Diversity: A Lesson from Mother Nature
For small business owners whose businesses are naturally more nimble and agile, the changing landscape of the economy – while challenging - can also offer up different opportunities to expand, collaborate, and innovate if you can cultivate and encourage diversity in both life and work.
In work, some businesses are turning to their competitors to band together to go after bigger projects. Competitors can also make great collaborators, as it turns out. Others may rely on creative business incubators, like BAKERY, that bring together a collection of complementary 'ingredients' to help each other bake up more business. Maybe it also means you start sharing your insight and experience in other ways. As the Wall Street Journal reports, there are more Americans making their living today as bloggers than there are lawyers. This doesn't necessarily mean you should trade in your day job, but exploring different venues of increasing visibility and communicating with others in your industry and beyond can never hurt.
In life, staying diverse can mean any number of things. If you've got a few extra days a week on your hands with reduced work weeks, then now might be the time to go back to school to take a refresher course, or learn that second language once and for all, or rekindle a passion for a long lost hobby. There are innumerable cases of pink-slip survivors who have turned personal ventures into new and successful businesses.
We're all part of an economic eco-system of sorts, if you think about it. And the more creative and proactive we all are in our individual ways, the stronger our collective chances are for continued evolution. (If diversity is the spice of life, then undying optimism is the sugar!)
From OPEN Forum Articles
Posted: 25 Aug 2009
From Haily Zaki, Inhabitat: Diversity is a pretty simple concept. In nature, biodiversity is the standard measure for a healthy habitat. The more diverse the habitat, the more ways there are for the many forms of life to both survive, and more importantly, evolve. The same can be applied to your life and work.For small business owners whose businesses are naturally more nimble and agile, the changing landscape of the economy – while challenging - can also offer up different opportunities to expand, collaborate, and innovate if you can cultivate and encourage diversity in both life and work.
In work, some businesses are turning to their competitors to band together to go after bigger projects. Competitors can also make great collaborators, as it turns out. Others may rely on creative business incubators, like BAKERY, that bring together a collection of complementary 'ingredients' to help each other bake up more business. Maybe it also means you start sharing your insight and experience in other ways. As the Wall Street Journal reports, there are more Americans making their living today as bloggers than there are lawyers. This doesn't necessarily mean you should trade in your day job, but exploring different venues of increasing visibility and communicating with others in your industry and beyond can never hurt.
In life, staying diverse can mean any number of things. If you've got a few extra days a week on your hands with reduced work weeks, then now might be the time to go back to school to take a refresher course, or learn that second language once and for all, or rekindle a passion for a long lost hobby. There are innumerable cases of pink-slip survivors who have turned personal ventures into new and successful businesses.
We're all part of an economic eco-system of sorts, if you think about it. And the more creative and proactive we all are in our individual ways, the stronger our collective chances are for continued evolution. (If diversity is the spice of life, then undying optimism is the sugar!)
From OPEN Forum Articles
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