Deja Vu

It's funny how you can find yourself falling into a sticky situation that you've witnessed others grapple with.

I was told that a colleague from my MBA is a bit young and naïve - business wise – and should wait a bit before starting her own business, staying in her well paid city job and building up her experience for another couple of years.

Then again, not many projects would get off the ground if everybody plays it safe. How many startup would exist if their owners had not been naïve and underestimated the effort required to get it started?

I am working on putting together a research project, to replace the part time job that pays the mortgage but doesn't stretch me. Having found a way to put it into words, i had 4 meetings last week with good contacts in corporations and academia. The outcome is that i have a good idea, but I'll have a huge networking effort to do to get the kind of corporate support i envisaged! Alternatively, I can compromise on the research method...

Well, I've got a lot more to do before being able to submit the project to senior executives. It seems I, too, am naive!

As for my MBA colleague, my first effort at passing the feedback I was given about her have been so clumsy that she doesn't communicate with me anymore.

Maybe I need to learn coaching. I'm sure that would help me communicate with all my business contacts...