Posts tagged Entrepreneurship
“Don´t worry – be crappy!” -Guy Kawasaki, Art of Start-
Nov 17th
Old finnish saying says that it´s better to have one goose in backpack than ten flying free. So here I go. Strongly believing that one posted writing is better than ten unposted. In a way that is how all started in Monkey Busines. No business idea. A lot of questions, small and bigger ones. Or even before that here was a meeting between two humanbeings, Ville&Tatu year 2005. Maybe even Adam&Eva before that. Later some biercans and mugs of coffee. And an attitude that we can have impact. WE HAVE IMPACT!
What would an organisation from future be like? Why is business so serious? What does mother Earth say to that? What is the best misunderstanding of my life? For me it´s Monkey Business – when people were talking about Funky Business. It was something we had been seeking out. Can´t be taken too seriously, yellow and playful. Travelling was meaningfull, ideas came through conversations with new people and surfing in new cultures. Bananashaped businesscard, logo and core message.
What is the tribe I want to join? Whose truth do I believe? Who/What leads me? After what I am running for? Is it possible? What inspires me? What keeps me moving? Dream? What is the cartoon I want to create?
Juha-Matti Kinnunen aka Tupsu has drawn these cartoons. And by serendipity we have started to use it as a tool for running interactive workshops. By telling our stories and raising questions and then throwing them to participants. And sharing our story is something that inspires me. No logic. Just attitude. Yellow spirit. And a lot of actions&Dialogue. Love me or hate me. Do the newer!
Lifestyle company. With Impact. Like organic plant. Maybe?
Tiina came into the HOUSE!
Sep 22nd
Little things are often the biggest ones. Last winter when moving to this new location we had a wellcoming party. And I called a little local newspapers to come and visit us. And they did and writed an article(below).
Well it´s all in finnish, chaotic and so on. The thing is that you newer know who will read an article like this. And what it will cause in the head of the reader. Neither did we. About three weeks ago I got an telephone call. It was Tiina. She wanted to come and see us. So I ansvered YES. Tiina came and started telling:” last spring I saw that article and decided that I´want to work in a place like that. And here I am. Ready to rock.” So here she is, photo taken this morning. And she brought some liqourice to us also, yellow, in the front of the picture.
Well you can see Tiina´s work here. She is a professional illustrator. (the one who can draw cool pictures, creative and so on.) And we have encouraged her to use that ability. And she has taken it into the action. She has contacted BusinessArena to co-operate in graphical facilitation. And she has been visiting local center for starting entrepreneurs(Luotsi). And said that it was depressing:” they told me to came back with countings and numbers. Not very enthuastic. Are they trying to kill the entreprenial spark in me?” On the other side of the table was sitting Hans, old team mate of Johannas&mine. Hans had got samekind of experiment with Luotsi. So here you can see how Hans normally protects himself against idea killers. (Hans is the humanbeing at the right side of the picture. On the left is a Sunflower brought from Villes homeyard at Paltamo.) Anyway, yellow both.
So what I am thinking is that how do we really help others to be at their best on what they do? And I am really happy that Tiina came to visit us. By Matti Nykänen:” Give chance a break “. Let´s aim for enriching each other. For little things. Let´s listen our hearts and numbers will follow. It´s not about the idea – it´s about the attitude.
Tantourist – always on travel
Customers whom we want?
Mar 23rd
We Monkeys aren´t like most people. But we do need friends(customers) to play with. To learn, lead, cocreate and to make world more fun & yellow! We have to first know who we are. Seth Godin, Tribes:
“ The art of leadership is understanding what you can´t compromise on.”
Beginning of year 2010 for us has been a bit like hike in a desert. Just have to believe that the oasis will come. Seth Godin, Tribes:
” The second thing you need to know is that the only thing holding you back from becoming the kind of person who changes things is this: lack of faith. Faith that you can do it. Faith that it´s worth doeing. Faith that failure won´f destroy you.”
Cosmos has challenged us by asking: are you serious about this? Time on desert has put our values in test also. Inner pressure is sometimes almost too hard to handle. But returning back from uncomfortable zone is rewarding. Things look clear for a while – illusion of infallible.
Prahalad & Krishnan, The new age of innovation:
” Start-ups do not need well-developed proseccies.”
