“We can not solve the significant problems we face today, at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them”

Albert Einstein

I was just thinking today about the new discovery that there is something that travels faster  than the speed of light – the Nutrino, now confirmed by a second study conducted in Italy

Why is it that in our world people would rather look at genius as a thing to attack, then as a foundation from which to grow?   Many of the recent articles surrounding the discovery of the Nutrino have a voice from the media that deliver headlines something like ...  looks like Einstein was wrong ….  Was he?  Really?

I suspect, that Einstein suspected, that there would be a number of new discoveries as he left us the things for science to ponder, discover and grow from.  I suspect that, just as his famous quote for solving problems and THINKING relays, we can never stop reaching and thinking.  Let's think and thank the world for genius that gets us to contemplate beyond where we were at, where we might be in the future.

Relativity was Einstein’s fertile soil of thought and genius that allowed the way for new discoveries.  Thinking beyond our ingrained habits and thoughts will always drive new possibilities – so long as we strive, as humans and individuals, to never stop exploring – in good times, in adversity, across time.  Change won’t happen at the speed of light or faster – but it will happen.  May each of us do our part of our contribution to the positives of change, even if we can't all be Einsteins.

That which Einstein, and all gifted thinkers respect the most is the creation of new knowledge.  Some reach out to think outside the box – at the risk of criticism, skepticism and ridicule.  But they don't care - they just invent.  That is the fruit of every element of creativity - from art and science to entrepreneurship.  What brought us to where we are is such innovation. And, it is the energy of inspiration that will take us where we have yet to go.

For me, I respect those innovators, challengers of conventional thought and paradigms the most.  From Einstein and as I navigate the biography of Steve Jobs written by Walter Isaacson, it is the inventors who's time in our lives, set up the future and pass the energy along with the responsibility for those left behind.  Isaacson interestingly starts his book on Jobs with a quip about how he was ‘…just in the middle of writing about Einstein, had just finished Franklin, when Steve asked me to write a book about him in 2004 …’  The other thing that separates genius from mediocrity, beyond doubt and criticism, is the set of beliefs we have in ourselves and about what we can do as individuals.

Steve didn’t stop asking author Walter Isaacson to write the book.  And, eventually, he wrote it.  Einstein didn’t stop having new thoughts, opinions and ideas until he left this world.   Both of these individual spirits have passed into a new era of relativity, leaving us to continue, from the perch on their shoulders to discover and reach outside our thoughts of yesterday to find tomorrow.

Let’s do that – keep learning and discovering regardless of the challenge.  God knows we need it more than ever!  When we respect the learning and lessons of yesterday – we’re more likely to find a way to build a better tomorrow.

Can’t sleep?  Why?  What gets me up and out of bed?

Ideas I want to capture that came to me after a bit of rest rustle me awake.    I write them down, long hand in my Moleskine – illustrations with drawings. My daughter reminded me they were the notebooks Hemingway used last week as we discussed paper vs. keyboard creativity.

There is something still about the feel of paper that helps me think better.  I love the tactile feel of a good pen - Mont Blanc Grand roller ball (BTW - has anyone found a Gold Mont Blanc on West Jet - love pens, hate to travel ...  ).    Ideas seem to flow a bit more rich when  I use paper and pen.  It’s peaceful at 4 or 5am to have a light shine down on the page in the morning rather than shine at me from a screen while I sit in my study to capture an insight that emerged from the unknown scribe that visits in my dreams.

It’s what “vision” is - what makes us human.  It is the art and the beauty of what makes us able to see how we might navigate our futures.   I often capture these writings and drawings by scanner to extend them to the screen.  Especially those thoughts I want to share with my team.  A thought – to take some action on next.  I find paper works well when it can be “enabled” next by technology - as I post it in a 1to1REAL Process Flow for collaboration with my team.

After my writing this morning, I flipped on my snoozing Mac (who gets little more sleep than I do).  I was contemplating going back to bed as I flipped through the world news using Bizabacus.  What's a Bizabacus?    Our newly launched bit of social magic that tells what the business world is doing, thinking saying.   I’m not too into Facebook or Twitter (I guess you have to have friends or something to be enamored with those).    In fact, I’m a bit of a “social media” misfit.  So,  we’ve architected a new social machine for the voice of  what I like to call “business social”.  My brilliant team has designed the code to run any entrepreneurial minded businesses globally.  But, when it comes to my personal preferences with “friends” I “follow” I’m more into the “analog”.

