Mainspring Mindshares

Final Thoughts on 2006 - and New Thoughts for 2007

Having been intimately involved in more business start ups than I care to count - as a restaurateur, caterer, chef, hospitality consultant, and food service equipment dealer over 30+ years - I'm cognizant of how crucially important is organization and focus.

Shotgunning of our resources is what needs to be assiduously avoided because I've learned this approach produces less-than-satisfactory results.

Embarking on any journey which doesn't allow for a playful disposition and the clear opportunity for a joyful experience should also be avoided.

I've been a student of internet marketing since March; and Mark has been since August. Both of us already are business owners. We simply want new income streams... so we are diversifying our activities.

But we don't want to sacrifice our pledge to do something meaningful and worthy of our time...

...which brings us back again to organization and focus, doesn't it?

I'm fond of two particular philosophical concepts:

Authoritarianism speaks directly to our freedom...
Definition

...and...

utilitarianism speaks to our highest, most noble purpose in life.
Definition

Both are joined at the hip - as we must be to inaugurate this new company.

From our first meeting, Mark knew I hated computers (complicated man-made machines) - even business (imperfect capitalist economic construct) - because both threatened my independence. I'm just another aspiring writer; Mark retains the soul of the artist.

We want to love our work because it is not perceived as work.

Neither of us will admit that suffering should be part and parcel of our human condition - though, admittedly, our conditioning has needlessly complicated our work habits...which is suffering, nevertheless.

Though I accept that a keyboard is useful for producing words, Mark - as a web and graphics designer - appreciates the importance of computers.

I enjoy words, and Mark, computers. Both are merely useful tools which, employed properly, can efficiently address common problems, or cause the world to better interact, interconnect, and expand our collective consciousness.

And the creativity and artistry applied to their use has so much bearing on our human potential.

Now both of us better understand the validity of proper framing - especially since we must consider many viewpoints from separate lenses in order to accommodate the other...and which will serve to enhance and develop relationship-building processes.

Our collaboration will make me better appreciate machines - and business - while Mark understands I will make him better appreciate wordplay - if not my radical ideas about busy-ness too! :)

But we're middle-aged now - he's 40 and I'm 52 - and we're both grounded in the reality of our American middle-class lifestyles. We each have wives, and Mark has two young kids, besides. We've got mortgages, we're on the grid, at the grindstone...everyday, kinda like you.

So time is precious - and our obligations and responsibilities too numerous - which is why we've determined that it's okay to co-opt the passions and skill sets of the other.

Our Legend Platform will help keep us organized and focused on brand development. It will inform our marketing strategies...its tactics and techniques too.

As social beings we view this as being a naturally-occurring first step forward. It's part of what makes us human. Instructed by our notions of motivation and reward...

...we naturally prefer to work from home...because home is where the heart is.

Hardly infallible, we're gonna make mistakes in this new enterprise. Like many of you, we've allowed ourselves to be bombarded with knowledge and new information from others who've been actively engaged with this business model already.

To all of you, thank you for your insights and guidance. We hope to return the favor in '07.