Thursday, November 20, 2008

Ride The Wave!

I LOVE the article below titled “What Surfing Can Teach Us About Managing the Unexpected”

http://conversationstarter.hbsp.com/2008/11/how_to_anticipate_the_next_wav.html

For those of you who are NAWBO members you’ll recognize it from the link in today’s NAWBO Smartbrief---a super newsletter that I almost always find something of interest in. You can subscribe at http://www.smartbrief.com/nawbo/.

Anyway…in these unsettled economic times I find myself searching for ways to manage both my business and my mood. As a small business owner they are irreparably linked. What is the best course of action? Should I move more slowly or more quickly? Expand? Contract? Hide under a bush until it’s all over? Reading the attached brought a visual image to my mind so clear and compelling that I immediately felt at ease. Water. Ocean. Waves. The enormity of it. The seamlessness of it. My interpretation is this: business mimics the natural world with ebb and flow like the tide.

Don’t run from getting your feet wet. You can’t stay safe and dry on the shore or you’ll miss out.

Ride the wave!

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Just discovered...Green Maven and Greenfly

Doing some surfing during my lunch break---I was on a conference call so had a minute---discovered two very interesting sites:

Green Maven www.greenmaven.com

Described as: Finally a website that brings the best of the Green Web together. Designed for Mavens that just can't get enough of all things Green. Use it as a research tool, or keep up to date on the latest trends in the Green Revolution.

Currently have three tools:

· Green Search Engine : the world's first comprehensive Green Search Engine based on Google's Coop Search technology. Rather than searching the entire web, your search yields "green" results. Soon will have the ability for anybody to be a Green Maven and help contribute to the research of mapping the Green Web.

· Green News Reader : Integrates the best of the green blogs into one, easy to read format. We receive new stories all day long day from channels of the best news on the web. Read all the news channels at once, or switch channels to read any specific news source. Use the "Share It!" feature to send a positive news story to a friend, family, or co-worker.

· Green Directory : This is the source for our Green Search Engine. If you'd rather browse than search, explore the Green Web using our comprehensive directory. Note, naturally I asked that Imago Associates (www.imagoassociates.com) and GQA (www.GQAFurniture.com) be added :)

And Greenfly www.greenfly.com

Where you can determine the sustainability factors for your product or project design. This one I’ll have to play with!


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Tuesday, November 04, 2008

Election Day 2008

I was raised by my public servant father not to mix politics with business but today I simply can't resist. I believe that this is the most important election in my lifetime. For so very many reasons, both personal and global---and aren’t they the same, really? My heart has been pounding since I woke up. Yes, somewhere in the United States someone I don’t know is already casting a ballot. Please God let them do the right thing.

Let us all do the right thing.

My daughter is a teenager and consumed with all the things teenagers care about. I won’t embarrass her and list them here but anyone over thirty knows what I mean. Focused on her world the election is just peripheral, movement off to the side. Such a movement. I’ve tried to think how can I make this a memorable day for her? Something that she will be able to look back on and say, “I remember that day, where I was, who I was with…” in the same way we all remember special moments that, at the time, were not in our focus.

I decided today was about community. I’ve invited friends over. I’ll take time to prepare a special meal. We’ll eat and drink together. A community.

Please be a member of our global community today and vote. Appreciate the freedom you have to do so and the enormous opportunity that is offered to all of us today to participate in a process that allows us to confirm who we are and what we believe in.

For my part I have been telling anyone who cares to listen that I am visualizing Barack and Michelle and their beautiful girls on inauguration day. I imagine that it is snowing lightly and you can see flakes of snow on his coat. She’s opted not to wear a hat. I’m glad. She doesn’t need it. The girls are giggling. So much energy! I think they even have their chilly hands in a muff.

And I am brought to tears again. It is a wonderful new day.