I really love to sit and have a coffee or beer with a friend.  I’ll continue to drive business on line as it’s the way to connect globally.  And I’ll savor my meanderings for those personal conversational ways at a Starbucks or local java haunt to spend my time catching up.  Paper, beautiful writing instruments and face to face conversations – there’s a bit of magic in the combination of “analog”.  When it comes to business, however, I’m all about screens and connections.

I don’t want a business in my personal “social space” with my friends.  But I do love business and thoughts - especially now.  Lots to think about !  Sentiments rally about all kinds of issues - like the graph that caught my attention this morning.  Businesses are talking, that gets people thinking.  An understanding emerges about how people affected drive the economy.  It forms opinions and their ideas - it drives their lives and making a living, purchasing decisions, investment decisions - even health concerns are discussed and find their way to business in our connected world.  I love to understand the ways connections work and the businesses that answer those questions think and speak (especially when it comes to my business, my health and my finances).  I like to be able to go from the ideas and opinions of one business or source to another, then back to my business and make all of the connections start to make sense.  Then I like to put them to work.   It’s a bit like a high stakes game of connect the dots for your life.   Really, isn’t that what we’re compelled to do now to make a living as entrepreneurs and decide how to design our future?  We connect the dots to figure out how to build, prosper or even survive in a challenging economy.  We connect the dots to balance family and money, education expenses and just plain old living and buying decisions.

As I pondered the dots that connect all of us and my life, I felt like a quick run through to see how the world was putting the pieces together.  So from the Bizabacus home page I clicked on the BBC space.  Then I traveled to the “followed” Financial Times from London.  I scanned and thought about the global economy - so I jumped The Economist the "followed" Bizabacus space.  On that page, the third tweet down caught me.  "... Sentiment on business is worse now then in 2008...."   So I clicked and read the article - and grabed the graph you see posted here.

I wonder – why is it worse?  Things have changed, but is it really worse?  Or,  are we just tired of dealing with the change?   It’s been a tough three plus years – tiring, stressful, demanding.  And the banks ... (don’t get me started … no time for that now).

But will it get worse, is it worse?  Call me an optimist, but I don’t think so.   I think we’re all just a bit tired.  We're all looking for some new energy, new insights and perhaps the motivation to get back into the visionary leadership that has brought us so far in the world, in our own careers, in technology.  We forget how far we've come sometimes - especially at the worst of times.

At the risk of being wrong Here is my global economic sentiment.  Entrepreneurs will prosper in 2012.  Bottom line - they (we) will be too busy delivering new life, new power, new models with new vision to the global economy to worry about “worry”.

From solo SOHO's to SMB's - the backbone of innovation and re-birth of prosperity and success starts one entrepreneur, one intrapreneur and one individual at a time.  Just like the global market was built in the first place.    It’s about change and uncertainty.  It's about what drives us from a “bad sentiment” market to invent with new ideas.  That’s why I’m so thrilled to have launched Bizabacus last week in  Europe via Skype to a group of German businesses.  And, to have released our beta in North America this weekend.  Tough times bring out the best in tough minded people who refuse to give into a poor “sentiment” mentality.  Generally, we call these people entrepreneurs – and there are more of us out there than ever before.  Don't believe me?  Read the job stats - if you're working on your own, you're an entrepreneur (even if its not your chosen profession)!

Entrepreneurs start things and envision things out of necessity, passion and vision.  More often than not, it takes coming from personal difficult circumstances,  and tough wake-me-up experiences to energize and engage our potential.  "Necessity is the mother of invention" - it's what brings new ideas to the world.  Job's founded NEXT after he got kicked out of Apple.  After they asked him back - well you know what happened.  Today, the entire world has this “leverage” to birth new opportunity.  But, only a few will actually do anything with that opportunity.

