Health, Wealth and Entrepreneurial Recidivism
The year is 2010, somewhat past the Space 1999 of my childhood and even the Beyond 2000 of my later youth. The next decade is probably what will define me as a businessman for the future, for better or worse. Because, after all, my problem has never been about lacking good ideas or motivation – its been the lack of the follow-through, the challenge of gaining finance to recruit essential talent and the legacy of my personal baggage.
The last decade of my life has involved a serious accumulation of skills and experience. My academic qualifications since 2001 have moved from almost zero to having a Bachelor of Computing, industry level qualifications in web design and web administration, as well as being on my way toward graduation from a Master of Business Administration (Journalism and Media Studies) in another 10 months. That will end phase 1… beyond that, continuous learning may see more university courses but not of the determination focused there to date.
During the last decade I moved from fruit picking and unloading fishing boats onto various roles as a web developer, IT worker or consultant for organisations such as the Tasmanian Department of Education, TAFE Tasmania, the Department of Environment, Parks, Heritage and the Arts, Frontier Learning Technologies (for Gulf Agency Company in Dubai), along with small businesses in Tasmania, Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and the United Kingdom. The majority of that work was offered to me by readers of this website, rather than through application processes. So being a blogger works for me.
I also experienced an internship at the Tasmanian Department of Economic Development where I worked on a research paper (which managed to get trimmed to an internal document rather than a published paper) identifying the true cost of unemployment in Australia. If you’re curious, it starts at around $50,000 and rises quickly for the mentally ill, disabled and criminal recidivists. And, I began to position myself in the art photography industry – one of my photographs was a part of two exhibitions in Tasmania (one exhibition was as a jury picked finalist for the Poimena Art Award 2009). I would like to explore opportunities in that direction over the next decade.
My strategy for the last decade was one of skill creation, exposure and refinement. The question was always – what do you want to be when you grow up? To a great extent I would consider the last decade to be a resounding success. Many, if not all, of my compatriots remained on the couch watching daytime television wondering why they missed out on the world around them.
The coming decade is another strategy – phase 2. The first focus is on health and I am getting out more, I’ve started working out with the weights again (as from my mid-to-late 20’s I was built like a brick shit-house) and I’ve begun watching the food that I consume. Technologists generally eat for an early grave, by the way.
The second focus is on wealth accumulation so I will be seeking more sustainable forms of income which provide a stream of reliable revenue (as opposed to being a student without much in the way of ready cash from week to week). The MBA is a critical component of meeting that objective.
The third focus of that triangle is what I would call entrepreneurial recidivism – the tenacity to try and retry ideas in practice with sufficient follow-through. That means if I work for an organisation it will be one which more than values innovation in principle, it will innovate in practice. If I work for myself then the focus will be on looking for market segments either not being met or which are inadequately met by current businesses. Rather than being another web developer this decade is about the pursuit of something more courageous than the safe zone.
So whether its a job in management or as an independent entrepreneur this will be an interesting decade. Probably the most challenging decade to date in my life. Health, wealth and entrepreneurial recidivism. There you go. And thanks to Brett Drinkwater from Tashosting for his support over the last six years, he has been an invaluable ally and mentor along the path of business enlightenment.
[Below is a recent picture of me after my fourth weight session - Boo Rah! Yes, some way to go yet but I'm off my arse and moving.]
