I have noticed that as I have started taking this whole idea of blogging more seriously, that I have tended to hold off till I have a thought fully thought out before posting… as if I was going to have a full PhD level defense behind what I am thinking/ writing / saying.  Well enough of that.  I am going to be more informal from here on out with my blog.  I might not have things fully thought out… but I will make sure that the topics that I write about here are informed, and based on fact… but perhaps presented a little more informally for speed.

One of the common themes has been coming up in a bunch of the work that I have been doing (in personal development work, in reading, as well as answering some of the questions on the business side of entreprenuership… e.g. what is your personal brand / competitive advantage). The theme is this… the answer is inside of you. It is in finding and creating the passion that is inside oneself that is the best source of [business] inspiration. Here are a few quotes that I have recently run across:

“Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens.” Carl Jung

“The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is within you.” Jesus Christ- Luke 17:21

“Every man must do two things alone; he must do his own believing and his own dying.” Martin Luther

“Here I stand; I can do no other. God help me. Amen!” Martin Luther

“This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognised by yourself as a mighty one; the being a force of nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.” George Bernard Shaw

I am sure that there are many other quotes aligned with this sense of  of this… If you have one to share, either email me it or share it with all of us by posting a comment.

Over the last few days, I was at the SxSW Interactive Conference and had time to stop by the SxSW Trade Show. At the trade show, one booth stood out out of all of the ones that I went to… and after thinking about it over the last day, I realized why this one booth stood out over all of the other ones… First let me tell you the booth was for a photo site with high quality, low cost images, called LuckyOliver.com. It was not that the booth was glitzy… or had graphics different than any of the other ones… it was because Amy Hooker, the person I talked with, embodies what the Cluetrain Manifesto says in Thesis #3: Conversations among human beings sound human. They are conducted in a human voice. Every other booth that I stepped into had some larger than life story that sounded like marketing-babble…. Amy, one of the entrepreneurs behind LuckyOliver.com presented in a down to earth style… it stood out of why I have stopped liking one of their competitor’s sites (who I am not going to link here) because this other site, in their success, forgot about the community that was buying and serving them. I see as well that others (including my friend Brian Massey) stumbled upon this rare example of a company that gets “it” and the gets the power of speaking in a human voice. )

Good luck LuckyOliver.com… I look forward to buying more images from you guys in the future.

At SxSW (South by Southwest Conference) Tom Brown, Bijoy, David Bluestein, and I (with other bootstrappers) announced the launch of the BootKarma system. BootKarma is a complementary currency system meant to allow bootstrapping entrepreneurs leverage their time, especially in the early stages of their venture where cash is short. Essentially this is a formalization of a barter system among bootstrapping entrepreneurs. Note that the yin and yang tags are incorrect- and should be reversed. What this napkin design shows is how a formalized currency (like the US dollar) is structured by hierarchy (therefor not allowing everyone to participate unless they already have dollars) while on the right side, we see a complementary currency that can include anyone in a community with skills to leverage.

This scan of this napkin in a way shows a high level of design of the currency… a complementary currency is about creating trust and recognizing the bartering that is going on among different members of the community- and allows the facility of trade between members of the community that might not know each other… the power of this is in comparison to a barter system that only allows bartering to happen between people that know each other well.

What I find particularly insightful on Tom Brown‘s part is his design of BootKarma in this post about complementary currency and the Wooly Mamoth:

However, the promise of interest on money creates an incentive for selfishness. School (Rushmore) further conditions us to be selfish and government approved media’s main function is to exploit that conditioned selfishness. It’s no surprise that we tend to forget about the value of the ancestral gift economy. (original post here)

Bootstrap Austin already is using Enterprise Teaming’s system for managing commitments that are made between individuals and each other… what this underlying currency system represents is the opportunity to scale this system to many, many other entrepreneurs that want to work together in building their companies.

This weekend I tested and received my blackbelt (“shodan”- “begining dan”) in Aikido.  I started Aikido back in August of 1997.  Almost ten years of practice three to five times a week have resulted in this accomplishment.   Aikido informs much of my life.  I greatly appreciate what I have learned along the way;  In a way, too, Aikido is the inspiration behind my startup Enterprise Teaming.  The founder of Aikido, Morihei Ueshiba, also referred to as “Osensei” (great teacher) called Aikido “The Budo (martial art) of Love”.  The following quote from Osensei sums this up:

“Aiki is not a technique to fight with or defeat the enemy.  It is the way to reconcile the world and make human beings one family.”

I look to the future of a lifetime of Aikido practice.  Although it has been ten years brining me to this point of my training, I can see several decades of practice in front of me.  Thank you to all of my Aikido training partners  who have supported me to this point in my training.  I look forward to learning the way of Aikido and harmonizing our human family together.