Figure 5.1. Mr. Christophe Vattier. For a color version of the figure, see www.iste.co.uk/latouche/innovation.zip

6

      Mrs. Lise Bellavoine, When Entrepreneurship Becomes an Art!

      Before this interview I didn’t know Lise at all. It wasn’t even my LinkedIn post inviting entrepreneurs to contact me that allowed me to get in touch with her. In fact, I was approached by someone who wanted to discuss a service to be provided to me for the corporate accelerator. We were supposed to meet with this someone. As much as possible, when I am asked, I try to take the time to question myself on the usefulness of the services offered. Things are moving fast in digital and start-up support. Meeting people is essential. It turns out that in this case, I had to cancel the appointment unfortunately for scheduling reasons. As part of the exchanges for this cancellation, this person told me about an artist she was following closely and who would soon be having an exhibition. Very interested in the style of pastel creations, I told myself that I would probably go to the exhibition. Still with scheduling problems, I couldn’t go in the end and apologized to the artist.

      How can I tell you, … there are sometimes images, sensations that never leave you…. I love her style of artistic expression and her subjects, animals, characters with piercing eyes, that touch the heart and soul.

      So I asked about the artist herself. Surprise … This artist had once worked in a very large international group, and had recently founded an innovation consulting agency, Lise Bellavoine Conseil, while painting and exhibiting. So I contacted her and explained to her my project and my wish to interview her to possibly integrate it in my forthcoming book.

      Lise is her first name, as far as I can remember she didn’t define herself at first as an entrepreneur compared to what she imagined my profile search to be. After some clarifications, and some exchanges of emails, we were however at the interview stage.

If this introduction was so long, it is because the probability that I would meet Lise, without having at any time sought by any action to identify such a profile, was almost non-existent!

      It was a very rewarding meeting and her journey, with her permission, I will share it with you. Her profile, very touching, is one of those wonderful examples that should make us understand collectively that entrepreneurship does not mean “digital”, and that being an entrepreneur is first of all a state of mind … that reveals itself in diverse and varied circumstances.

6.1. Context

      Lise comes from a Norman family, born in Normandy, France. She’s an only child. Her grandparents were self-employed decorating craftsmen. “I come from a family where I spent a lot of time out in the wilderness and they knew how to do everything with their hands”. It was in her grandparents’ workshop, surrounded by machines and fabrics, that Lise got the taste for creating.

      6.1.1. Nothing but nature

      “I grew up in a very simple way, surrounded by a lot of love”. From a father in charge of a technical service and a mother who put her professional career on hold to raise her daughter, and then moved on to bioenergy, caring for others. She wanted for nothing, without “going to the end of the world all the time”. Until the day when a trip to Thailand at the age of 14 triggered a deep desire to discover the world.

      Lise was a busy child. Between judo and painting, which already inspired her, she was not short of activities. “I grew up with this need to channel my creative energy and spend it”. She loves nature and wants to find beauty whenever she can. For Lise, “This sacred space that is nature” is a true source of healing.

      This Norman context was for Lise, not only a haven of peace but also the main element of her inspirations during her childhood.

      6.1.2. A poet

Lise willingly defines herself as having this “poetic spirit” without this being a choice forged by her parents, her education or her background. She has always had this particular attraction for a certain non-conformism. “I’ve always been interested in people who are different and unique”. There is in her, this extra soul that always leads her to support someone in need, with this smile that I know now.

      “I can’t explain why I’m fascinated by the cycle of the seasons, or even why I’m amazed to see a seed germinate, it’s just the way it is”. It’s always hard to explain why: we are the way we are. And Lise didn’t really try to explain it. Moreover, despite my attempts to better understand the reasons why, out of sheer personal distortion, I quickly resolved during our interview to listen to her and hear her, rather than trying to frame her or fix her identity. As Lise says, “We each have our own brilliance and if we manage to align it profoundly with ourselves, then beauty comes, is seen, felt and transmitted”.

      6.1.3. The loop

      “We have to work hard because we don’t know what tomorrow will bring”. This value of work, which has affected all dimensions of her life, also applied to her studies.

      “I was into poetry, but in a very straightforward way. It’s been one of my great strengths all my life. Things had to work out well in my studies”. Lise did a BAC C (Scientific) although “mathematics wasn’t my cup of tea”. She continued at a business school in Lille.

      The business school in Lille was not a total coincidence. At the time, if you wanted to avoid going to a business school in Paris, all you had to do was return a blank exam paper on one subject. It was a playoff. That’s exactly what Lise did, who absolutely wanted to avoid attending a school in Paris….

      During and after business school, Lise traveled widely and everywhere. Her philosophy of travel and discovery is very instructive to shed light on her journey. Indeed, Lise thinks that it is by discovering things, other “worlds” … that we can better understand our natural fears. “I told myself that I would raise my children better one day by having lots of different experiences”.

      Then there was, just after graduating from business school, what could be described as the first desire to align with our own life wishes. Indeed, questions about the meaning of her studies then clearly arose. “This school, why?”, “What am I going to do for a living?”.

She then decided to do a master’s degree at the Institut Français de la Mode (French fashion institute). “I wanted to recover and immerse myself in this whole universe of materials, fabrics and creations”. Chasing the natural meant she returned back galloping, as they say. At least that is how we could interpret this journey: the child who was passionate about nature, fabrics, creation, pre-adult life, who went to business school and finally returned to her first love for a year and a half. “I had a blast at the IFM”. This teaching, both theoretical and very practical, allowed Lise to develop strong expertise. We can imagine that words and understandings were acquired on sensations, intuitions, which she had always carried within her from her earliest childhood.

6.2. Employment to entrepreneurship

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