SustainableWork

I did a very enjoyable radio interview on Wisconsin Public Radio today to discuss entrepreneurship.

Jim Packard was sitting in for the usual host. I love Jim's work and it was a real treat to spend the hour with him and the WPR callers.

The link to the show is posted below. WPR archives their shows for 52 weeks, so as this post ages, you'll have to drill down their archive list to find my slot which was today, Monday, August 6th in the 10 AM time period.

Thanks WPR!

Rick's interview on WI Public Radio - archive

Labels: diversions, entrepreneurship

Let's see, how are we going to dress this up as entrepreneurial research, and not as something to do when you need to get your head out of your work for a bit?

I know. How's this for a thesis: entrepreneurship is something people stare at, wonder about, analyze, pontificate on, and get rhapsodic over. Yet it's my belief that we all see something different in the subject.

Ms. Kim Komando, The Digital Goddess posted a great 'site of the day' that I want to pass on for no other reason than it's... oh yeah, a great research site for entrepreneurship.

Professor Michael Bach, an optical scientist from the University of Freiburg has put up examples of 72 different visual illusions, with the capability of changing the speed of the components to prove to yourself that, oh yeah, you're doing research.

This is really cool!

Dr. Bach's visual illusion examples

Kim Komando, America's digital goddess. Kim has a very good radio show and newsletters you can locate from her site.

Labels: diversions

I've made arrangements with one of the really great schools in the Wisconsin Technical College System to begin teaching a series of courses online to train new entrepreneurs.

I'm very excited about these courses. I've been writing and refining them over the last several years. Six courses will be available, starting this fall, to anyone in the U.S. with an internet connection and a telephone line, through Waukesha County Technical College. (The courses will cover these 6 topics... Intro to Entrepreneurship, Business Planning, Organizing, Managing, Marketing and Preparing/Executing for Micro Enterprises). I will post more info as it becomes available.

So two things crossed as I was preparing to take these courses public.

The first involved the course on creating sustainable business plans. I'm researching and writing about smart ways to encourage new entrepreneurs to think through the commercial details of their new enterprises. It's interesting work and I really love the way this course is turning out.

What crossed this in the background was a periodic purge of old saved stuff in my eMail folders. A little gem fell out called 'Why women live longer than men'. It's in a PDF with no attribution that I can find. I pass along the images in the link below. The photo above represents the idea pretty well.

Sustainable business plans encompass research to keep you from trouble and guide you toward your goals. The photos in this PDF exemplify the opposite path.

When I write the marketing course, I'm going to be encouraging new entrepreneurs to identify their ideal target customer.

After seeing this fun little PDF, I'm beginning to think I would answer that for myself by choosing women entrepreneurs first.

Enjoy.


Download the top 10 photos of why women live longer than men.
This is a single PDF file of about 468 worthwhile KBs. If anyone knows the origin of this, please let me know and I'll credit it here.

Labels: business plans, diversions

In these posts I try to tie current events and discussions into the world of start ups and micro entrepreneurship.

I like Discover Magazine a lot. It's a very good overview of science, technology and the future as their tagline says.

Last month Discover put out a special issue called "The Invisible Planet: The Science We Don't See." The lead article asked the question, "How Much Does The Internet Weigh?"

As micro entrepreneurs, you and I probably won't invent the next internet. However, it's interesting to ponder how much impact seemingly tiny contributions can make on the world.

The weight of your entrepreneurial contribution may seem small to others, but it can be world changing for you and the people who will benefit by it.

Beginning something big shouldn't be measured by marble facades or employee counts. The impact you make is what's important.

Ready for the weight of the internet? Here's Discover's measured conclusion…

"The weight of the Internet adds up to just about 0.2 millionths of an ounce."

"Love letters, business contracts, holiday snaps, spam, petitions, emergency bulletins, pornography, wedding announcements, TV shows, news articles, vacation plans, home movies, press releases, celebrity Web pages, home movies, secrets of every stripe, military orders, music, newsletters, confessions, congratulations—every shade and aspect of human life encoded as 1s and 0s. Taken together, they weigh roughly the same as the smallest possible grain of sand one measuring just two-thousandths of an inch across.

William Blake’s famous poem Auguries of Innocence (1803) begins, 'To see a world in a grain of sand....' He was being more prophetic than he could have ever known."

Press on friend. Measure yourself by your own goals and standards and you can change the world.



How Much Does The Internet Weigh Discover Magazine, special issue May 2007

Labels: diversions, entrepreneurship

I always wanted to write.

When I stuck my toe in the water during college, I didn't get rejection slips, I got hate mail.

