Midventures
I am an entrepreneur. I live off of Ideas, and when that’s not working I am borrowing money, arguing about why I am not pulling weight in financial responsibilities with my fiancé and eating noodles. In my short-lived entrepreneurial experience I have found that idea’s don’t really work in my head. I cannot live off of an idea and wishful thinking does not pay out in dividends. What has come to my attention is that as an entrepreneur I live in the middle of ideas and reality on a bridge called inspiration. The only way to cross this bridge is by leaving nothing unsaid in sharing my ideas as if I were a living, breathing example of them.
This may seem detrimental to some as it did to me in the beginning. I was concerned that by giving up too much, the idea would be stolen. So I wasn’t straight with people and I would tell myself that I didn’t know what I was talking about when it came to details. I thought that I couldn’t trust people because of this concern, but really what was running the show, was that I didn’t trust myself.
I just didn’t want people to know that I didn’t know, which meant that my idea didn’t work, which meant that I was a lousy entrepreneur and that I should find a day job and succumb to a life sentence of noodles.
So I was dancing around in my presentations and pitches avoiding people telling me that my project was unworkable, and usually this happened anyway because it was obvious that I wasn’t being straight. The moment I got that this was an ordinary fear that I was avoiding and that it wasn’t anymore or less real than the project idea in my head, I got to choose between my passion and my fear.
I am now free to deliver presentations and pitch to anyone inside of what I am committed to, building projects that enhance and connect people’s experience of their life through the Internet. Its only by giving everything away, Including your reasons for not sharing, that you are a living, breathing example of the project that you have created; indispensable and invaluable.
-Jonathan Houle
Midventures Consultant
Life can be very funny sometimes… My name is Jonathan Houle and I am also an entrepreneur, I just started a photography business one week ago
. I found your blog while browsing my name on search engines, to see if my own website would do well (I’m sorry if you ever wanted to use http://www.jonathanhoule.com one day).
You are making a very good point here. I realized recently that the more I talk about my projects, the more people can help me succeed. Anyone can give me a great business idea when I least expect it, so now I like to bounce my ideas around.
Another interesting coincidence is that in the first blog entry of my website, I talked about giving away my fear to follow my real passion in life. If you are curious to read it, you can find it there: http://jonathanhoulephotography.blogspot.com/
Have a great weekend and a successful year 2009
Jonathan Houle