Form follows funtion, said someone. So what we can do is keep on doeing. Culture is the Strategy. More experiments with customers who play with same rules. So we want:
*You, whom don´t want to work overtime daily to keep up the status quo
*You, whom don´t want be sheepwalking anymore
*You, whom wants to change, yourself, organization, world
*You, whom wants to learn, all the time, everywhere, from everybody
*You, whom wants to do all this together, smiling
Eye for an eye makes the hole world blind. – Gandhi-
Tantourist.
In the spirit of Richard Branson, maybe?
Feb 18th
Is entrepreneurship like wrestling? You need to force enemy to fall time after time. You have seen the enemy – it´s you. You take punches but you need to protect the core. You have to have self disicpline to survive.
But what does it all mean when we talk about TEAM entrepreneurship? What is my mental model about it? And when we combine team entrepreneurship to creative economy? How to measure it?
Our mission is to make world more fun and yellow. So is it the main measuring scale? We do have fun and that´s something we focus on. But how to turn it into bread? Richard Branson has said that he has allways done what has felt fun. This is really giving me headache. In my heart I know the path is right. It is leading us towards better lifre. And money has very little to do with that. How do you keep up with the faith?
Tantourist. Feeling powerless.
“Laugh, play and fart!”
Oct 20th
One of the best things in life are friends who support you by little things. Like Heikkis father Antti who has original Monkey Business sticker on back of his phone. And it´s worn out badly, so he ordered me a new one when we last time met. Antti is a carpenter, he teaches it also in vocational school, appreciates real hand work & traditions. And we have had many adventures together. Maybe someday we´ll do miracles together. And I am proud Godfather of Anttis first son. This is my first letter to four month old Heikki. “…And don´t believe everything what that old dude tells you.” Thanks Antti for supporting me! Maybe there is something for you in the letter also.
With Love: Tatu, Godfather
Ps. Last week I wanted to write a letter to Dee Hock. But I couldn´t found his home address. Can you help me?
Monkey Business in Equador Part 1
May 20th
Henna from Monkey Business with a teamentrepreneur from Takomo (?) Valtteri Melkko are right now working in Equador in the Village of Salinas. Here are the first greetings from them from the May 14th:
Ecuadorians are entrepreneurial by nature, and in Salinas they have done nationally appreciated great work in forming co-operatives to help local farmers to export their goods to the local and international markets. Salinas is a very beautiful, mountainish (altitude 3500 meters) village of just 1200 people, but around it there are 10 000 people living in the area. Those who don´t live in the village are extremely poor, just survive but need support to live fine.
Organizations that we work with in Salinas are taking this situation into account by trying to offer education, access to the knowledge and microloans for the local families to grow out of the poverty.
This is why Salinas School of Entrepreneurship was formed here in June 2008 with the help of Finnish coaches and Finnish Ministry of Foreign affairs. In Salinas people have skills as people in Finland do. We can only offer encouragement and knowledge about how to transform skills and will into action and results. This is what we are doing here now with Valtteri from Team Academy and Timo from Finland and from the founding team of Salinas School of Entrepreneurship.
Our goal here is to try to create a sustainable basis for the project since it is so new. In order to do this, we will establish a facilitator team to work on the project and coach this team. This team will then hopefully be able to secure the diverse content of the project as well as the continuity here.
A lot of work is to be done in here still, and the main improvement to do would be improving the education. For example people in normal school in Salinas have studied English for 3-4 years, and when you ask them “How are you?”, they can answer just “¿Que?”, “What?”. Education styles are like they were in Finland 50 years or more ago, based on learning by heart and listening to the teacher giving the knowledge. Team work, interactive learning and own responsibility for learning are very new things in here. What a great field to work – we´re ignited!
After travelling for about 84 hours from Finland through London, New York, Miami and Panama city, sleeping a bit here and there, also spending an evening in New York, we finally arrived to Salinas on Wednesday evening.
Our first impression about Salinas School of entrepreneurship was: what a marvellous work they have done already! On the first night we were welcomed by the whole team of 30 learners and 4 coaches and organizators. They had prepared a program for the night for us to get to know what is going on with the school. I (Henna) also had to speak Spanish for the whole group right away, and it was okay despite the mistakes make all the time. Valtteri and Timo are fluent in Spanish already, and as a team we can manage.
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