Buddha is laughing

I haven't read Success @ Life: A Zentrepreneur's Guide. Someone on Twitter recommended it. Reading several reviews gave me a bit more depth to what the title offered. My deep appreciation goes out to one reviewer who concluded her comments with 'but like so many in this sub-genre ignores the basic question of where's the capital?'

Different

So I'm reading Seth Godin's blog this morning "In Search of Competition".

Sometimes the obvious needs to be written out, and written out in an effective and congenial way, just so people will notice. The 'green movement', 'global climate change', 'organic' are just a few.

Godin compares being unique with being competitive. If you're the only game in town you can charge almost anything. Competition changes that.

This is not new.

Doing some city planning a number of years ago prompted an interesting perspective. With a regional mall just a few miles away I proposed a town center plan that offered small properties in the context of walkable 'city' neighborhood to encourage mom-and-pops. Mixed with city services, educational pockets, inexpensive residential (for the start-up business entrepreneurs) this amalgation was intended to compete directly with the branded stores of the mall: an alternative, just down the street.

As Godin says "acknowledge that the competition exists and in fact, to encourage it."

The city ultimately chased developers that would build big box stores. After 10 years nothing has yet materialized.

Hessler Road Snow

Here's a winter/Christmastime piece.
......
there are moments in the snow
i can never forget -
three a m darkness
studio tired
a last turn home
through this surprise blanket
that muffles even the silence of my small street
where lamp posts step in pools of white
and oh!
I hear the snow flakes falling



The best Christmas to you and a healthy new year.

Michael Pollen's Omnivore's Dilemna

From juice at the local vineyard to touring California and Virginia vineyards to reading about the technicals of winemaking to terroirs to dirt to llamas to angora goats. Michael Pollen is pulling it together for me.

The melody is coming together now we need a base line.

Value

It's worth checking out Amber's blog. She raises an interesting in Value Through the Looking Glass. When you get right down to it 'value' is a neutral word. It gains its impact from its surrounding.

So taking this approach I added the following comment --------------

So, I’m doing this quick scan through tweets during lunch. I stop at black raddish alternative to sulfites and some thoughts on “value”.

These picks are tied to my interests.

At the same time each pick is stated in such a way as to hold out the potential of a NEW idea.

My curiosity has been peaked by the possibility of finding something of value.

If the material is good then there is a basis for trust. You should know something more than me, have a different and/or interesting perspective, a unique offering, be involved in an interesting circumstance, are genuinely funny (or sarcastic), etc. I may disagree but the statement may be so well formed as to present an opportunity for exploration together.

It’s at this point that a conversation can begin.

Maybe even a long term one.

Off the track...well maybe

American Apparel in Rome. Katie Parla's blog about American Apparel brought to mind the following memory. Another view.

In another life I headed the architecture and environment committee for my local community. After doing the basic research and overall community evaluation, it was time to put some ideas forward. Good design students from Kent State offered a substantive array of options.

My interest was the city center. The core of the community. The idea was to develop a large open area in city center currently occupied by radio towers. [We know where those are going!] In a way it would be similar to how the industrial park was developed.

The basic idea was to have the city develop the infrastructure and the, under a controlling design/development board, sell parcels to individuals or organizations for private development.

There would be 2 key factors: 1. develop a vibrant, lively and useful mix of occupancies that would prompt people to visit even if they had no reason to purchase something; 2. That whatever enterprises occur in this area they are essentially mom & pop.

The city ultimately opted to hand over the concept to a developer that wanted to develop using big box stores and name brand outlets. With a regional mall just 15 minutes away the idea ultimately failed, either for the economic reasons, competition or just greed.

There is just too much richness in the mom & pop scheme even if they wind up to be brand new. It's a different attitude and different way of life. These people are committed to servicing their clients in the best way possible. It's good small business.

I am looking for that same appeal with the vineyard.

Pre-Visualization

Of course you know the name Ansel Adams. We happen to share the same birthday.

Do you know Minor White? How about Nicolas Hlobeczy?

I never met Adams. Met Minor White in a photo workshop and studied briefly with Mr. Hlobeczy. Minor White wrote Zone System Manual, first published, I believe, back around 1965. Adams was the first to talk about pre-visualization. White took it up in his Zone System and Hlobeczy, as an instructor, pushed photography in a way that made these ideas come alive.

Pre-visualization, if you haven't read the articles, is summarized by Adams: You don't take a photograph, you make it. So it has been for most of my life, not only with photographs but with everything I approach and attempt. Certainly there is a whole period of trial and error, testing the equipment, ideas, materials and of course results. Once these "incidentals" become almost second nature the objective is to plan, prepare, assemble the necessary components, execute and realize the results all with the idea that end result is evident.

In Dan Gilbert's very entertaining book, Stumbling on Happiness he (and be aware, I'm giving away his conclusion here) tells us that we can prepare for our next adventure simply by asking other people if they are happy in the situation that you are pursuing. Even in times when I let myself go with the tide I have come to realize that there is inevitably excitement and fascination that results.

The atheletes do this all the time. You can watch the gymnasts visualize their routine, all the details, all the moves, all the results.

In a Mozart biography, the composer was quoted as saying that he could see the entire musical piece in front of him, without beginning, middle or end but all at once.

So here we are at the start, hopefully of a new vineyard, and I am gathering all my energies in order to see what it will be.

If you have any insights (yes I know it's hard work and I shouldn't have an extended family involved) drop me a note.

Finally, one of the most incredible aspects of this kind of thinking and working is that the results almost always provide more than anticipated. There is always a surprise, a good surprise, something to delight the heart and mind and provide reinforcement and nourishment for the next endeavour.