I’ve been dreaming of starting my own company.  It’s happened before, and nary a business plan or a change in business card has yet come about, so it’s unfortunately unlikely to pass.  Any company I work for, I start to think how I’ll do things differently in my company.  MY company will be driven by values.  MY company will harness the best thoughts and energies of its employees (me included) to greater success than if we worked as individuals.  MY company will engage with the community, in ways beyond just giving checks.  MY company will be a ‘Small Giant’.

Right now MY company would need to replace MY salary, which is our family’s primary source of income.  That’s a pretty heady requirement for a startup, to reliably replace a certain salary and benefits package.  You have to have a fair amount of confidence in both the business opportunity, and your ability to execute on it, and be more certain that you’re right than that the statistics on small businesses will fall against you.  Hence my reluctance to actually engage.  But that doesn’t stop me from thinking.  Thinking about who’d be the right people to bring on board.  Thinking about, what would attract that combination of people.  Thinking about what magic we could accomplish.

For all of the faults any of the companies I’ve ever been at have had, they have had the distinct advantage of actually having pulled the trigger and acted on that startup dream.  I keep reminding myself of that.