Heck I am all about business - but my own business of course.
... in my opinion it should be something else than "just business". There's nothing wrong in earning money and making things grow. Like a gardener growing flowers and crops. I believe it's a very natural state of mind for people to create and grow. But "just business" is, in it's essence, terribly boring and dull.
The fun begins when you stars adding flavors, opinions and strategies. That's when a business is born. I call Toothless Tiger my playground. it's not really a business. It acts in a business world for certain. But it's far to dear to me to be "just business" or "business as usual". It's an ever changing mindset changing as people change. As I change. It's reinventing itself all the time.
Im not trying to glorify Toothless Tiger here - but I have new ambitions and goals for my playground. These days I am measuring everything I do in two categories:
1. the business of business is business
2. the business of business is more than business.
For me to really embrace stuff as a (new title coming up) "return on involvement - expert"
I need to find proposals that is more than business. That makes sense to me. That involves me. That makes me try.
Otherwise - as I see it these days - I have given up from the beginning.
I can't nurture the wrong flower and make it grow. It needs to fit me and my habits and my skills. If it fits me it's as magical as the internet. If it doesn't I will be on my way - as a digital vagabond.
late night thoughts from a sleepy tiger =) - have a good rest ya'll
[business, change, justbusiness, businessasusual, boring, dull, fun, opinion, strategies, playground, reinvention, ambitions, goals, return-on-involvement-expert, return-on-involvement]
[1 comment]
I have always wanted to be in a rockband. But it didn't turn out that way. When I was 16 my biggest wish was to give a concert on the orange stage at Roskilde Festival. These days I know it's probably not gonna happen. Firstly I don't really play my bass guitar anymore ( I haven't ever really done that actually - but it's still the coolest thing in my house).
I am 28 and I still want to be in a rock band. I want to be either the frontsinger or the guitarist with mystique, or the cool keyboard player.
Last night before I went to bed I was thinking; Toothless Tiger is my baby, it's more a playground for me than a business. Heck it could even be a rock band.
Toothless Tiger came from rock'n'roll. My daughter is named after a groupie in the film "almost famous". Thomas and I hooked up at a Sleater-Kinney concert. The first thing Thomas and I did together was to go to Leeds Music Festival in 2003.
And now I have decided to run Toothless Tiger as a rock band. It might sound crazy - but it totally makes sense to me.
Business for me is not about making business, it's about making something more than business. it's about letting go and trust the people you work with making them each into representative Toothless Tiger satellites of their own coolness and person. It's about being yourself and acting as yourself and doing what you please - and keeping the rest of the band in mind when you act.
is this doable and becoming a more of a close community than a business ? Can you run a business as a rock band ?
The essense of a rock band is to be true to yourself as a person and embracing the rest of the band as a family - keeping in mind that everyone in the band has their own coolness factor and their own unique personality. Everyone involved in Toothless Tiger is an independent satellite anyway - it's not that we have big ego's (well maybe some of us do =) but we are all extremely independent, working in different directions, balancing the borders of technology, social and humanism.
A rock band is based on trust and working closely together, it's based on everyone deciding how to prioritize their involvement in the band and finding out for themselves what projects to work on. it's based on the individuals not the company. It's the personal brand of "me" that people work with - not exactly the rest of the company.
So... Toothless Tiger isn't exactly a part of the rock'n'roll industry. But every company could in essense, be managed as a rock band.
Im gonna give it a try - and if it doesn't work out then it's OK - cause im with the band =)
[creativity, innovation, rockband, business, toothless tiger, change, leadership, return on involvement]
[51 comments]