Learning to fail
Tonight marks the start of another online course, for me. My involvement with MOOC is coming up on a “one year and counting” date, and I’ve tended to stay in my comfort zone. This course, the eighth, is different for me. I’m finally looking over the fence into the neighbour’s yard. Entrepreneurship.
Again, this is the first evening, and my investment has worked out to about two hours. Running the videos on fast(er) speed helps; I’m Canadian, and people talk fast(er) as a matter of course. The lectures seem to be well planned, full of interesting anecdotal material. Live (in the sense that any prepared course can be) with a group of students interacting with the professor. Suddenly, my age is showing. It would be very difficult to return to the armchairs of a lecture hall (unless I had a fast-forward button).
It seems that to be entrepreneurial, there is a need to show creativity, inventiveness and an improvisational spirit. Modifying things is GOOD. Right there, it’s a different mindset than the other courses I’ve followed.
According to the objectives, I’ll learn about business plans and investment and a whole slew of things that aren’t part of my current lifestyle. Cubicles are bad; kindergarten tables are good. Failure is expected (something else my employers have never invited or emphasized). On the downside, what I lose (time, money, prestige) will be mine. Everybody loves failure, from the other guy.
Should be fun. A tight schedule for the next few weeks, but the cost benefit analysis (I’m a total noob at this kind of thing) looks to be positive.
