n. A businessperson or entrepreneur who balances work with emotional and spiritual growth.
2001
He says coaching reflects an accommodation of sorts between baby boomers' 1960s pursuit of personal knowledge and their 1990s pursuit of personal wealth. Bringing those urges into alignment is the secret. "If every part of your life is working in balance, you will be more successful," he says. Another executive coach I met, Wendy Wallbridge of San Francisco, coaches businesspeople to become what she calls "soul proprietors."
1998 (earliest)
In a copyrighted essay titled "Soul Proprietors," Mahon talks about the "four Ps."
* Pausing: Time to reflect and pull away from the constant barrage of marketing-oriented messages.
* (A)ppreciating: "We have become very good in the age of science and technology at knowing things, but we're not really very wise at making connections anymore."
* Praying: "Absent the ability to modify or walk away from or transform one's stressful workplace, the best way to survive today is to learn some relaxation technique and practice it toward mastery."
* Participating: "Is it entirely appropriate to sink so much engineering skills into developing seventh- and eighth-generation microprocessors when 70 to 80 percent of the world's people have an immediate need simply for clean drinking water?"
* Pausing: Time to reflect and pull away from the constant barrage of marketing-oriented messages.
* (A)ppreciating: "We have become very good in the age of science and technology at knowing things, but we're not really very wise at making connections anymore."
* Praying: "Absent the ability to modify or walk away from or transform one's stressful workplace, the best way to survive today is to learn some relaxation technique and practice it toward mastery."
* Participating: "Is it entirely appropriate to sink so much engineering skills into developing seventh- and eighth-generation microprocessors when 70 to 80 percent of the world's people have an immediate need simply for clean drinking water?"
The other day a junk fax wormed its way through my fax program's filters. Normally I delete these scourges with extreme prejudice, not wanting to give the purveyor of such tele-trash the satisfaction of his message reaching my eyeballs. But just as I was reaching for the Delete key, I spied (because, you know, that's what I do here) something unusual in the fax's text. In a bulleted list of people for whom this product (it turned out to be group health insurance) would be suitable, I saw "Professionals," "Employees On Contracts," and "Soul Proprietors."
Hunh? Upon further examination of the despised fax, I concluded this was nothing but a homophonic typo that should have read "Sole Proprietors." But I knew I'd seen the phrase soul proprietor somewhere before. It took but a few minutes of brain-wracking to remember that Daniel Pink had used it in Free Agent Nation (see the first example citation), a book that's a new-word researcher's dream. Soul proprietor has also made quite a few media appearances this year, mostly because of a book with that title, which was published last year by Jane Pollak.
Hunh? Upon further examination of the despised fax, I concluded this was nothing but a homophonic typo that should have read "Sole Proprietors." But I knew I'd seen the phrase soul proprietor somewhere before. It took but a few minutes of brain-wracking to remember that Daniel Pink had used it in Free Agent Nation (see the first example citation), a book that's a new-word researcher's dream. Soul proprietor has also made quite a few media appearances this year, mostly because of a book with that title, which was published last year by Jane Pollak.