What do you want to create today?

Ten or twelve years ago I was talking a lot about the choice between being a “creator or consumer.” Today, I re-affirm my choice as creator.
This is about more than “being creative,” whatever that means. It’s about making things, making connections, making artifacts, making a difference. It’s about playing my small role to improve life; to create instead of critique.
We have some significant opportunities for change, and there’s no reason not to participate.
Which is another way of saying, We’ve got some major problems in the world, and we better get going.
Yes, I am depressed at the election results. I am depressed that a 3% majority is considered a “mandate” that “earned political capital.” There are lots of things to be concerned about, and if we focus on “fixing what’s wrong,” we’ll fail. The game’s too swift, the target is always moving, and it’s defined by someone else. (OTOH, if the information in those links turns out to be true, we’ve got a major problem on our hands.)
No, we must decide how we can contribute. We must choose how to apply our energies. We must figure out how we can “be the change we want.”
Here is one possibility: During my career, I have created, co-created, or been the team leader on nine commercial products. I’m a “1.0” product guy. For a long time, and maybe again soon, my slogan was “from concept to customers.” The 1.0 product launch needs a wide variety of skills and insights: customer research and requirement analysis, engineering capability and sequencing, prototyping, creating marketing materials, building lots of relationships, raising money, pitching pitching pitching. I do all that, working with other smart committed people, pushing the 1.0 out the door, and then help find specialists and experts to keep it rolling.
Now I’d like to take this entrepreneurial attitude and work on products that have a larger impact. That mean something to the world. How about alternative fuels? How about medical products? How about innovative education products? How about products that might build shared understanding, common ground, self-awareness, a sense of interdependency and wholeness – in any arena?
I own and operate a professional services firm with expertise in organizational learning and product development. I’m looking for introductions, conversations, collaborations — fuel for the fire. Let’s stay in touch. Tell me about the opportunities you see, the changes you’d like to create, and let’s see how we might work together. Or at least, let’s keep each other in the loop. It’s a big world out there.