I was trying to write about life threads that were very personal to me. I clearly sent them to the wrong addresses.

Writing into the web is better. Now it’s easier to delete the spam.

I still get to write about aspects of my life that have important personal meaning to me.

I’ve met many wonderful new friends through these posts, and I feel like I’ve gotten the first few percent off my chest.

Thanks to everyone for writing back.

I don’t want my 100th piece to be about how wonderful it is to be an entrepreneur. The culture is giving you that from a thousand directions at the moment. I want my 100th post to say something important, at least to me, about our responsibilities as citizens of the most entrepreneurial society in history.

In significant new ways, large and small, you have the ability to organize custom sets of skills and information needed to alleviate real human problems in ways that have never before been possible in human history.

This doesn’t mean you need to cure cancer. It means you can make some unique subset of the world a better place. You can organize that effort in ways that are profitable and deliver increased levels of personal self control.

No, it’s not easy. No, you’ll not likely get rich. That’s the good news.

Yes, there is opportunity everywhere. Yes, you’re capable of starting your own enterprise. That’s the tough news.

It means that when you look closely, it’s only hard work, common sense, and realistic expectations that stand between you and a more sustainable life.

Working smart and working hard to provide sustainable solutions has been the business of most people in most societies since the dawn of time. By and large, it’s worked out.

Despite the trappings, now is no different. Except we have better and cheaper tools than have ever been available in human history.

High tech headlines tantalize would be entrepreneurs, but I think they also deter most of us. That’s unfortunate.

The simple human skills of basic, sustainable entrepreneurship get thrown out for the false realities of spreadsheets and get rich seminars.

If ever there was a time to reclaim and celebrate small scale, sustainable entrepreneurship, and all it’s common sense tools, now is that time.

In the world of enterprise, looking backward is rarely touted. But looking backward is valuable, given the problems we face today. Many of the skills that got us here are waiting to be re-found. Honesty, virtue, hard work, living lean, and optimistic courage are there to name a few.

Looking backward brings us to quieter places for ourselves, where we can grow as individuals, enjoy commerce and contribute to society. Sure you can use the wonderful new 21st century tools, just learn to use them in ways that support you and the rest of us sustainably. It’s easier than you think.

Don’t be ashamed that your new enterprise isn’t wired into the newest tech trend, or the shining star of the IPO world. Those represent only one kind of commerce.

Sustainable work for me means building smart, repeatable business models around common sense solutions, executed with simplicity and when possible, elegance.

Work hard, stay vigilant, and take small bites.

Labels: diversions, entrepreneurship, startups

Great enterprises of all shapes and sizes develop around great stories.

As you proceed outbound on your own enterprise path, first find your own story. Don't look for a story you can sell people. No one wants to be sold.

People want to join, to participate actively in great stories. We are all looking for ways to make our own lives and our own enterprises better. Great stories are tales of solution.

Among the best enterprise stories I know is that of Mr. Tim Kehoe, the colored bubbles guy from St. Paul, MN. Tim's 11 years of persistent experimentation led this past year to the development of a valuable new chemistry, but more fun, of course, are the brightly colored bubbles he's invented. See my post from Nov. 19, linked below, for the full story.

To help close out this year, I'd like to thank Tim once again for his patience, his durability, and most of all, for one hell of a great story. I'd also like to point to some good news and good publicity Tim and friends have received lately.

Popular Science Magazine, which first ran with this story, has just awarded Tim and his colored bubbles with their Grand Award for General Innovation for 2005. Congrats, friends!

I also heard a nice interview on NPR's Morning Edition with Tim about his story. You'll like hearing it directly.

Tim started last year with some new investors, a lot of great ideas, and plenty of unfinished problems with his colored bubbles.

Less than a year later, he's a national innovation award winner, and we'll soon all be joining his story.

You too can create a great story. Look for it in what you're most passionate about.

The rest of us are waiting to join in.



Zubbles! Home of the colored bubbles. Their web site gets better all the time. There is a video on line now.

NPR audio interview with Tim Kehoe

Pop Sci Grand Award Winner for General Innovation, 2005

From the kitchen sink: A great tale of innovation My original post about Tim and colored bubbles. 11/19/05

Think that's Tim in the bubble's reflection above? Colored bubble photo above borrowed from NPR.

Labels: diversions, entrepreneurship, innovation

My daughter and I like ushering at our church on Christmas Eve. She's in college now and we've been doing this since she was in a backpack over my shoulder.

We were in place again last night. The church looked wonderful, and was packed to the rafters.

I'd drifted to the entry area midway through the service. A guy came in from the snow and apologized for making noise. I told him only he and I had heard anything. Offered to find him a seat but he just wanted to stand in the back and soak it up a bit.

