| The Reluctant Entrepreneur | 90 comments |
 3 Nov 2004 @ 17:40My name is Flemming Funch. I'm starting this weblog as an experiment in exploring entrepreneurship. As the beginning of an excellent before-after story, I start off right now being broke. In recent years I've mostly made a living making computer programs and managing internet servers. However my only stable contract just got cancelled. Meaning that as of this week I have no reliable income. And I have zero reserves. A year ago I moved with my family to another country, France, from the U.S. I'm the only provider for my family of five, and we're in a new, little known place, speaking a different language. So, to put it briefly, I'm motivated. Motivated to do something different, start something new. Right now. I could go look for a job, of course. But that's not what I have in mind. No, I'm rather thinking of how to develop businesses I can run on my own, and streams of income that will continue whether I show up in a particular office every day or not. And there's no denying that there's a lot of potential in being an internet entrepreneur. But how, what, where, with who? That's what will be explored here. For myself and for anybody who wants to read along or participate in what emerges. I'm not without skills and connections and knowledge. They are however primarily in other fields. I've written some big pieces of software that have done great for other people. I'm a trained counselor and master practitioner in NLP. I understand people quite well. I wrote a couple of do-it-yourself books about educating oneself into being a a personal counselor. I started an idealistic activist community online that has existed since 1995 and has 9000 members. I write a weblog about philosophical and technical patterns of change, which has 1500 readers every day. And, oh, I've done many other things. But the things I've done have either been as a cog in the wheel of somebody else's business. Or they've been totally divorced from the money and business world. Idealistic, often anti-commercial ventures to try to inspire the creation of a better world. The people I normally speak with are in a different category than what I envision here. Oh, many of them are successful business people or well employed. But we're not talking about money-making opportunities. But, although I want to talk about different things here, in a different way, it is an important criterion for me to speak with a real voice. I.e. to talk about what is actually going on, what I actually think, without getting into some kind of hyped-up, fake marketing speak. So, here we get into why you see the word "Reluctant" in the title. I find many kinds of sales speak and MLM talk to be fake and off-putting. I really can't bring myself into promoting things I don't believe in, just because there might be money in it. And I have many philosophical and moral issues with how money-making is done. I have to overcome by own distaste and revulsion, just to look at it. So, what I'm attempting here is to explore it without letting my own integrity out of sight. And maybe that will be useful to other people who don't quite feel in-tune with many of the money-making opportunities that are out there. I'd like to be able to look back at this point in a year or two, being independently wealthy and enjoying life, and being able to say that I did it without losing my soul. And that I've left a trail that will be useful to others. We shall see. |