A bulletpoint summary of the '08 financial year

Do you see any trends? What does this mean for 09? Can you get through it all without cringing a bit?

Go the bottom of this site and download the free 2008 Year in Review.

How much less can you do with?

We know we live in a consumer-driven world. We know we live in a consumer-driven recession. We know we live in a consumer-directed business world. We are constantly encouraged with sales, discounts, coupons, commercials, directed marketing, etc. And while there are ideas such as permission marketing, it's virtually impossible for many of us to go a day without purchasing something (coffee, newspaper, online article, sushi, clothing, book, wine), and it doesn't help that we constantly feel that we really need more. Do we want more? Sure we do. But can we channel the tangible wants and focus on our own growth and development? Seth Godin's Alternative-MBA is a perfect example of that challenge.

A more radical example I stumbled upon today: Freegan. My first thought was "wow, what a great new-age way of saying hippies". But I read more. Here's what got me:

"Despite our society’s sterotypes about garbage, the goods recovered by freegans are safe, useable, clean, and in perfect or near-perfect condition, a symptom of a throwaway culture that encourages us to constantly replace our older goods with newer ones, and where retailers plan high-volume product disposal as part of their economic model."

There's so much talk about just having too much. Too many cars produced standing in empty parking lots, too many goods in stores that go over their expiry dates, too many services that are closing because noone walks through the door anymore. Today's cover of Globe and Mail Report on Business:

The New Consumer of 2009 is a tighter-fisted and "emotionally fragile" shopper who will determine the health of Canada's economy and the fate of many companies after the meltdown of 2008.

Take what you can out of it. How can you personally decrease your "credit footprint"? Can you do with less to have more for yourself? Maybe not as extreme as freegan, but there is a lesson to be learned. You CAN live on less. And you will probably be better of for doing so. How can you apply this to your business? How will this affect your business? Will you change your value proposition to still be attractive to consumers?

Check out Margaret Atwood's latest book for an interesting perspective on the current economic situation, part of the CBC Massey Lectures.

Who will make it to the finish line first?

I spent the last 4 months traveling and learning around Europe, and one of our destinations was the beautiful Cinque Terre hike in Italy. At the end of the last village, we sat down and enjoyed a wonderful selection of the best of the regions foods- from delicious salumi to their local cheese and wines to the very famed pesto. As we sat and enjoyed the beautiful views, I came up with an idea.

Our travels around Europe were all greatly influenced by our culinary experiences- not only between various countries, but even between the different regions. It was a little bit like a gastronomical tour. At the end of the day, we realized how greatly this influenced our experiences, and hence an idea: to create/open a restaurant that would feature different regional cuisines that would change regions every few months.

I was excited.

I had this idea in my head for the remaining few months. Upon my return to Vancouver I was looking up recently opened restaurants in town and came upon this one.

Sound familiar?

You may have great ideas, you may think they would really work, you may even write about them and tell people, but unless you DO SOMETHING to make them become a reality, they will remain just that. An idea. There is of course no underestimating the power of a great idea, but... how about digging up that old moleskin or long lost notes stuffed into your bag or thought written down on the back of a business card and turn it into a reality? Or share it with someone who might want to? After all, YOU know your ideas are great, why not get someone else excited about them as well?

Check out NJ's great post on creativity and look through the comments to get a great tool from AM to make your ideas come true!

And to quote Chris Guillebeau: If you don’t take your own dreams seriously, who will?

Daily does of inspiration

Go to: http://online.wsj.com/public/page/journal-women.html

And click or search "Best Advice"-We asked 10 women leaders to
share their best advice with the rising generation of women.
Here's what they had to say.

Access to information and ideas

There has recently been a movement. A movement to open up ideas, to create forums, to create Think Tanks, to put great minds together to make great things happen.

How is it that for so long another aspect of this was overlooked? This video makes you think about making information publicly or even semi-publicly available. If great minds really do work together, then is there any limit to what we can achieve?

How can you channel that into your business, your organization, and your daily life? How are you going to bring the great minds together and make great things happen? Don't be scared of letting your ideas and knowledge out into the world, it's only through collaboration that great things can happen.

Rewarding Education

I read an article today that says the Gates Foundation will doing research into whether financial incentives for low-income students will be effective. It shows a few similar projects that have already been successful, such as an "incentive scholarship program for mostly African American single mothers attending community college in Louisiana". The program was showing to be strongly beneficial, but had to be stopped due to Hurricane Katrina. Another such example are students in elementary, middle and high schools in Chicago, New York and Washington D.C.

The debate turn to: if students will go to school only because of financial incentives, will this even change their behaviour in the long run? What if some classes they don't get paid for, will they not attend? Shouldn't classes and professors be reason enough to motivate students to attend?

Well, let's think about these arguments for a minute. In their underlying nature these arguments assume that students of low income don't go to class because they do not have a desire for the education itself and will only attend for the money. Clearly we can see the flaw with this argument, and while it may resonate with some students, making such requirements for the money as needing to achieve a certain grade point average and attending a certain amount of classes makes it seem really more like a widely spread available scholarship.

We hear so much complaining about why more people aren't getting educated, how students that have gone through university will on average be better off than their counterparts. Why wouldn't we try to implement any program that will help at least a handful of those students that can't attend school simply because the opportunity cost for them is too great- ie. they would have to give up their job for a few hours a week, aka their income for the family. If they are paid enough for that barrier to substantially decrease, then imagine what this dedicated and hard working student could achieve with a little more help. Doesn't everyone deserve the chance?

A call for action.

What are you doing on a daily basis that goes beyond your responsibilities and enters a whole new world, a world of giving? It doesn't take much knowing about something to get it going, as this post proves. Nor does it take anything big, as this post says. But the little things will add up. Work with people, and you will see how inspired they get by it. People can apparently be the most addicting thing we know, so why not get hooked on them?

Get hooked on helping them, get hooked on working with them, get hooked on the idea of where it all might go, get hooked on making something happen.

I challenge you. Do one thing. That's it. Just one thing. And tell someone about it. See how easily it spreads and seeing how addicting it will be. Watch the domino effect happen and just imagine what it might create...