St. Maximilian – Patron of Entrepreneurs

St. Maximilian did a lot for just 20 years of activities.

And on top of all that he managed to be a priest – he was saying Mass every day, heard confessions, and wrote articles, homilies, and other works. Considering all that he achieved way more than most entrepreneurs achieve incomparable time – save those most successful in the world.

If St. Maximilian had not been called into priesthood he would be sure he would have been one of the most successful businessmen of his era.

His life reveals entrepreneurial zest – a constant drive to start and build new things, new endeavors, new ventures – and scale them up, prefect them, bring them to full bloom.

This is the essence of the entrepreneurial spirit. That makes him indeed an ideal patron for all of the entrepreneurs who share it.

Why St. Maximilian should be a patron for all leaders and entrepreneurs?

You may have heard of St. Maximilian’s death – he offered to die himself instead of another prisoner in the German concentration camp in Auschwitz during the 2nd World War –  and you may be wondering what a heroic Polish monk has to do with startups and entrepreneurship?

Before he died St. Maximilian lived for 47 years and boy, was he active during that time. Between 1918 (end of WW1 – and his studies) and 1939 (start of WW2):

• he founded a new convent in Niepokalanów – starting with just a few other monks, no funds, and no house under his leadership it became the largest Catholic convent in Europe at the time with 700 monks housed in several buildings on a multi-acre site,
• he started a newspaper (the main mass medium of his time was print media) again, starting from nothing it reached a circulation of 750k copies, along the way he started ten other publications and newspapers as well as built one of the most modern printing houses in pre-war Poland,
• he got interested in radio pretty early and was thinking of creating a network of Catholic radio stations covering the whole country and broadcasting to the world, before the war broke out he was already well underway to realize this too has set up a radio station in Niepokalanów (and – just BTW – he was already thinking of television as soon as the technology becomes more available),
• he was thinking beyond Poland – in 1931 he went to Japan – again, having almost no funds, not knowing Japanese, and having just a few brothers as companions he moved on to start a convent on the outskirts of Nagasaki that remains prominent in the Catholic church of Japan to this day, of course, he also started a newspaper there which also continues to be published,
• having started a mission in Japan as well as China and India he planned to build an airport in Niepokalanow and sent two monks to… pilot training as the first step in that direction (can you imagine a fleet of transport aircraft piloted by monks crisscrossing the skies bringing supplies and passengers to missions in India, Africa, etc? That was St. Maximilian’s vision.),
• he was even thinking about… space travel – he described a concept for a space vehicle he called “Ethereoplane”.

Originally posted 2022-03-09 10:59:00.