Entrepreneurship

IPO. Entrepreneurs dream about this day. Yet, Disappointment = Expectations - Reality so IPO might also represent “I’m Pissed Off” if the market doesn’t respond as you’d expected. The Airbnb founders have been preparing for today for a dozen years.

I recently did a podcast with RadSeason focusing on my fascination with festivals, which led me to create Fest300 in 2013. During the span of one year, I went to 36 festivals in 20 countries. I was curious that the more digital we became as a society, the more ritual we seemed to need.

I come from a family of women who had an entrepreneurial spirit. My grandmother and mother both had several small businesses. Thus, when I became a single parent with five of my seven children still home, no child support, and no family to help, I not only worked a day job but started micro businesses of my own.

How many coats of paint have your body gathered? How could you live an unvarnished life? These were the questions that arose for me when I watched this short video about Alex Raza and his second act as a violin maker.

The wise author and academic Clayton Christensen coined the phrase “disruptive innovation.” A couple of years ago, right before he passed away, he predicted that half the colleges and universities in the United States would have to close in the next ten years.

Did the boutique hotel industry lose its way, and, if so, when did this happen? This question scampered around my mind recently when I was on a Zoom call with a Millennial friend and his Gen-Z girlfriend. We lamented the lack of travel these days, and I asked them if they had any favorite boutique hotels.

Many of us, today, are working and worried. Gone are the days when having a job meant “doing your job.” We are feeling anxious and worried because we can no longer expect our work to be the same as it was in the past. Staying ahead of the game is what it takes simply to be part of the game. We feel the pressure to renew our most important asset – ourselves.

I’m a proud member of “Metaphors Anonymous” and a self-avowed “punner” (different than a “pundit,” who are the real smart folks). Metaphors and puns are woven into my existence and my writing, for better or worse. Similes make me smile.

When I was a teenager, one of my teachers called me a fine "prognosticator." I had no idea what she was talking about. For all I knew, this proper Christian mentor of mine could have been calling me a "pornographer." But I sensed it was a positive quality, so I accepted the compliment.

During this unprecedented crisis, entrepreneurs, small and big businesses alike are facing massive challenges due to the Coronavirus Pandemic and its impact on the economy, culture and everyday life. At times like this, the garden is a place of refuge, sustenance and inspiration for how to navigate extremely challenging times like we find ourselves in now.