What happens when entrepreneurs get into tough times.  Companies like General Electric, Johnson & Johnson, Procter & Gambel and Disney , in fact  “…sixteen of today’s Dow 30 companies were founded during a recession or depression…”  according to the book “Nothing to Lose, Everything to Gain” by Ryan Blair (who talks in his book about his hard times and motivation to change).   I’ve not read all of Ryan’s book (just used Jeff Bezo’s invention from Amazon, my Kindle, to get the sample - seems like a good read).

I love being able to find things quick for inspiration, business, new ideas, family, investments, technology.  I love to share quick too - when I’m working in a quickly changing economy and world – connecting  with the rest of the world or with my closest associates.   That’s where you’ll find me online - doing my business (otherwise check the corner of the local coffee shop or surf shop for a guy with a Moleskine) .  Surfing is a new passion for me - surfing Bizabacus is a new resource to find out stuff on finance, or technology or world events.  That's where ideas emerge.

I’ll  jump to the Wall Street Journal, or Financial Times.  Then off to the world on the BBC or Wired.  Today,  the Economist this business sentiement and their Tweet caught my eye inspired me to write this blog post (and kept me from crawling back into bed on Sunday morning).

Time for a coffee (I make it on the stove with a traditional Italian coffee pot – analog there still too).  Maybe I’ll go sit on the couch, enjoy a quite morning, or cook my kids some breakfast?   Maybe I'll go jump on my SUP (stand up paddle) board if the ocean isn’t “too” stormy.

There’s a way to be connected and quick  enough to  ‘run with the big global machine’ . When we connect, as business thinkers and doers, we participate and help re-create a world that has an ever evolving appetite for new ideas and creations.  We we connect with our families, we inspire a new generation.  When we connect with nature, we realize that gloomy days really don't exist anywhere on the planet.  We can connect online - or off line.  Or, we can chose not to run with the big dogs of life and just "...stay on the porch” of business as usual.  The problem is, usual isn’t around any more.  So, if you stay on the porch,  – you’re pretty much on the porch alone.

There’s a way to connect locally, globally  and directly with your vision and business goals.  View the world economy from many perspectives.  For me, there will always be a place for that local comfort of friends, the coffee shop and pub, the use of pen and paper.  And a time to get away from the screen and the paper, jump on the board and leave the shore.  Innovation of “social” needs a mix – just like business needs to keep pace in the fast paced world.   It's called balance.

I live on an island.  I need to connect outside my local community and coffee shop to stay on top of things.   I suppose that’s why I envisoned Bizabacus – and launched it with my team.   So I didn’t feel left out as a business guy in the social media evolution.  I just couldn't get what Facebook did for me as a business guy.  And I was pretty happy seeing my friends around town.  But, social media and  and business anywhere in the world seem to go together like Forrest and Jennie "peas & carrots".  Now I can travel the global news, the competition and the trends - and I can do it from the spaces  on “the island” from my office & study at home.  And, I can launch, thanks to Skype to new connections in Germany an ocean away.

The world of passionate entrepreneurs and businesses needed a place to meet, talk and share their voice.  Now they have one with Bizabacus.

Go on - Innovate in 2012 -  The world looks fabulous from Bizabacus <grin>!

When a person, like Steve Job's must leave this world the only light that can be found for those of us left is cast in the genius and inspiration his life inspired.

I write of the personal inspiration Steve Jobs has given in my life and the life of our organization. At one time, Apple too, was a small technology firm, with an idea and dreams. In the success of technology, like Apple and Steve, lives are forever changed in ways that we might never imagine. With the impact of genius, like Steve carved into the lives of so many, with a masterful hand he shaped a global culture.

One cannot help feel empty and at the same time grateful. Steve will always continue to be an inspiration to those of us that strive to build, innovate, connect and believe in the business of technology and a connected global culture. Steve Jobs, in creating Apple, has challenged us to think and believe that we can be more and better every day. Whether we use his creations for living, work, entertainment or connecting – or, like our company, we work to invent new ways to connect in this world, Steve will always be remembered because of his inspiration.

Steve Jobs genius will continue to carry the world forward. For those of us left to still find new ways to invent, we will always look to his life and his mastery as the purest of inspiration and passion. This is a beautiful legacy for a life from a man that has shown us how to be bigger than we, perhaps believe possible at times that prove most challenging.

Thank you Steve – God speed on your next journey in a better place….

