Category — Thoughts

It may sound stupid but frankly my biggest issue when it comes to the daily work is finding a spot that gets the best out of me. Finding a place where I just get into the flow and stay there. Where the creative thoughts just keep on coming, so I can put them down on paper.

Of course I have an office at home. And kind people are kind enough to lend me a desk every once in a while in Copenhagen. And I do get a lot done, which I’m happy about (and hopefully my clients too). But I haven’t found THE spot yet, where everything just kind of happens.

I was reminded of this when I read Danah Boyds post on her creative environment. It seems like she has it made. Lucky her. I’ll keep searching.

What do you do? Where’s your place, and how’s the environment that gets the best out of you?

Danah Boyd asks the all important question: Does work/life balance exist? While I do agree with her that the answer in the corporate world might to a great extend be “Uhmm….not really” (at least not if you have an ambition to climb the career ladder), I do think it’s different when you’re self-employed.

When you’re self-employed you could argue that there’s definately no work/life balance. That everything just blends together, and that you have every chance of ending up as a burned out personal wreck.

That may be so for some, but it can’t take anything away from the fact that when you’re on your own, you’re only in the end answering to one person: Yourself.

You decide what you want to do, and when you want to do it. You may experience times when you feel that freedom of choice is somewhat limited, but hey, that’s life, as I see it. You can make decisions for your work/life balance, change, adapt, be more efficient - whatever really.

In the end it all depends on your own perspective and not somebody elses. And that’s a huge, huge difference.

Last spring when I decided to embark on a new career as self employed, I did a lot of soul searching. Because making the decision to forego the regular paycheck and embark on something this unsure, is not a decision you make lightly. Especially not when you have mortgages and other expenses to pay regardless of your income.

The fundamental question was: Is this a good time to go self employed? I eventually reached the conclusion that the answer was ‘yes’ for a number of reasons, I won’t bother you with here. But one of the things playing with my mind and making it a tough decision to make was the other part of the fundamental question: Is there ever a good time? And how do you know. [Read more →]

This weekend I will be attending JCI Denmarks annual spring conference. In fact I’ll be leaving home in a few minutes from writing this.

Why do I choose to spend valuable times being at conferences without any direct relation to my business? Because I am a very strong believer in exploring new networks and in networking in itself. Because in networking, opportunity has a habit of presenting itself.

Furthermore there’s a value towards approaching networks with seemingly little relevance to your everyday life: You get challenged on your thoughts and ideas. You may struggle with projects, concepts or ideas and miss a piece here and there. And then something somebody says at a seemingly unimportant conference puts everything in perspective. Its a human art, if you ask me. And priceless.

One of the things that has often been mentioned as setting the US and Europe apart in terms of entrepreneurship was the access to money. To funding. The ability for founders to find people willing to invest in their idea.

It was conceived as being much easier in the US, whereas a lot of Europeans had a somewhat more conservative approach to funding. In Europe VC’s would only come on board once you had a proven business model, real revenue - and perhaps even profits. In the US there was less of an adversity towards taking risk. [Read more →]

This morning I saw a segment on morning television that got me thinking. And that’s even if it was about something thats essentially not meant to get you thinking: Casual conversation about this and that. Or small talk.

The angle was that Danes suck at small talk. People from the rest of Nordics do too. It’s because we’re so focused on getting to the point that we consider small talk to be essentially a waste of time. [Read more →]

If you have someone you consider a partner in professional life, step back for a moment and think about whether it’s really a partner or not? After all it may just be a channel that feeds you with opportunities for doing great stuff. And if it is so, you need to think of it as such.

A partnership is reciprocal in nature. It means you have to play on even turf. You give something and you get something back. You share ideals, goals and ways of executing against them. If you can put a mark against each of those, you have got yourself a partner.

I often get asked how I can live in Nyborg - a rather small rural town 160 km. from Copenhagen, where all the action is - and do what I do. My answer is usually that I would loose perspective on what I do, if I didn’t live some distance from the big city. And reading the latest post from Changeism make me think about the benefits of living on the edges again.

So what are the benefits? Two things first and foremost. [Read more →]

One of the questions I get asked a lot is: Aren’t you affraid that people will just steal your knowledge and never pay you anything. The answer is always no. Not because I don’t think people won’t ‘get inspired’ about the things we discuss, but because I strongly believe there’s more upside for me in being open and accessible.

Andrew Chen at Futuristic Play essentially answered the same question the other day, when a reader of his blog asked him: “Why do you want to answer my questions?”.

I couldn’t have answered that one better.

It’s so easy when working with clients to just assume that you are in agreement about what the scope of a given project is. Well, here’s a newsflash for you: Don’t assume. Because it can lead to bad things, a lot of wasted time and energy - and eventually leave you without a client.

Therefor make sure that you have spec’ed the project properly. Write a detailed document detailing the scope of the project - no matter the size of the project - and get the clients approval for it. That way you’ll always have a ‘Bible’ you can refer back to if any disputes comes along.

Yes, I know that this is basic knowledge for a lot of people in larger organizations. But it’s something often missed by the soloists. Take my advice: Don’t miss this!