When offered the chance to donate to the Acumen Fund in exchange for getting an advanced copy of Seth Godin’s book, Linchpin, I jumped at the chance.
In true practice-what-you-preach form, Godin sent several emails after my donation letting me know about the status of my book shipment. When I received the book, there was a letter from Godin included which shocked me by starting with, “The scariest words an author can write are, ‘here’s my new book.” I thought, Seth Godin…scared? Cool.
OK, I admit it. I don’t want to make any New Year’s resolutions this year. Why? Because I have no idea what they were last year – probably something to do with working out more, getting a rewarding job or some such thing. And then there’s the fact that I tend to set lofty goals and don’t really have a good system for keeping track of them.
I received a Christmas card in the mail today from a high school friend. It was literally pages long, beautifully designed and captured the entire past year in narrative and photos. It was, by all accounts, the story of the quintessential family, with testimonials as to how perfect each of their 3 children are in their respective extracurricular activities, how rewarding each of the couples’ jobs were, how adventuresome each of their trips were and on and on and on. And it annoyed the hell out of me.
The last posting in this series will reveal the one secret ingredient that allowed us to survive this entire “learning experience” case study with our “New Fangled Website”. The one thing that ensured, at the end of the day, that we actually DID end up with a product, however delayed it was. It’s not a secret project management technique. It’s not a process or scientific concept.
So you’re thinking about going it alone and starting your own business. Perhaps it’s something you’ve always dreamed of doing. Perhaps it’s a hobby on the side begging to take center stage. Perhaps it’s a brand new venture. First, and most importantly…good for you! It’s easy to be lulled into complacency by the familiar. If you’re reading this letter, my suspicion is that you’re the type of person who refuses to incorporate “common”, “good enough” or “average” into your vernacular. Greetings, kindred spirit.
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