I’m meeting some interesting people these days. My recent blog about wearing out shoe leather tramping the streets, in order to see people nudged Helen to get back in touch. She told me about Lucy who had had a similar experience. She really had worn out a pair of shoes and has kept them in her office as a reminder of the effort she put into getting her business off the ground.
It was good to swap stories. Sitting in front of someone in a coffee shop and talking about what we are trying to do takes up a large part of my life these days. It is interesting and very enjoyable though. I get to see insights into other people’s worlds and learn from their experiences. Just like Lucy’s.
We talked about some practical stuff such as building your networks, setting yourself objectives and Jim Alampi’s Execution Maximizer. The way it was described reminded me of Justin and his Lean Start-up. I realised that I had to put more time aside to plan out what I really wanted to achieve.
We then went on to talk about Intellectual Property, the field that Lucy works in. I thought it was going to be a dry subject, made more interesting perhaps by the development of software products that are much more difficult to define, yet my eyes were opened.
‘I meet people who have invented new things. People who are pushing back the boundaries of the way we live’ she told me. ‘In a way I say to them ‘show your mam what you have made’ and my job is to put that into a form of words that can be protected.’
Like a potter at the wheel she made what she did look simple. I know where to go now if I ever put a groundbreaking idea into practice.
Thankfully for Lucy, all of that networking and pitching is paying off but the shoes are there just in case. I feel I am still someway behind her.
Thoughts from a Guerrilla Worker 