If you are a regular of the blog you know I’m not a big fan a business planning, but I’m kind of obsessive-compulsive on being in ready mode….

There is a lot of talk about the risk involved in launching and running a business. There might be some risk involved, but there is a lot more uncertainty and even unknown around a startup. Risk is something you can put a number on. I wrote about how entrepreneurs deal with risk in a previous post.

Uncertainty is something that might happen but you can’t calculate a probability of it happening. So as an entrepreneur, you have to be ready to deal with it, you have to learn to live with uncertainty being part of your everyday entrepreneurial life. Experience is a big factor in being able to deal with uncertainty. But you biggest asset is attitude. Have that “bring it on” attitude.

What doest it have to do with the saturday morning jogging afterthought ? Well, take 2 minutes and find out…

As for the unknown, well it’s about being fearless, that takes a bit more time. But if you are resilient, if you have the no matter have many time you knock me down I’ll get back on my feet attitude, you’re going to make it

(Slide from Tara Hunt’s presentation)

Last night was held the monthly edition of 3rd Tuesday here in Montreal. Since last summer, we have the chance to have Tara Hunt, author of the paradigm shifting “The Whuffie Factor“, living here and being an active member of the vibrant Web/SocialMedia community.

One of the reasons she’s here, is to work on a new Startup, ShwowP. In moving beyond her last book and towards her new startup, in searching the web and attending many conferences, she noticed a “gap” between business and their community, no matter how hard they work on their socialmedia strategies. So the underlying theme here was “This is not about SocialMedia“. Coming from @missrogue that was quite intriguing.

So the title of her presentation was “Yes, I do mind the gap”

That Gap is all about values. Values of freedom. beauty, truth and love. Tara is finding more and more proof that companies that align with those values keep customers for the long run. She looked also at values of online community, specially generosity, compassion and authenticity and how can those two set of values can relate, putting a lot of emphasis on the quality of relationship rather than on the quantity of relationship (Think Twitter followers/Facebook friends. This quality of relationship lead to a robot vs human approach to customer service. She closed with revolutionary concepts as Gross National happiness and Genuine Progress Indicator, 2 national indicators that could change the way we look at our quality of life

As the basis for a new book, she wanted feedback from the crowd, reactions, and idea on where to go from there, what examples come to mind etc.

There was some interesting points that were brought up by people in the room.

One was, the looming quarterly results that come with having huge corporations that are tough to reach when such values are put forward…A sort discussion on the recent Toyota problems followed

Another was about “Perception”. Companies want to be perceived in a certain way to increase their sales. The recent Pepsi decision not to buy ads at the Super Bowl but to invest that money in a Philanthropic SocialMedia campaign was brought up.

Then someone talked about the Generation Gap that could be an underlying “wave” under that shift in customers expectations.

I’m sure Tara got as much from the crowd last night that we all got from her very enlightening presentation.

As far as ny two-cents on the matters, I see a few things to watch while refining those concepts.

There is also a gender gap. Freedom is pretty universal but, beauty truth and love could be coined as feminine values. Therefore facing some resistance in male-dominated economic circles and economy. In the same perspective, Quebec being a matriarchal society, the concepts will be embraced quite easily here. I’m not so sure in strong patriarchal societies how will this be accepted.

But, It is yet to be determined if the global online economy has any gender at all. The growing presence of women and the younger generation as online customers might be the tidal wave that will sweep the existing values and build the bridges between the corporation and communities, therefore filling the values gap that  Tara is referring to.

So I’ll throw in a few pics of my running playground.

Arrival at the park

This is when I get to the park. It’s always a high. After warming up for about 5 minutes thru the city streets, this is the view I get. This is when I really clear my mind. No traffic, I can really let my mind wander. I can’t state enough the importance of having a clear mind to find solutions and ideas. Some may really reach it thru meditation, it sometimes happens to me. The best for me still is a “floatation bath”, but considering the cost, most of my runs will generate similar results. I start tossing around ideas, not judging anything. I’m in a grateful mood each time I run here. Greatful to be there, to be able to run, to feel “fit” at almost 50

Along the river. the long stretch

Water always had a powerful  effect on me. I’m not much into astrology but maybe being an Aquarius might have something to do with it. it’s always when I run close to the water that ideas crystallize. My house is close to this huge river that is the St-Lawrence and my summer cottage is close to the sea.  It just energizes me!

Anyway…

Today it’s about focus. And to have focus you have to start from stopping what PREVENTS YOU FROM BEING FOCUSED!

One big culprit is e-mails. We stop what we are doing to check it, we stop in our tracks when that little annoying Icon pops up! It’s tough to get back into the flow of things. And if you add to your “normal” mail, GMail/Hotmail/Yahoo, Facebook mail, LinkedIn mail, and Twitter DM’s, things get quickly out of hand!

Start kicking “buts”

The Time for Climate Justice campaign is an important one if you are in the fight to save our planet . In our own little way of doing our part, an important media personality here in Québec, Dominic Arpin, decided to take the TCK-TCK-TCK concept and ask 60 bloggers to take part in the one minute clip you see below.

By participating in such a project, he was making sure that those 60 bloggers would talk about the “’stunt” and specially the cause, on their blogs, Facebook page, Twitter and LinkedIn statuses!

If you haven’t seen the powerful rendition of “beds are burning” from international artists on the Time for climate justice site, please do so.

If this can inspire more people in your part of the Globe to do something of their own to build awareness around this issue, this post will have been well worth it.

Time is ticking, take action!
p.s. I’m at the 38th second

People put in place, the conditions that bring good or bad “luck”.

I will focus on Good luck, after all, that’s what we want right ? So manage to take the decisions, do the actions to multiply the “chances” that opportunity will “strike”.

If you remember in my previous post, “Being the right person” with…

• the right solution
• at the right moment
• at the right place.

Do you meet new people ? Do you network virtually and for real ? How about talking to the right persons to get information to have more “chances” to come up with…

• the right solution
• at the right moment
• at the right place.

That means being able to LISTEN carefully to what people are saying, that means having an open mind to what people say about your idea. Listening to what they think is

• the right solution
• at the right moment
• at the right place.

And then there are the THINGS people can do for you. People have a tendency to PAYBACK. What have you done for someone lately ? Help to solve someone’s problems and see what happens. Ask the questions “what can I do for you today ?” , “Can I introduce you to someone ?” If you are “lucky” enough, they’ll help you back, with the right contact, the right introductions….

That means being CLEAR on what is missing for you to get “lucky”, what missing ingredient luck could bring ?

That means being able to get out of your usual ROUTINE…Recognizing you don’t have what you want, analyzing what you have and deciding to CHANGE something until things start to move your way…that you’re getting “lucky”. Notice that to Change something you have to ACT…you have to take a “chance” with something.

Then what are your expectations ? What will you do with the results, the feedback of that action ?

Your ability to react swiftly, to adjust will maximize you “chances” of hitting the “bull’s-eye”…

You’d be so lucky to nail it on the first try

——

Inspired by this speech (in french)