|
tia02
|
read my profile
sign my guestbook
Country: United States
State: Maryland
Gender: Female
Interests: iceskating, rollerblading, skiing, art, travelling, laughing a lot, running in a frenzy, feeding people
Expertise: health foods, ER technologies, deciphering personalities, sketching
Occupation: Other
Industry: Computers (Software)
Message: message me
Website: visit my website
Member Since:
3/10/2003
|
|
| I admit that I am overly optimistic and positive, but you can blame this conditioned behavior on a year of entrepreneurship. After being beat over the head at pitches and ripped apart by the audience, you've got to remain enthusiastic about your stance and walk into another remunerated pitch, drop back down on your knees, and beg enthusiastically again for money. I am happy to report that I have developed a sturdy kneeling stance and a spirit of 110% senseless enthusiasm.
| | |
| Every evening, I discard parts of my
outfit into a heap on the floor, pad to the kitchen to consume a tomato and red pepper soup enriched with chopped frozen veggies from Trader Joe, and retreat to my resting chambers to remain in bed
until the next morning. This weekend, armed with nyquil and a flu induced headache, I performed a (n=1) trial to challenge upper limit on how long I can stay asleep sans external interruptions.
Results: 18 hours.
Having immersed myself in a three week period of self induced wallowing on big deals that did not pan out, I came to a tangent realization of the power of people and things that make us feel good. We all long to feel good about ourselves, be it our beauty, intelligence, wealth, <pick your adjective>. eg you want others to validate that you are who you want to be, validate that you should believe what you want to believe, validate that you are doing the right thing, validate that you made the right decisions. etc. etc. In every one of my life chapters, those people who I cherish the most are the ones who make me feel validated. Simple as that. I started observing how we all seek this validation, whether you admit it or not. The act of making people feel good about themselves is used everywhere in marketing. I wonder how much the pet-supply chain PetsMart paid Leo Burnett to
promote its brand name change to PetSmart. Yeah. I had to read it twice
too. I'm done with wallowing for now.
| | |
| Business relationships. I met with 3 business collaborators today, and, for the sake of sensitive disclosures, we'll leave them as Abe, Bill, and Chris. They flew in to meet me. They represent the typical good ole boys business men. They'll tell you what you want to hear to get you nodding along side them, and, before you know it, you're walking away with a deal that may or may not be to your best interest. It is snowing, but, their flights arrive on time and we start the meeting in the early afternoon as planned. First, we exchange cards. We stare at each other, a little nervous but very hopeful that we will end up liking each other and having a good connection, and this will be the start of a fruitful relationship. That's what we're here to do, spend 2 hours to chat, get to know each other, and, if all goes well, express how we feel about a relationship and take it from there. As usual, my startup dad flew in for the meeting too, for "moral support" as he would say.
I nerd talk with ABC for a while. They all bombard me with technical questions, which I appear to answer to their satisfaction. Each time Chris asks a question, he says "okay, i'm going to put you on the spot again, and if you don't know the answer, just, uh, just smile." Chris tells me that he's not being pessimistic about my
current model, but wants me to start into a new model, because he's
been to where I am now, and he knows how hard it is going to be, to
break into the market i have my heart set on. "So, I guess I'm just
saying this because I've been there before. I don't want to divert you,
but I just wanted to share my thoughts too."
Startup dad interjects with comments here and there... reminding me to mention certain things for some of the questions.
Abe stares at me for the first hour, no questions, and then, for the second hour, starts his list of questions. He seemed very pleased with my comments, and at one point said, "I feel really comfortable talking to you right now. this is great" as he waves his hand between himself and I. "your <startup dad> put you on a pedestal, and after hearing you talk, you have certainly met that mark, if not higher." Businessmen in the ole boys club are extremely flattering.
Bill rambles on about how great his business model is, the pure brilliance of his strategies, and dives into the history of some success stories. He rambles about their greatness, and then finally, sums it up in a statement that puts him out in the open "what I would like to say is, I would like for us to work together into the future. So I would like develop this relationship with you." Short and effective, he said what was on his mind. "Time is running short."
I nod.
The meeting goes on, we brainstorm about the markets, joke around a bit, get a few good laughs on quick jokes.
Finally, Bill says: "well, thanks for taking the time to meet with us."
Me: "yeah, I really enjoyed this meeting" I said. Chris: "me too" and smiles widely from across the table. And the others nod.
They go off to pack their paperwork into their suitcases, and I walk them to the exit.
So there you have it. That was an excerpt of a typical day in the land of business meetings with representatives from the good ole boys club. As the drill goes, first test if we're on the same wavelength, see if we mutually
had something invaluable to offer the other, and then speak your mind, and then negotiate a deal. These guys sufficiently buttered me up like a piece of toast for a whole two hours. So this one was, of course, much more enjoyable than many others.
| | |
| i've been
experiencing sharp stabbing feelings in my heart for the past few days. i'm not kidding, in fact, it's happening
right now as i type. at
night, i can't sleep because dumbing pressure on my heart keeps me
awake, like the whole world is pressing against my heart, and then during the day, the steady pressing turn into periodic stabs.
this intriguing circadian phenomenon motivated me to buy a
minimalistic health insurance starting now, after flying insurance-less
for the past year and a half. i am having a scheduled checkup with a generalist on thursday, and, if all goes well, this is nothing that a little coumadin can't fix. this also presents a rare opportunity for me to market my own devices to my doctor as i point out to her in real time my ST segment elevation on ekg drawn on my computer when i go in for the visit.
| | |
| Fortune cookie told me "it's up to you to define" - imperative words of wisdom for this steady state of sparse resources and grand product visions....Horoscope said I will have: "opportunities to capitalize on your creativity over the next year" but the former is arguably the result of the latter, not some collateral side effect....... and...this entry was originally about something juicier before my maturing inner censor redacted it. | | |
|
