Nathaniel at acts_as_conference
I’ll be keynoting at acts_as_conference in Orlando, Florida in February, and I can’t wait! More details over at my personal blog.
Codename MC
Terralien’s building a product! Come follow along at Codename MC to get a peek at what we’re building and the process we’re building it with.
Now or Never
There’s a lot of uncertainty right now about the economy, about jobs, and more immediately for some folks, about paying for Christmas. Economic times are tough, or so they tell us, and all the talking heads (who were, it should be noted, saying how great things were six months ago) are telling us the sky is falling. Regardless of how sound your personal financial position is, it’s hard to not accept at least a part of that vibe in to your own thinking, and start panicking inside over what might (or might not) happen.
And yet, the amazing thing is that today is pretty much like yesterday, and this month is pretty much like last month. The only real difference is in our perception and understanding (right or wrong) of reality.
So the question is, why aren’t you starting that business you’ve been contemplating for months? Or maybe it’s been years? Is it because of the current economic news? I doubt it. If it was, you would’ve started it before we realized things were bad, and it would already be in process now.
The story we tell ourselves is key, and while we might be getting bombarded with a particularly sour story right now externally, it’s the internal story that prevents (or enables!) us to build something successful. And that’s why a whole bunch of smart people with way more experience than me are saying that right now is a great time to start a business, Seth Godin and Paul Graham being just two of them.
Regardless of what you decide to do, I know what I’m going to do: lean in to the wind of popular opinion and use this time to build something great. I hope you’ll join me!
Of course, I have an ulterior motive in encouraging you to get started, since it’s startups and entrepreneurs and small agile businesses that we focus on here at Terralien. If you need help on the software design+development side of things, I hope you’ll drop me a line so we can figure out how Terralien can help you succeed regardless of what the pundits say.
