Opportunities

It’s oft said that opportunities in business arrive once we start looking. And startup blog agrees. It’s not really about opportunity though, it’s more about perceptive sentience, general awareness, and curiosity.

Today in Melbourne some opportunists scored big time. The weather savvy surfers got to surf in Port Phillip Bay which is usually as flat as a mill pond. For today we had weather which was as stormy as it has been it in many years…. (like the current share market?)  Maybe, just maybe stormy enough for ridable surfing waves to form on the City doorstep.

storm-surfing5

Ok so it wasn’t classic surfing conditions but the waves where there (revenue ?) for those with the aforementioned qualities (perceptive sentience, general awareness, curiosity) to find.

Most surfers who live in Melbourne, which is a 75 minute drive from the closest surfing location, probably just rugged up with a hot cup of cocoa and forget about surfing in the terrible conditions (market downturn?). Well they missed out. While they didn’t seek opportunity others got a special treat and rode the fun, albeit bumpy waves.

Tomorrow, the waves will be gone.

The surfers out there today are like the kind of entrepreneurs I like to hang out with. People with a curiosity to investigate new situations. To imagine that the current conditions might present new and different opportunities. (They had to consider the wind, imagine the waves may be breaking, drive over and check it out) The type of people who have their resources (surfboard & wetsuit) on hand when chances pop up. People who don’t care that others may laugh at them surfing crappy waves in semi-polluted waters. The type of people who not only win, but have a ball doing it.

See more of these shots of the surfers here on my Twitpic page.

Steve – rentoid.com

Asset Diversification

We diversify our asset portfolios to reduce risk. To reduce the risk of a particular asset losing value, declining, getting stolen, lost, or broken. We store our assets in safes and banks and put locks on them. We even insure our assets.

If information is the new ‘asset’ – Why do we keep all our assets in only 1 or 2 devices? Just a laptop, a brain, maybe an iphone or external hard drive. Why don’t we diversify their location, or even afford them other types of protection?

Maybe they should be shared instead, and not hidden or locked up. Maybe the sharing of the asset will stimulate it’s growth. Maybe…. But there is little doubt they ought be protected.

information

image by Austin Kleon

words by Steve from rentoid.com

Choose thrive!

Dying

Thriving

Disposable

Permanent

Anonymous

Identified

Replace

Repair

Colleague

Friend

Volume

Value

Average

Atypical

Discounted

Premium

Ubiquitous

Scarce / secret

Processed

Organic

Spectate

Participate

As entrepreneurs we’re lucky to be living in a revolutionary period. A period where we can take the good from the Industrial Revolution (infrastructure & technology) and reject the bad stuff (directive attitudes & mass culture)

In relation to the lists above – startup blog strongly recommends your startup offer be placed in the right hand cloumn.

steve – rentoid.com

The 3 resources

The 3 resources which matter for start ups and any business are listed below:

  1. People
  2. Finance
  3. Technology

What do we need in each of these areas?

How do they interact in our area of business?

How will they change over time?

The questions about the 3 resources above should be in constant review. They remain in a constant state of flux.

If our current execution plan does not cover these areas and their interddence, then we’ve got a rocky road ahead – guaranteed.

rocky-road

Creative Inspiration – visuals

Google images is a “good” place to find a photo or image – if we have it in mind.

Flickr is an “awesome” place for ‘creative inspiration’. When ever I’m struggling to find an image for something, and just can’t think of the best visual to do it…. I let the Flickr community do the thinking for me.

It’s a very cool way to leverage ‘semantic web’ for a visual solution. We can find visual interpretations our life experience would just never think of. Just click on the examples below and quickly scroll to see the great images we find for these words:

Polution

Groovy

Violence

Politics

Computer

Annoying

Awesome

Sure, visuals aren’t game winning. But if we’re going to use them, they may as well be poignant and memorable. Oh yeh, be sure to use creative commons before you rip ’em.

(Irony – no visual in this post!)

Steve – founder rentoid.com

Don’t be crap

Love him or hate him, here’s another cool quote from Bono – which entrepreneurs can take with them:

“I don’t want to be in a crap band and any minute U2 become a crap band, we’re all out of here. And crap is not measured in sales, or even relevance. it’s about the sense of adventure.

Is it still there?  Are you still blowing your own mind?”

u2-1980

Steve – founder rentoid.com

Nature or Nurture?

I noticed this morning that a particular area of my box hedge isn’t growing as well as other areas. See the two photos below.

hedge1 hedge2

In order to remedy the situation I thought about what the different things I could do:

  1. Ensure the poor performing area was getting enough water
  2. Make sure the soil wasn’t poisoned in that particular area of the garden
  3. Remove the weeds from the periphery
  4. Add some fertiliser to the struggling area
  5. Aerating the soil with a hoe
  6. Ensure the area is getting enough sun

In fact, I’ll try the methods above. What I wont do is ‘remove’ the box hedge. I really need it because it forms part of the garden perimeter. It provides the required symmetry. It’s an integral part of the garden. I will give it the extra attention it deserves, and talk to it. I won’t pretend it will fix itself, because I know that is just a fantasy.

So, why do we take the opposite view with our staff / employees or business partners? We rarely ask first what we can do, and most often just ‘cut them out’, get rid of them, or even chastise their performance, before we look at the reasons for it. Maybe they:

  1. Aren’t getting enough cash to do their part?
  2. Maybe their part of the organisation has structural issues?
  3. Maybe they have non functional ‘hangers on’ stealing time & resources?
  4. Maybe we need to invest in some training or programs to boost the area?
  5. Maybe we need to give them more space & freedom to perform?
  6. Maybe we are not providing enough reward & recognition?

You’ve probably noticed how many of our people problems have strong analogies to my box hedge. In fact, both nature and people, need nurturing.

Steve – founder rentoid.com