Monday, March 22, 2010

When I grow up I want to be a dragon...

Ladies and gentlemen I have a dream. A dream in which I, from a throne of gold, dispense advice, money and mentorship to people with ideas. I want to be a Dragon, or a Shark or whatever those bronzed millionaire investors you see on TV call themselves in your part of the world.

I was asked the other day "What is it that excites you? I though that it was ads, but it's not, what is it?" The answer of course was ideas. I love ideas that move people to change their behavior, to follow a dream, to believe that they can bring people along for the ride. And I want to be in a position to help. To dispense not only money but the wisdom gained in acquiring it to people in need of both.

And so begins the quest. I seem to have fallen into a business model that sees us spending half of our time helping start-ups get to the point where their dreams could be a reality and half working with big companies to help them give their ideas the momentum that they need in order to push them through their organizations. It's cool. It's all about ideas, processes, momentum, wisdom, force of personality and the ability to foresee those who will foreshadow doom.

I can't remember being as excited in a very long time... all else has been canceled and I'm focused in a way that I haven't been since I realized that my Xmas present of a telescope allowed me to peak between the cracks in the curtains of 44e (the house number and chest size of the woman who lived their... spookily)

Stay tuned for adventures from the entrepreneurial side.

Sunday, March 21, 2010

A weekend at home

I finally managed to get a weekend at home, which was rather nice actually. That's not to say that it was a work free weekend, but it was one that felt a little more relaxed and a little less interrupted by work than usual. Was a little sad when my model for tonight cancelled (after the venue fell through at the last moment) but we'll reschedule and all will be good. Thinking of taking him very glossy and very much in the Tom Ford style (as shown in the mood-board here)

Next week I should manage 6 days in Montreal - which would be a bit of a record. And 6 days working on PropellerFish business rather than on making money for other people and taking a fraction of it as payment. Someone told me that the man who designed the Nike Swoosh logo was paid $18,000 - and that it probably felt like money for old rope at the time... but how painful must every pair of shoes look now. Rather a cent for every time it's used I think.

Was in Toronto with business partner and rather slick business person Alex last week... despite giving people a pretty truncated version of what we did I think that the people in the room got it, enjoyed it and had some good ideas. Some interesting opportunities coming out of it... of which more when Jude isn't typing on my head - something that is rather distracting