Hannah Arendt Natality: Your Capacity to Begin.
Hannah Arendt natality is the idea that every person, by being born, arrives as a new beginning. So beginning something is an ordinary human capacity. Also, her remedies of promise and forgiveness can steady a frightened founder.
Three kinds of human activity.
In 1958, Arendt published The Human Condition, a difficult book that is not about business. In it, her Arendt labor work action division sorts human activity three ways. Labour keeps us alive, over and over. Work makes lasting things, like a table or a house. Action is stepping forward before others and starting something no one could predict.
Why Hannah Arendt natality matters to you.
Action, she argued, is rooted in natality, the plain fact that every human was born. Therefore, each of us carries the capacity to begin something new. However, she saw the danger too. Once you act, you cannot fully control where it goes or take it back. So Hannah Arendt natality comes with risks attached.
Two remedies, and an honest limit.
Against unpredictability, she offered promises, which set limits on an uncertain future. Against irreversibility, she offered forgiveness, which frees people from what they have done. Also, she wrote about political action, not shops or apps. Still, Arendt promise and forgiveness fit a frightened founder surprisingly well, even if she might find this book an odd home.
Use Hannah Arendt natality before you start.
Name one person and make them a promise about your first small step.
Then write one sentence forgiving yourself in advance if that step goes wrong.
From the book.
She also saw the danger in beginning. Once you act, you cannot fully control where your action goes, and you cannot take it back. For those two problems she offered two human remedies. Against the unpredictability, we can make promises, which set some limits on an uncertain future. Against the irreversibility, we can forgive, which frees people from being trapped by what they have done.
I Want to Start a Business but I'm a Coward, chapter 11: Beginning while afraid
Questions about Hannah Arendt natality.
What is Hannah Arendt natality in simple terms?
It is the fact that every human was born as a new beginning. So everyone carries the capacity to begin something new.
Did Arendt write about starting businesses?
No, she wrote about political action, people acting together in public. She might find a business book an odd home.
How do promise and forgiveness help a founder?
A promise gives the future one fixed point. Forgiveness frees you if your step goes wrong.
Read the whole chapter.
This lesson covers one section of chapter 11, “Beginning while afraid”. The book goes further, with the full evidence, the stories and every exercise.
Lessons in this chapter.
- 01 Waiting Until You Feel Ready: Why It Keeps You Stuck.
- 02 Fear of Failure as Motivation: Brake and Engine.
- 03 Entrepreneurship as Experimentation: Test, Don't Bet.
- 04 Lifestyle Business vs Startup: Small Is Not Lesser.
- 05 Hannah Arendt Natality: Your Capacity to Begin.
- 06 Write Down Your Fears Exercise: Sort Into Three Piles.
- 07 Start Small or Give Up: Make the Call in Writing.
- 08 Deep Time Perspective on Anxiety: The Long Wall.