is Not Permission to Lose Our Character.
Seeking a publisher
These essays connect risk, learning, character, and our treatment of people. Together they open the questions behind the perspective presented in The Philosophy of Entrepreneurship.
Explore this bookCo-owners have the right to disagree. They also have a responsibility to let their team work without having to choose a side every day.
Read essayStarting a company also means acting on assumptions we have not checked. A reflection on my beginning and how to bring more knowledge to the next decision.
Read essaySales has agreed a job.
Read essayYou can make something good and still have no customers.
Read essayKnowledge without action changes nothing. Entrepreneurship requires trying, taking risks, accepting mistakes and setting an example others can follow.
Read essayA business may continue to use the same sales method, the same tool, or the same arrangement simply because it worked before.
Read essayAn opportunity in itself is not a finished result. A new job, collaboration, or project demands an assessment of what they offer and what they expect from us. Sometimes we let an opportunity slip by out of fear.
Read essayI know many people who have read countless books, yet still fail to put what they’ve read into practice.
Read essay