Startup Workshop VTCRC. Yesterday, I attended a startup workshop with Jim Flowers, the executive director of VT KnowledgeWorks. In this workshop, Jim spoke about the strategic essences of business concepts (it has to suit you), tightened up on managerial focus, and reviewed the overall business start-up process. I learned a lot in a few hours. Below is one of the mind maps I made.
The work of Daniel Pink came up and I wish to share this clip with you. It is an amazing animation that summarizes the book “Drive” in 10 minutes.
https://web.archive.org/web/20190424013214/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc
Pink says that the old school method of rewarding good behaviour and punishing bad behaviour, only gets you so far. It does not motivate people to do right or well as we thought. Three simple elements however, make people perform best: autonomy, mastery, and purpose. You can read all about that here.
Pink makes perfect sense to me. To get better at something such as drawing mind maps, you have to keep drawing them. Practise makes perfect, right? On top of that, it is fun to do something really well. Add to that the autonomy to design and define your own project such as blogging about true crime, and you just might see creative new things come to life. Who knew that my timelines and mind maps are actually useful to authors as well since it helps with plot outlining and character development! That is not why I started the timelines but it is a great alternative use. It gives another purpose to my work. Victim family members benefit from my services but others as well: authors, professional writing students, bloggers, etc.
In short, draw up your business plan and define it your way. What does “success” mean to you and why? And don’t forget that if it does not work as planned … you can always go back to the drawing board!