Hanging Out in a Nouveau Entrepreneurial Culture

Last weekend, I attended an international conference of new technologies and deregulated energy entrepreneurs.

Okay, I didn't exactly go to Paris, but Charlotte, NC is pretty convenient for such a cool opportunity.

So why would an attorney go to such an event? Well, attorneys have felt the recession like everyone else. In fact, while there I met or heard surgeons, other attorneys, corp execs, even a guy who ran a honkingly large division of Virgin Records.

What did I come away with?

A big dose of insight into how to create value for consumers, for one.

Loads of stimulation of ideas as I listened to people who had started companies and businesses in the US, Canada, and Europe.

Shoot! Even the Donald was there, and his appreciation for the smaller entrepreneur was gratifying.


THE SMALLER ENTREPRENEUR!!! Shoot, that may have been the biggest thing I got from the three days of this conference.

In a microchip world, the smaller entrpreneur can now - regularly does - achieve financial results that thirty years ago required boatloads of financing and a big physical footprint.

Begrudgingly, the President even gets a little credit.

Yes, hard to believe, isn't it? I am giving credit to the President.

He has been pushing the States to deregulate electricity and natural gas marketing by a 2015 target date.

Bill Gates and Warren Buffet both see this as the next big thing.

A huge number of the attendees at this conference were already achieving some great value creation in the US, Canada and Western Europe in that economic segment alone.

And yes, I went to the conference already committed to that concept.

What is so amazing is that the ability to enter and participate in that business, even across state, provincial or national borders is great for almost anyone.

No joke.

The Challenge of Taking Free Days

Sometime soon I am going to do something I have not done in years.

Take a family vacation.

That may not seem like such a big deal, but I somehow lost the ability to do that after a parent became ill in 2007.

Oh sure. I have taken days off, but not for real, get out of Dodge, turn off the cell phone, and ditch the lap-top time.

A community of entrepreneurs I am a part of, calls these days "Free Days." Those are defined as 24-hour periods, midnight to midnight, where you are completely disconnected from work.

How will I possibly do it?

By investing some time and energy in delegating to a crack team, and outsourcing some things that need to be done, but are not my unique ability.

AND by planning for a productive week of both revenue generation and business tuning upon my return.

Thinking on this, I realize that to stay fresh and creative, I have to keep Free Days in the mix as part of my regular schedule, not as treatment for burn-out.

That is how to make sure I can continue to create value.

NOT YOUR AVERAGE SUCKER!!!!

Last night My Reason for Living, our daughter - She Upon Whom Sun and Moon Rise and Set, - and our little neighbor, Pablo, went to drive through the Roper Moutain Lights and walk through "Winter Wonderland" while there.

There is a guy there each year who does balloon figures. He is Michaelangelo with those things.
We got in line, but SUWSAMRAS and Pablo just wanted to act out "Chipwrecked." the Alvin and the Chipmunks movie we had seen a few hours earlier.

MRFL suggested getting them suckers from "The Lollipop Lady" whose stand was just inside the building where the balloon guy was.

I thought this was just an interesting project for her. Turns out the Lollipop Lady is a fourth generation candymaker whose nom de guerre is Heather Norton - wife of a Clemson prof, mom to two boys, and lollipop maven par excellence!

All kinds of shapes, regular flavors, and diabetic-friendly.

I thought about suggesting Guinness Extra Stout as a St. Pat's offering, but decided against it.

Heather ships all over the country, and it is easy to see why. I got a watermellon happy face. (You know, a Guinness Extra Stout happy face would be great.)

The lollipop is fab, and does not lick quickly. I was tempted to chomp it, but thought better of it.

These lollipops are art, and to eat them rather than lick them would be as pedestrian as treating pheasant under glass as finger food.

Check out Heather's facebook page shown below. If you love a great lollipop, and believe in a nation of small shopkeepers, as my fellow Virginian, Thomas Jefferson and I do, you can't go wrong with Heather's product.

facebook.com/thelollipoplady

Electric and Gas Deregulation

Okay.

I am actually saying something nice about Obama, and no it is not a sign of the apocalypse.

The Obama administration has apparently gotten it right on pushing, or at least not getting in the way of, deregulation of electricity and gas delivery.

I for one, see opportunity here, and am so grateful to the President, that I may just show up at the groundbreaking for the Barack H. Obama Presidential Library in 2013.

Multiple Income Streams - Part Deux

This week, for a miriad (that means "alot") of reasons, I implemented a plan to develop three new businesses.

No, I have not quit my core business, as I still have much opportunity to create value there. I concluded, coming out of the recession, that I have to take responsibility for my own outcomes, trusting God for wisdom, but using what He has given me.

So, we are launching two businesses somewhat related to what we do in our law firm, and another related to new technologies/telecom/energy delivery.

None of the three are purely original, but each one was an idea someone who cared about me shared.

My job is to share the value of these ideas with the people who need them - some to help carry them further, and others to benefit from them - - -

And pay for them.