He whispered he'd been married in this church but had gotten away from all this for the usual reasons.

He smiled at a nice part of the sermon. He looked at me again and whispered, "I'm glad you're here." I said, "you too, friend."

We shook hands and traded a look.

An angel in a ball cap? Nope, just a guy from the Christmas party across the street wondering about the big stuff.

It's easy to walk away from all the wonder that's tied up in spirituality. Life is saturated with daily-survival, important stuff. Like we need more wonder.

In fact, we do.

Sustainability means keeping to your journey. Spirituality, for me, is not the big stuff. It's not theological warfare. It's little paths. It's keeping to your journey. Among my greatest joys is to be able to share small things with my daughters that go past their remembering. Little paths. Big journeys.

My new friend in the ball cap and I both came in from the snow. In a few short whispers we'd both figured out the other guy was still searching.

As good an outcome as I could wish for us all.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone!

Rick

Labels: diversions

Those funny folks at MIT's Technology Review have some great headline writers.

One story, plucked from the back of my desk, is about a cool new idea for improving weather forecasting.

Right now all the data from the lower atmosphere in the US is gathered by just 69 weather balloons each taking only two readings per day. Amazing.

The July 2005 issue of Technology Review reports that newly developed sensors are being affixed to commuter aircraft to gather and transmit meteorological data in real time.

"The amount of data we're getting is just incredible", says a National Weather Service meteorologist. With this kind of data loop, forecasting ground conditions and precipitation is now becoming accurate to the minute.

Pretty simple idea, though surely long, arduous and exciting in getting it here.

In the world of innovation, there will forever be an unlimited supply of low hanging fruit. Please note.

However, my real love for this story comes from the poetry of a great headline. Ready? Here's how TR wrote it...

Proclaiming Rain Falls Mainly to a Plane



Technology Review Magazine. This small article is not linked. See hard copy July 2005.

NOAA's Great Lakes Fleet Experiment. Great links to the history and technolgy behind this story.

AirDat, the company processing the sensor data

Labels: diversions, innovation

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I love all kinds of music but the day job usually morphs into the night job and I don't get out to hear live music as often as I'd like.

I spent a great night recently listening to singer Melissa Paige in downtown Nashville. If you're anywhere nearby, Melissa will be playing at The Legend's Corner on Monday nights for the foreseeable future. Go hear Melissa. She's wonderful!

Tough stuff though, the music biz in Nashville. Great musicians playing for tips. On the other hand, it matches my biz model of "everyone on commission". Are musicians the teachers for the rest of us?

Melissa's web site doesn't do her justice. Good lesson for all of us. If you control your web content, you control your story. If you job out web content, you'll forever be catching up. Learn to control your web content. Not tomorrow. Yesterday.

Anyway, Melissa is fabulous. I highly recommend asking her to sing Patsy Cline and I highly recommend giving her a BIG tip when you're there!
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Labels: diversions

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I'm blessed with smart young friends. Without them I'd never even pretend to keep up.

With them I can pretend.

Friend E just sent me the following list from a magazine she likes a lot, ReadyMade.

The Simple Life
How to Shrink Your Worldview in Six Easy Steps
by Johnathan Kiefer

1. Don't travel
2. Don't read
3. Don't look or listen very carefully
4. If you must socialize, stay within your group
5. Don't eat what you don't know
6. Ban spirituality

This was printed in longer format in ReadyMade Instructions for everyday life. Jan/Feb. 2005
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Labels: diversions, ReadyMade

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I think smart start ups and innovative individuals change the planet more than anyone accounts for. Progress is all around us, but it's often measured one drop of water at a time, while the headlines rage on about bad news. In my day job, I'm a water recycling guy working in heavy industry. From my perspective, smart policies, hard work and innovation always win out because the bean counters see how much money it saves. Even in North America there are still big wins available. There is a ton of low hanging fruit for conservation minded manufacturing firms to pick.

From a wonderful new book The Water Atlas by Robin Clarke and Janet King. Short, concise, great cartography and data presentaion. One page per topic. Easily accessible by anyone. A great meta resource for pros.

"Industries in developed countries,driven by regulations and the desire to cut costs, have generally reduced the amount of water they use. Steel can now be produced using less than a quarter of the water it once used. In the USA industrial use per person halved between 1950 and 1990, while industrial output nearly quadrupled. Unless the newly industrializing countries learn the water conservation lesson, they will place unacceptable demands on water resources"

This book is a great business model for today. Focuses on real problems and quantifies them. Offers solutions to change the world in 128 pages... My kind of folks.

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Labels: diversions, entrepreneurship