The customary joke for an off-key vocalist or a corny jokester is “don’t quit your day job”.
I had lunch with a friend a few days ago, who’s response to my trial organizational charter was that there was nothing original in it to attract investors except for the organizational structure.
It seems to me he missed the point of an employee owned company. We don’t have investors, except the employees who invest their time and talent. And to be sure, nothing in what I’ve proposed so far amounts to the invention of the World Wide Web or the discovery of a way to turn discarded laptop batteries into crude oil. So as entrepreneurs go I’m a total drudge.
Even the organizational structure is old hat. They even have a sort of chamber of commerce you can join, which as far as I can tell from their like benefits page is like most chambers of commerce. For a couple of hundred bucks a year, they’ll take you’re money and send you a newsletter. Nice work if you can get it.
(Now, now. Nobody wants to own a business with a smartass, John).
“So”, I might have asked my friend at lunch, “what’s your idea?”
If you guessed "he didn’t have one”, you win a Nobel Prize for guessing. But it doesn’t come with a stipend like a real Nobel Prize, so don’t quit your day job.
Mostly we talked about my friends position vis a vis capitalists past and future, so I wasn’t able to wrest the blueprints for the Wheel-less Seque or the Kindle Bottle-opener from him before lunch ended.
I probably shouldn’t dwell so much on the dark side. I got a nice note from Jason Mott over at Ronin offering to help me get ParticleWave off the ground, and I got a comment from Dave.
Heck, we’re practically Edison’s lab already, and thank God we’re not in New Jersey.
I’m going to just go along as though I were an employee owned company already, since if you have one guy, the difference between one guy and an employee owned collective works out to be simply a matter of emphasis.
It changes the to-do list a bit, but not by much. I downloaded Skype so I could work remotely with people who aren’t in my company yet, in case they should end up existing. I may upgrade my Unfuddle Account. There may be a spreadsheet or a new bank account involved, to show the newcomers how many hours I’ve worked and how much I’ve capitalized so far.
Who can turn the world on with her smile?
Who can take a nothing day, and suddenly make it all seem worthwhile?
Well it’s you girl, and you should know it
With each glance and every little movement you show it
Love is all around, no need to waste it
You can have a town, why don’t you take it
You’re gonna make it after all
You’re gonna make it after all.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this musical interlude as much as I have. I know, I know: don’t quit your day job.
