Ruminations of a Right Brained Thinker

I have been content in general with the labels associated with a right brained thinker. I do after all make my living as an artist. I focus on aesthetics, feelings, and creativity in a big picture sort of way. I strive to become more organized, but wonder if it is possible. The most amazing things sometimes come from chaos.

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But over the past year I have become enthralled with business, especially venture capital. It's a left brained world filled with logical thinking, analysis, and accuracy.( I think there is a wing and a prayer as well) It's a dichotomy for people like me to be an artist with a successful business. Determined to make it work has always been my goal, but now I am devouring information I once left to others.

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Small disclaimer: I did have a brush with the business world between college and graduate school. I became a securities trader, got my series 7 license, was studying for the exam to trade options and....well that deserves it's own post on another day.

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I've always been an admirer of fred wilson
and have had the privilege of brief exchanges with him. I know I've mentioned him before, are you reading his blog?

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I also read without fail, chris dixon Just when I think I grasp his latest concept, people comment and I don't fully comprehend what they are talking about. I need a better frame of reference, but I'm a smart girl, I'll figure it out.

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I took a circuitous route to find his blog. Two things happened simultaneously. I took a little survey on Fred's blog powered by hunch and found I was fairly different than most of his readers (like I didn't already know I was different). My assistant saw Chris's avatar (it's a cute caricature) on twitter in a post above mine on the studio computer and remarked how his glasses looked like mine and I stalked his profile.

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That's how I found hunch and I am smitten. It appears that somehow a website can help you make predictions that seem more intuitive the more you use it. But, that too is a topic for a post at another time.

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Is there a point to the ruminations? Only that I plan to use the two distinct cerebral hemispheres of my brain in tandem this year. I'll be unstoppable or exhausted. How about you?

xoSherry

It's just business

In my blogging absence, I've been trying to build a better company. There's a lot of information out there. Some good, some not so good, some downright awful. And then I came across a speech that fredwilson gave at etsy.

I'm just assuming you know who he is, if not read his blog, follow him on twitter. Somehow he makes the pieces fit together. And somehow, I'm going to understand #4 and embrace it, if it kills me.

Here's the copy of the speech, reprinted with permission from Fred.

) Great companies are constantly innovating and delighting their customers/users with new products and services.

2) Great companies are built to last and be independent and sustainable. Great companies don't sell out.

3) Great companies make lots of money but leave even more money on the table for their users and partners.

4) Great companies don't look elsewhere for ideas. They develop their ideas internally and are copied by others.

5) Great companies infect their users/customers with their brand. They turn their users and customers into marketing/salesforces.

6) Great companies are led by entrepreneurs who own a meaningful piece of the business. As such, they make decisions based on long term business needs and objectives not short term goals.

7) Great companies have a global mindset. They treat every person in the world as a potential customer/user.

8) Great companies are attempting to change the world in addition to making money.

9) Great companies are not reliant on any one person to deliver their value proposition.

10) Great companies put the customer/user first above any other priority.