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April 30, 2005

Pilgrim's Progress provides guide for the entrepreneur's journey

Cross posted from Deep Green Crystals.

Just finished The Pilgrim's Progress in Modern English (Pure Gold Classics). It took three months to read. Pretty old english. I was intrigued when I read that for hundreds of years it has been the #2 seller in England just behind the Bible. While I link to Amazon to buy it here, I bought it at a second hand bookstore for $.50. You can too and I recommend that.

To grossly oversimplify the book, it is the story of a spiritual pilgrim, "Christian", as he progresses from initial knowledge of God, all the way through various trials and tribulations into the "Kingdom of heaven". Somewhat a long parable for the faith journey. Throughout the literal and metaphorical journey Christian meets with obstacles roughly out of the bible. The edition that I read had extensive footnotes that lead you to the passage that relates to what is going on in the journey. The cool thing is that the whole story of a faith journey is told without any of the traditional biblical lingo. No Peter, Paul and Mary. No Romans or Jews. These are replaced with characters named for themselves. Like Pliable, Obstinate, the Evangelist, Worldly Wiseman, Mr. Legality, Hypocrisy, Faithful, Wanton, Talkative, By-ends and Friends, and Mr. Money-Love. Christian leaves the "City of Destruction" to overcome obstacles including the Slough of Despond, House Beautiful, The Valley of Humiliation, The Valley of the Shadow of Death, Vanity Fair and Doubting Castle. You get a completely different perspective on the faith journey, any faith.

While the book was written to help readers understand the faith journey, I saw many parallels to the technology start-up process. In many ways it is a journey of faith. Many times I have met Obstinate, the Evangelist, Mr. Legality, Wanton, Talkative and Mr. Money-Love. More than once I have been in (and seen companies go through) the Slough of Despond, House Beautiful, The Valley of Humiliation, Vanity Fair and Doubting Castle. If they are lucky, they reach the Celestial Gates and the Promised Land. Most do not. Most get drawn off the path at some point. The technology start-up process requires a similar measure of faith, determination and eye-on-the-ballness that a spiritual journey requires. I would recommend this book to anyone contemplating either journey.

I rate this a 5 out of 5 stars.

Posted by Martin at April 30, 2005 11:00 AM

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