I’ve spent a good deal of my time writing business plans for other people and the part of the plan that I loath is the competitive analysis. Not because I don’t think that having that information is valuable, indeed, it is, but because the over all approach to competition in business is archaic and, to go all hippie on you for a moment, leads to a contraction rather than an expansion of energy. We humans are obsessed with being better than one another and although healthy competition is the source of great innovation, getting caught up in trying to out-do another or positioning what we are up do based on beating out someone else is a very small way to live. Before stating the following, I will acknowledge that it is a bit of a green-new-age view to say there really can be enough for everyone. So much about how business is being done now is moving towards transparency, community and human connection. It is no longer the best strategy to be stingy with your information. With social … [Read more...]
Bucket of Balls
A number of years ago I lived with a friend, a single mom, and her two year old daughter. Two year olds are awesome, my son is two now. They are funny and learning so much, everyday a new adventure for learning. One particular day, I learned a lesson from this two year old girl that has stuck with me. She was walking around with this bucket of balls. She would stop somewhere and pull them out and put them on the ground, arrange the colours and so forth and then put them back in the bucket and take them somewhere else. She was very very busy with this bucket of balls. Quite suddenly she tripped and the balls went flying. She lost it. LOST IT. Crying hysterically, her mother rushed in and helped her pick up the balls and comfort her in her distress. I found it annoying. At first I couldn’t sense why it was so annoying but it was. I mean, it’s just a bucket of balls, so what, they fell, just pick them up, what’s with the whole production? Part of why I found it annoying was because I … [Read more...]
Get R Done
We’ve all got at least one. Most of us have a whole list smashing around in our heads, possibly not even written anywhere. They hang there like laundry on a line in a slight drizzle, threatening to never quite dry and thus hang there forever. To do’s. You know what I’m talking about. Not the to-do’s that are written down and checked off. Not the dozens upon dozens of items we do get done everyday and without even thinking. I’m talking about the important stuff. The items that haven’t become so urgent that if you don’t take care of it now, you’ll see the impact. But you feel the impact. It’s the item that you keep wanting to get to but other more urgent things always seem to take your attention. When I was but a wee little business owner, I hadn’t yet registered my company for GST. I was going to do that on Monday. This went on for a long long time. It would be in the back of my mind, I’d know it was important, but Monday was paper work day, so I’d put it off until Monday. Of course … [Read more...]
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 23
- 24
- 25
Let's Stay Connected