(For Christmas, we’re bringing you web marketing services. The rest of the year also).
Well, the fall has come and gone. Seemed fast, didn’t it? It did to me. But perhaps that’s because working where I do, I’ve been falling down the rabbit hole since early August and time flies when you’re working hard.
On this website we offer practical advice for business owners trying to deal with changes wrought by the Internet. That’s what this article will be about as well – but I want to focus more on the spirit of the Digital Revolution, and the kind of mindset it takes to grapple with it.
The Digital Revolution: Deck the halls, tear down the walls, pull off the blinders
I’ve explained my story a couple of times in this column – I graduated from college, turned my attention to creative writing, became discouraged, and took Cloud Wise Academy classes instead, trying to gain some supplemental skill.
The rest is history: I was hired as an intern, and since then I’ve been writing about technology and business in Shasta county (and writing for our web marketing clients across the nation). Since then, I haven’t really written about how I feel about that.
In point of fact: I feel great! I’m writing for a living. But what’s more – I feel as though the blinders have been taken off. I feel as though any goal I want to achieve, or any good I want to do in the world can be accomplished with the skills I’ve acquired and a lot of hard work. Going into 2017, I feel as though I have a clear path in the world and it leads wherever I want it to.
I bring this up not to brag that I’ve achieved enlightenment, but to point out that I’m pretty sure most business owners are propelled by a feeling very much like this. My bosses – the founders of this company – certainly seem to be given the hours they work and their boundless enthusiasm.
The Digital Revolution signifies an age of fast change. Things are upside, mixed up, and topsy turvy. Those who are on the bottom today may be on the top tomorrow and vice versa. The rules are constantly being rewritten. Heck, Google changes its algorithms twice a day! Given that, a learn-as-you-go, high energy, just-try-it approach to business is practically requisite to survive our metamorphosing economy.
Our motto: Fail as fast as you can
There’s a reason Joe Mckenna – founder of Cloud Wise Academy and the Being Found Help Center – hired interns without a lot of experience and trained them, rather than relying on people who already had a lot of knowledge. He wanted employees who wouldn’t have to forget everything they thought they knew before they could become helpful.
Our motto here at the Digital Revolution Radio Show, and in the Cloud Potential family of companies generally, is “fail as fast as you can.” Failure is how you learn, and yet people try as hard as they can to avoid it. Many hold themselves back from launching themselves into the business world because they fear the one thing that they absolutely need to do. Fail.
Given that – I wish you all optimism in the coming year. I wish you thick skin. I wish you many edifying failures. I wish for you all to hold onto that feeling that was first in your heart when you thought to start your business.
And blessed be those who never stop learning. Blessed be the innovators, especially in Shasta County. Good luck to our small business people and non-profits, who are all trying to improve this county we love.
From all of us here at the Digital Revolution Radio show, Merry Christmas. And a fast-paced New Year.
