While “The Lean Start Up” was making a splash in Silicon Valley, Chris Guillebeau was quietly chronicling another new movement from Portland OR… and Austin, TX … and Nauru, South Pacific.
Chris is an unconventional entrepreneur, and he makes it his mission to help people live unconventional lives, make their own choices, and change the world. All while pursuing his goal to visit every country in the world. Pretty cool, huh? Chris lives by the principle that success isn’t about money or status – it’s about the freedom to pursue life on your own terms. For this, Chris is one of my heroes.
Which is why I was so honored to be named among the “rockstars” included in his new book “The $100 Start Up.” The big message of the book dovetails with some of our core principles here at LightBox Collaborative. (In fact, his message dovetails with the principles of one of my other heroes, MacGyver.) You have everything you need – the money, the skills & the idea you have are all you need to get started.
We take this idea to heart in our work with clients, and with our team. We believe that each of us has everything we need to do amazing things – and still be happy and healthy at the end of the day. We want the organizations we work with to get real value out of what we offer, but not at the expense of our freedom and happiness. And we want to have enough work we so we can make a good living, but not so much that we can’t have a life.
We think of it as the Goldilocks principle; we’re striving to keep it not too big and not too small, and we also want the ideas we offer to be just right, so that we can be most effective for the causes we care about.
So how about you? What are you trying to right-size in your organization?
(Image courtesy www.100startup.com)
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Holly Minch is LightBox Collaborative’s chief engineer and founder and hopes you follow your next big idea.