Off to London today to run an idea generation session with a start-up.  Yes! I’m as jazzed as Charlie Parker on a double expresso.

My mind if filled with excitement and my heart is filled with Hope.

It occurs to me that those intrepid folks who start new ventures, large and small, sophisticated and simple, all share one thing: Hope.

It’s one of the three Christian virtues, along with faith and charity, but you don’t have to be Christian to have, or appreciate Hope. Hope is what sometimes makes life worth living.  Hope is what has the Chicago Cubs (those perennial also-rans) dream of  autumn World Series baseball glory.  Hope is what makes an entrepreneur get up in the morning.  Hope is belief in what the future might bring, and how your own efforts might make that future better, and more interesting, for yourself and for others.  It’s belief that something good, something positive, something that works, can be done this day, can be started this day. Hope!

When you see the gleam in the eye of an entrepreneur, when you feel that electric energy, it’s hope that’s the fuel.  Oh sure, skeptics might say it’s about greed, but don’t believe it.  Nobody takes the risk of starting up a company  just for money.  There are safer, easier ways to make money than starting up a company. No, that entrepreneur’s hope is built on an idea that captures their imagination, and gives them passion for their venture.

So, if you have no Hope or belief in what you are doing, here’s a simple tip: do something else. If you feel trapped in a job or a situation you feel is hopeless, challenge all assumptions and generate some hope by making a change happen.  Do something different, be an instigator. If you stand pat hopeless you have nobody but yourself to blame.

It’s been said where there is life there is hope.  I’d say, where there is hope there is life.