Spiritual Entrepreneurship: Raw Reflections of a Female CEO is a heartfelt account of a business owner’s experience navigating the start-up world while pursuing spiritual growth. Author Sheri Smith defines a spiritual entrepreneur as “someone who runs an enterprise with the purpose of expanding love, not extracting gain.” This book discusses many dimensions of spiritual entrepreneurship based on the past ten years of running an education technology company.

Chapter Summary

Chapter 1: The Backstory Behind this Book provides context about my life and spiritual journey so the listener can understand my perspective in writing this book.

Chapter 2: The Three Dimensions of Spiritual Entrepreneurship explores the roles of the founder, the employees, and the company itself, illustrating their constant integration in the life of a spiritual entrepreneur.

Chapter 3: The Three Principles of Venture Capital contrasts the venture capital model with the three dimensions of spiritual entrepreneurship. This chapter highlights how venture capital’s methods are entirely divergent from spiritual entrepreneurship.

Venture Capital vs. Spiritual Capital

• Exclusivity vs. Inclusivity
• Ranking & Sorting vs. Enoughness
• Money vs. Value

Chapter 4: Valuing the Intrinsic provides a framework for spiritual entrepreneurship that emphasizes intrinsic value. It describes how our inner and outer worlds are better understood through the importance we place on the intrinsic, extrinsic, and systemic.

Chapter 5: Rules for the Road discusses how the rules for spiritual entrepreneurs differ from the rules of traditional entrepreneurship. The chapter highlights six common business areas and includes specific examples of how a spiritual entrepreneur can look at typical business ideas through another lens.

Traditional Entrepreneurs vs. Spiritual Entrepreneurs

• Mentorship vs. Co-Creation
• Mind Knowing vs. Cellular Knowing
• Fact-Based Decision-Making vs. Heart-Based Decision-Making
• Accomplishment Focused vs. Multi-Generational Focused
• Expanding Profit vs. Expanding Love
• Pricing to Maximize Profit vs. Pricing to Maximize Value
• Unicorn Exit vs. Eternal Exit

Chapter 6: Tools of the Trade provides some resources that have been helpful on my journey: prayer, empathy, discernment, and surrender. It is not meant to be an all-inclusive toolkit, simply a starting point for discussion.

Chapter 7: Self-Development for the Spiritual Entrepreneur describes why self-development is essential for spiritual entrepreneurs. Then, it introduces a robust model by which we can engage in that process.

Chapter 8: Revealing the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth encourages spiritual entrepreneurs to work together to grow diversity, drive innovation with freedom, and see ourselves and others through heaven’s eyes.