Saturday, June 08, 2013

Building a Billion-Dollar Enterprise, 22: In search of "ne plus infra"

Today (Friday, 6/7) was weird; it seemed to be all distraction.

I woke up late, cancelled a meeting. Went to lunch with Andrew Butcher (of GTECH). Had a hard time focusing this afternoon, until the repeated appearance of a particular video in my Facebook news feed led me to write this blog post about it.

The evening was actually a little scary. I think I'm paying too much attention, or the wrong kind of attention, to pageviews and visits. I'm feeling too much.

As the evening wound later, I kept thinking that I needed to do something Luminaria-related, because I want a chronicle of doing something Luminaria-related every single day (shades of "Julie and Julia"). But my motivation and focus were shot.

"Any little thing," I told myself. "What's the smallest thing you can think of to do?"

Draw a sketch of what I want Luminaria's office to look like? Do some research reading? Compose a musical motto? Email a graphic artist about ideas for new products on which we could collaborate?

Everything seemed like too much. I wanted the ne plus infra of action - the opposite of ne plus ultra, or the thing which nothing could go beyond. I wanted the thing which nothing could go below, the smallest possible action.

Finally, I thought of something that seemed like the smallest possible thing I could do. The thing that I can always do. The thing that may be the biggest thing I can do.

I prayed.

"Lord, please grant me wisdom to build the Luminaria the way You want it to be. Or take away the desire for it."

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Only after beginning this post did I remember that I had promised Greg O. last night (see the comments section) that tonight, I would explain why I am sending out links to these posts via LinkedIn.

Here's why:
  1. I have more than 600 1st-degree contacts on LinkedIn. That's more direct contacts than I have on Facebook, Twitter, G+, or any of my email lists.
  2. LinkedIn is more business-oriented than the other networks. Over time, I want this chronicle to provide greatest value to people who are most interested in business, as a learning tool.
  3. When I am ready to begin hiring people, people who have followed the development of the business may constitute the best hiring pool.
  4. When I need to partner with someone, people who have followed the development of the business may make the best potential partners.
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I want to continue reporting daily stats, even as I learn to avoid attaching emotion to then. I've learned that I need to wait a day for complete information. So here are the final numbers from Wed., June 6:

ReVisions pageviews: 55
Homewood Nation visitors: 64, average time 1:34

I am nowhere close to being in a position say whether any of those numbers are good or bad. For me, now, they simply are. And are subject to improvement.

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Today, for the first time, I thought seriously, if only briefly, about creating a nonprofit to publish a neighborhood newsletter. Or more precisely, revamping a nonprofit that I formed years ago but never used. The newsletter and "Homewood Nation" could feed each other material, and the newsletter and its nonprofit could attract funding that for-profit Luminaria could not.

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I did do something else today for Luminaria Productions, come to think of it - if "for" is the appropriate word.

I talked about it. With Andrew. Not at any great length, but enough to make me realize that I need to talk about it more, to hear myself say out loud what is in my mind and in my heart - and sometimes, even, to discover what some of what is in my mind and in my heart by saying it out loud, like "Making Homewood a hub of Pittsburgh's film industry." That goes a bit beyond wanting to make a movie or two.

Maybe I should not only do something for Luminaria every day, and write about Luminaria every day; maybe I should talk about Luminaria every day, too.  

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