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July 11, 2005
The Big Idea
While Madchen has been sitting on the dining room table, and the deer have been eating the flowers in the front yard, I have been contemplating my future. Having spent the past year being extremely introspective, and thoroughly enjoying my first couple weeks back in the United States, it is definitely time to make a new plan. Some general feelings about my future had been fomenting in my brain. And the first step was this discovery:
I want to start my own business.
This is an obvious choice for several reasons:
1) I tend to [come into conflict] with my bosses, but I *adore* myself, so it would be an interesting experiment to see if I could continue to hold myself in high esteem while simultaneously giving myself orders.
2) I can't see myself getting rich working a traditional job.
3) Setting aside the money issue, I can't seem to find a job at all.
My main problem was that, while I had decided to start my own business, I didn't have an IDEA for a business. Hard to sell something that you can't describe, right?
So I started by asking myself some basic questions:
1) What is my goal in life? The glib answer is to leave the world a better place than I found it. I'm kind of a cynic when it comes to the whole idea of sustainability, and I don't really subscribe to the whole religious idea of good and evil. On the other hand, I feel very strongly about wrong and right, and I want to live according to my values in a meaningful way.
2) What do I enjoy? I enjoy knowing things. One of the great pleasures in life is feeling smart. There are many things that I am not, but I am pretty damn brilliant--not in a natural genius sort of way, but in a "wow she has an amazing amount of data in her head" sort of way. I gather facts and ideas for the sheer pleasure of feeling my brain work.
3) What do I enjoy that also fulfills my goal in life? Over the past few years, I have come to believe (not just intellectually, but also with my gut) that education is the key to solving the world's problems. I'm not a "teacher", but I am good at packaging information in a way that makes it easy to understand. And real, meaningful understanding leads to better decision-making. So by providing people with better information, I can help decision-makers make better choices.
But I was still at a loss for a great idea.
Well, tonight it came to me. On Sunday night, July 10, 2005, after watching 3 back-to-back-to-back episodes of TLC's The Property Ladder, I had my big idea. No, it has nothing to do with buying up old property and selling it for ridiculous sums of money (although that is a splendid idea). And no, I can't explain the actual idea now--since I haven't done the business plan, trademarked the name, or reserved the website, some ruthless thief might come along and steal my idea. But rest assured, it is a spectacular idea that is guaranteed to make me a millionaire and to also save the world.
Ahh, bliss.
So between 1) researching evil companies, 2) reading my book club book, 3) chasing Madchen down from the table every 30 seconds, and 4) mingling with Washington's young elite, I will also be doing the following:
1) Writing up a preliminary business plan.
2) Figuring out how much $$ I would need to really explore the feasibility of this project.
3) Contacting my favorite graphic designer to discuss designing a website.
4) Deciding how to spend my first million dollars. I'm thinking shoes.
Comments
I look forward to mooching off of you.
Posted by: jess at July 11, 2005 10:45 AM
Nice to see you're reading david sederis, have you read Naked yet?
Posted by: Carmen at July 13, 2005 03:24 PM
