Beverly Potter, Ph.D. wrote Maverick Career Styles: The Way of the Ronin in 1986. That's the year I went into business for myself. This book was my bible. Against the force of my family's disapproval and my own fears of failure, Potter's evocative story of the original ronin sustained me and fed my passion as I struggled to gain my feet with my own business.
This edited excerpt from the book will give you a sense of the ronin archetype and why it is so compelling right now:
"...As early as the eighth century, the word ronin, translated literally as "wave people," was used in Japan to describe people who had left their allotted stations in life. Usually, it refers to samurai who left the service of their feudal lords to become masterless. When a samurai was severed from his lord, he had two choices: to commit seppuku (ritual disembowelment) or to do ronin. If he chose to do ronin, he lost his stipend and forfeited all formal affiliations and duties. No provisions were made in feudal Japanese society for those who were dislodged. Just earning enough to survive was exceedingly difficult, and being disavowed in a society built on rigidly defined relationships was a challenge to self-directedness.Dislodged from their niches, ronin were considered thrown on the waves of a difficult and uncertain destiny. Doing ronin was accepted as a spiritual trial thrust upon one by misfortune. Those who passed the tests did so by following bushido, the way of the warrior and mastering bujutsu, martial arts.
Under the rule of the Tokugawa dictatorship (1600-1867), citizens of feudal Japan were subjected to stringent controls. Farmers were registered in their villages and forbidden to leave. Merchants and artisans had to be registered with appropriate guilds ... any activity considered irregular was reported to officials. Affiliated warriors were closely monitored through a tight chain of command.
...Control over movement in cities was maintained through special gates installed across intersections every two streets, with passes required of even the highest officials. Penalties for unauthorized movement and other crimes were harsh and inflicted upon the entire family of the guilty party.
...By 1700, the samurai warriors had been turned into civil bureaucrats hiding behind swords, military titles, court rituals and a host of routine guard duties. This is when the ronin, who continued to live by bushido, stood out most starkly and were regarded with awe and suspicion. It is from this period that the Ronin metaphor as it is used here is drawn.
Severe restrictions were placed on ronin, forcing them into outlaw status. To survive, some became scholars, many hired themselves out as bodyguards to rich farmers, some banded together and terrorized the countryside, and a few started schools to illegally teach martial arts to people outside of the warrior class.
...Ronin played a key role in Japan's abrupt transition from a feudal society to industrialism. Under feudal rule, warriors were not allowed to think freely or act according to their own will. On the other hand, having been forced by circumstances to develop independence, ronin took more readily to new ideas and technology and became increasingly influential"
Try putting on these ronin-shaded glasses for a minute and see that whether you have a job (for the time being), are self-employed, temping, contracting, unemployed, volunteering, partnering, working multiple jobs, own a business or are going to school, you are 21st century ronin!
The updated and improved third edition of Ms. Potter's book is called The Way of the Ronin: Riding the Waves. From this angle, the dot-com boom looks like a prolonged outburst of ronin energy and the dot-com bust looks like a ronin incubator and spawning ground!