I recently read Guy Raz’s book How I Built This, a companion to his very popular podcast. While I mostly enjoyed the book, something struck me as I was reading it.

The How I Built This podcast, and subsequently the book, is based on telling the story of entrepreneurs as a hero’s journey (of Joseph Campbell fame). As I was reading the book I realized that this relies on a societal understanding of entrepreneurs as heroes. That we see turning a profit or selling a business after a long struggle as something heroic.

I found that every time the book didn’t ring true was when I couldn’t see the actions these entrepreneurs took as heroic. Treating the idea of the business as worthy of any action, be it years in debt or what have you, just didn’t do it for me.

That’s part of why I enjoyed Sahil Lavingia’s The Minimalist Entrepreneur. There’s similar information about scaling a business but it’s framed around growing at a pace and to a size that actually works for you.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t need to be that kind of hero. I’d rather be a minimalist.