Presentation

Cloud original photo by Wolf Zimmermann on Unsplash

 

Have you ever seen a Chinese dragon?

It’s… like… It’s like a bunch of random parts of different animals put together. Well yes, but, let me explain: this mix of nature is so wisely designed that, somehow, it creates the most MAJESTIC powerful mystical creature in this planet exuding good luck and blessing everything around them. Dragons are so big that no horizon is enough to have a good gaze.

Are you still telling me you haven’t seen one?

Of course, they are just a glorious myth. However, would you judge anyone for believing in dragons? As in, for real? No, don’t ask me, I asked first.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve always had the idea of starting my own business. <<Pick a real problem to solve the very best you can, make it thoroughly fair for everyone involved, create the dream team, cause no harm to the planet, contribute to humanity, have fun embracing my talents and learning new skills>>. This feels more or less the same as those different parts of animals that, apparently, are not meant to join in reality. A cool idea to combine them, but not realistic.

I wish I could tell you I simply moved on with my life. But if you’ve been in this situation, you know it’s stuck in your core. There is no human power that make this idea of building a business go. The dragon has to become real, it’s real for you, you feel it already!

So you follow every entrepreneurial advice and write a fabulous business plan. After all, paper resists anything. Endless brainstorms, checking options, what you have, what you need… A little bit of research gives you new ways and new perspectives you didn’t consider before. This is going great, creativity is in the air.

Now look for providers, distributors, machinery, quotations… Wait, this thing doesn’t match. No problem, just circle back on that. The deeper the research, you find more bumps in your beautiful neat blueprint. <<Is this cotton organic and really fair with producers? That’s ok, I’ll pay what it worths. How is the cost shared? How many employees am I able to hire? But with good wages and benefits? How am I going to be responsible of my products wastage? Is it affordable?>> You cover this, uncover that; cover that, uncover the other side. Suddenly you are in a dynamic worthy of Mr. Bean.

Doing what you think is right is tremendously complicated when there are so many issues involved. If there are fans of The Good Place (NBC), you might remember the afterlife points system that determine if anyone would go to the Good or the Bad Place, alluding to the idea of Heaven and Hell. It was impossible to make good choices because of all the unseen indirect harm. Check the example of the tomato purchase action: healthy purchase, making salad for family and to do something nice for the cousin VERSUS the use of pesticides, labor force and contributing with global warming.

The Good Place (NBC)

A business plan 100% aligned to your values and passions looks like a titanic task when you think as an individual. It is so big that no horizon is enough to have a good gaze. But as Barbara Sher says in her Ted Talk: isolation is the dream-killer. Let me tell you something, you are not the only one well intended entrepreneur with utopian business ideas who wants to leave this world better that you find it. There are so many people like you and me, and we are going to find each other.

Ideally, building a business should be an explosion of your self expression and commitment with contribution. And here, we strive for ideal. Ideal is only possible changing the business models:

• Building a community where we all share the same values and passions to build businesses
• Design them through effective dialogue <<you see what I can’t see>>
• Find the right people to collaborate and
• Make an optimal implementation

In community, we’ll become Couture Business Designers. Nop, not fashion designers. Designers of top quality businesses that have no room for cheap solutions, fitted with the finest strategies and impecable executions. Almost business artisans.

So, a Flying Dragon is an utopian community-built business-model mixing three different points of view:

1. The business-marketing perspective
2. The consumer perspective and
3. A full sustainability perspective (economical, environmental, social).

It is flying around free and ready for someone to take them and develop. It doesn’t become a couture business until an impecable implementation.

This is about playing with the infinite possibilities each of us can bring to the table, increasing the odds without perishing in the effort. It is a game, but a very serious one. We have to try it for real at least once, we own it to ourselves and this world.

Most importantly, this is not a space to judge. If you started a business which still has room for improvements, this is the place to find out how to fix it. There are already millions of (necessary) blogs talking about our problems as humanity, so here we focus on the solutions.

The only two requirements to be part of this community are to share the same values and the same level of passion, definitely. Is this an innocent idea? So be it. Not just utopian but delusional? So be it. There is no coincidence values have been ridiculed all this time. Here I am talking to the talented idealists, the paralysed perfectionists, those who think they have THE IDEA but there is still something missing to make it happen. The Flying Dragons are as majestic as overwhelming, but here we are as a collective to embrace them one by one.

If this is your kind of place, you’re very welcome to join and share your thoughts.

In the next entries I’ll go deeper on what are the musts for a Flying Dragon, the little tweaks on Maslow’s Pyramid for this purpose and so and so.