When I wrote this post, I was thinking about what it was like when I was too busy with email and "stuff" eating every ounce of my time. My life has changed so much since we've actually "pulled it off" – creating a machine that really does help entrepreneurs automate their businesses.  Even though we've got a long way to go, the fact that we've built what we have is truly an amazing accomplishment.

I say that to my team at our office all the time.  Then I go home and say it to my wife and kids.   After 12 years of really, really, REALLY hard work and risk, I can hardly believe that the vision I had for what technology could do for an entrepreneur, a family man, a start-up, a going concern of medium proportion… works to help make life better, to automate, to drive business - in short to be the entrepreneur’s dream: cloning their business vision and energy into the market.  I always dreamed of a system that could just do all the stuff an entrepreneur needs to do while wearing all the hats and trying to keep up with the unique abilities that, well, make me an entrepreneur.

I've always had great ideas.  I'm also pretty darn good at implementing them in the early stages.  But, the follow up on the great ideas and all the "stuff" has always been a challenge for me.   I'm a strategy guy. As a thinker I love abstract ideas and challenges.  I can see the way things could be and I've always set out to do them.  The trick is to actually carry it through, from abstract idea to concrete reality. I mean, we could all just be day dreamers if the pay was there!!

So to actually see this now work in my own life - to see hundreds of doctors, pharmacists, technicians and administrators on our platforms using them - well it's a bit overwhelming.  Maybe even humbling.  I've been lucky just to get this far and see that it "could be done!"   The next big adventure is to actually get the larger part of the world to understand what we've created.

We posted all of the users we have on Google Earth so we could visualize them.  1.8 million people. The map looks impressive when user "dots" start forming the outline of continents with their presence on one or a number of our cloud platforms.   As I look at that Google Earth map, I realize what a distance we've traveled from the basement of the University where I started the company. I realize how far I’ve come from the basement in my tiny home where I lived when I first immigrated to Canada with my two kids.

Those two I'm super proud of - my son, an honors student with distinction graduated this year and headed for his masters and a Ph.D.  My daughter, a straight A student in her second year at McGill.  How far we've traveled together - from our little house, as a trio of three immigrants to Canada (broke but happy - like immigrants usually are).  Now, to see my other three little daughters grow up and see my "big kids" as grownups - I feel like a lucky man to be here.  It’s not been without many sleepless nights, and those have not stopped.  However, the big “if” is no longer hanging over my head. I no longer worry “if” I could find the people to build this, to do this, all while raising kids and building a new life in Canada… the wondering is gone.   Now it's all wonderful wonder - I wonder what is next?!!

Perhaps the most difficult thing to do in life is to stop for a moment and look back at what we've done in our lives and appreciate the places we've been.  Perhaps the second hardest thing to get used to is a new habit of how we can keep getting better in our lives - to get used to what we do better today, as being our new normal.  I think we take these things for granted too many times.  I thought a lot about this when I wrote my business blog this week "Are You Too Busy?" which you can see on our 1to1ME Social Space (wait until you see this launch next week - wow!).  I thought about how much my life has changed, and how busy I am now in doing the things I love to do, rather than the "clutter" I've had to do to get here!

I was inspired to write again about what I believe is true for entrepreneurs and anyone who is regularly inventing their life, by the movie Invictus.  In that movie, I learned that Invictus was a poem written in 1875 by William Ernest Henley - a poem Nelson Mandela recited to other prisoners while he was incarcerated for 25 years.  This poem inspired me more than any other I've read since I was a young man in my 20s when I discovered "If" by Rudyard Kipling.

The poem Invictus has touched me deeply, as poignant prose of wisdom can.   I understand all too well, the "journey" of life and how hard it can be travelling alone in the dark hallways of our lives, where the only light is the strength of our own convictions.

Henley's poem is below.  I hope all who read it find inspiration and feel the power of these words to help them to stick strong to their beliefs and continue their journeys no matter what their challenges are.

Challenge is the stuff of life that makes us who we are. When the only question left is "can I accept that this is my journey?" you know that it doesn’t matter if others seek to cut you down, scorn your name, or seek to break you from what you can accomplish, you know that you are meant to be.

"Invictus"

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

William Ernest Henley