Saint Francis of Assisi - Most Successful Bootstrap Entrepreneur Ever

Saint Francis of Assisi (1181-1226) founded the Order of Friars Minor, more commonly known as the Franciscans, which was a revolutionary force in medieval religious life.

Starting from nothing, he grew the Franciscans right along with the changes that the medieval world experienced after the year 1200. He was a consummate entrepreneur.

Born the son of a wealthy cloth merchant, his father wanted Francis to follow him into his trade. Francis wasn’t interested in that path, instead envisioning himself a knight as he grew up at the height of the crusades. Francis began to feel a spiritual calling, and his father didn’t like that at all. Father and son had a huge fight, so Francis stripped off all of his clothes, renounced his old life, and walked away without even a shirt on his back.

Francis renounced wealth and family to embrace a life of poverty. He envisioned a path that mimicked the first followers of Jesus, focusing only on today, not planning for the future. Francis preached to townspeople and soon attracted followers. As mendicants, they were meant to own nothing, begging for food and shelter. In 1210, Francis received formal approval from Pope Innocent III, and the Franciscan order was officially founded.

At the time, there were two distinct religious vocations in Christendom. Priests preached and ministered to the people. Monks tried to live apart from the world to be close to God. The Franciscans were a blend of both: the poverty and chastity of a monk and the close connection with the people of a priest. This was a perfect match to meet the spiritual needs of people living in towns.

Towns were growing in population everywhere, and that was messing with the way society was ordered. The Franciscans helped bridge that gap, preaching in towns, hearing confessions, and getting involved with people who worked trades in close proximity to one another, not spread out in small agricultural villages and manors. The Franciscans ministered to townspeople, marrying them and burying them. Townspeople loved them for it.

The movement was so popular that there were more than 1,000 Franciscan religious houses only 100 years after Francis started preaching. Inevitably, as the order grew, it started owning property as required to run such a large organization. This caused a split with the Observants, those who preferred the strict rules of poverty, on one side, and on the other, the Conventuals, those who favored a more flexible interpretation of The Rule of Saint Francis so they could run a large organization.

Franciscans continue to minister to the poor today in more than 100 countries around the world. Even now you can recognize them wearing the same brown robe that Friar Tuck wears in every Robin Hood movie. They still wear sandals, but look closely and you might see modern high-grip footwear strapped to their feet. When he was elected in 2013, Pope Francis took his papal name to honor Saint Francis and his devotion to the poor. Starting from literally nothing, the Franciscan order endures 800+ years later.

Entrepreneurs are a brave bunch. It takes a lot of passion and courage to go out on your own and try to bring an idea in your head to life in the real world. It’s a path full of risk, and you’ve got to be incredibly resilient and resourceful to overcome the challenges that confront you day after day.

Some entrepreneurs mitigate this risk by recruiting investors. While they might be all-in on their startup, working 168-hour weeks, they might not have put every penny they have into the venture, and they might even receive a steady paycheck from the company they founded. Investors usually want to give the entrepreneur advice, which can be good and bad, depending on the investor, the entrepreneur, and the advice.

A bootstrap entrepreneur starts a company with their own funds, eschewing outside investment and growing the business with revenues earned from customers. Risk goes up, but so does freedom from any outside sentiment. The entrepreneur has total control, but with greater financial constraints, it might take much longer to grow the business.

Saint Francis of Assisi might be the most successful bootstrap entrepreneur of all time. He started his ministry with nothing - literally, he walked away naked - and less than five years later his organization was recognized by the pope. The Franciscans grew to be one of the most respected institutions in the medieval world and are still thriving today.