This will be the first of many guest posts that will become part of the Friday ediiton of “The Road Less Travelled” (TheCodeFactory Blog). Our first guest contributor is Shawn McDonell of Creativision. Shawn is writing to introduce a new event we will be having next Wedensday called thePULSE which is essentially a gathering of entrerpeneurial minds. Please read on to learn more.
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Creativision presents: thePULSE an entrepreneurial brainstorming and networking event
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For over a decade now I have been a coach whether it be athletic, academic, organizational, executive, or personal transitions I have been working with hundreds of people to help them figure out and more importantly USE their passions.
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Lately I have been dealing with a lot of clients who are looking to work for themselves-entrepreneurs. Many of my clients have been talking about how many challenges they have, not so unusual as every business has challenges. However, the main difference is that they all use the words “I’m the only one”. These entrepreneurs believe they are alone in their quest and for the most part they are right.
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This lead me to much questioning-are they alone? Day to day most likely they are, but just in Ottawa alone there has to be lots of entrepreneurs and small business owners. So why don’t they feed off each other and work together?
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Well upon further research I found out that entrepreneurs are strong people but most of them do not identify with any sort of culture-entrepreneurial culture to be specific.
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So Creativision, my company, has set out to try and assist in building this type of culture in Ottawa and hopefully all across Canada. Creativision is doing this by inviting entrepreneurs from across Ottawa to a series of events called thePULSE.
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thePULSE will start its inaugural venture on Wednesday February 24th from 6-9pm at a very fitting location-The CodeFactoy-Ottawa’s only co-working facility open to the public at 246 Queen St.
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thePULSE will bring together groups of 12 people for 4 sessions, each session will be 3 hours long and cost $50 per session. Within these 3 hours-3 entrepreneurs will have 45 minutes each to present and brainstorm a solution to either a challenge or an opportunity they are facing. The benefit is that they will have 11 other amazing entrepreneurial minds from many different industries helping them out.
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thePULSE is aimed at not only bringing together Ottawa’s brightest entrepreneurs so they can connect like many other events but it will challenge them to work and grow together.
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So come out and join Ottawa’s premiere brainstorming and networking event on February 24th at the CodeFactory.
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For more information or to join please email Creativision at creativisiononline@gmail.com or you can reach me-Shawn MacDonell at 613.889.4533
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You can also find more information or sign up by visiting http://www.creativision.ca and click on thePULSE button on the side bar.
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Do you have to run a business? No. Do you have to have employees? No. All you need to join is an entrepreneurial spirit, a desire to grow, and an aspiration to connect and work with amazing minds and people from many different backgrounds. Hope to see you there.

Filed under: Entrepreneurship, Events, Featured, Guest Post, Ottawa by Ian
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My favorite nuggets;
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Well worth the 2 minutes and 52 seconds it takes to watch.
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Ian Graham

Filed under: Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Start-up by Ian
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Thinking of starting a software start-up.
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Looking for a business structure that provides a quality of life and allows you to grow on a controlled basis?
Maybe a co-op model is something you want to consider.
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Sign up here: http://thebuddysystemfeb2010.eventbrite.com/

Our speakers are the founders of Brierwood Designs a local Ottawa company that has been using a co-op model for over a year now. Shawn and Reid can give you the Good, Bad and Ugly of being part of a co-op.
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Should be an interesting discussion. Hope you can make it.
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Sign up is limited to the first 20 people.
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Ian Graham

Filed under: Events by Ian
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FINALLY! We get to the gratification part of delayed gratification. You can think of the tone and intent of the previous posts as your entrepreneurial marshmallow test. Congratulations for making it this far in the series … let THE GOOD begin …

… but before we do that you are probably wondering … WTF is the marshmallow test. There is a great book by Daniel Goleman called “Emotional Intelligence” and in that book there is something called the “Marshmallow Test”. This is a test that scientist used to predict the future success of young children and it works something like this;
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Result: Children that wait 5 minutes without eating the marshmallow understand delayed gratification. Children that understand delayed gratification are far more likely to be successful later in life.
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There is a whole bunch of really good stuff about being an entrepreneur and I think you can sum it all up with this statement:
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“The harder I work … the luckier I get” – Henry Ford

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I firmly believe that entrepreneurs create their own serendipity and that the harder you work the more small victories you create. Hence the next two posts are; Hardwork and Small Victories.
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Next Post – The Good – Hard work.
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Ian Graham

Filed under: Entrepreneurship, Featured by Ian
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If the demons from without and within are what can cause self doubt and uncertainty in entrepreneurs then persistence is that strength of character that propels them forward. Persistence is that dogged determination that keeps entrepreneurs moving forward. Persistence is that strength of character that all good to great entrepreneurs possess.
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There is a fork in the road that every entrepreneur will reach at least once (if not many times) in their journey toward building a successful business. At that fork in the road there is a sign on one road that says “I quit” and it is the easy path because the journey ends here. The other road is a much more difficult path and much more work because it means the journey will continue. This road is marked with a sign that says “F#@& THAT”.
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Ever entrepreneur that I have had the chance to speak with has experienced a “F#@& That” moment on one or several occasions. These moments tend to occur in the deepest depths of despair and it is that persistence gene and desire to see something through to completion that trigger it. Persistence is an essential characteristic of successful entrepreneurs.
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Next Post – The Good
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Ian Graham

Filed under: Entrepreneurship, Featured by Ian
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The demons from without are those external forces that can complicate the process of getting started. The people that tend not to understand are those that are risk averse and enjoy working in the comfort and relative security of a steady pay cheque and stable work place. Typical comments are;
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- Why are you doing this?
- Why don’t you get a real job?
And stuff like that.
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The truth of the matter is that the only support that really matters is that of your family (spouse and kids), advisors/mentors and close personal network. Support on the home front is absolutely essential before beginning any entrepreneurial endeavour. Anything beyond that is just noise and doesn’t really matter.
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“Don’t think you’re on the right road just because it’s a well-beaten path.” ~Author Unknown
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Entrepreneurs are usually travelling down the less trodden path and those on the well beaten path may not understand. IMHO dealing with the demons from without is far easier than dealing with the demons from within.
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Next Post – the Bad – Persistence
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Ian Graham

Filed under: Entrepreneurship, Featured by Ian
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Apparently there is a real disconnect brewing between the Conference Board of Canada and Legatum Prosperity Index. One ranks Canada 4th in Entrepreneurship and Innovation out of 106 countries while the other ranks Canada 14th out of the 17 OECD countries. Interestingly enough the same 17 OECD countries are in both rankings. 4th versus 14th thats quite a difference.
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Here is what the two have to say:
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Canada provides a highly conducive environment for business, although technology exports are low
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Canada has an excellent technological infrastructure for business: internet bandwidth and the number of secure servers are very high, and personal computer ownership is the highest in the world at approximately 94 personal computers per 100 people. Just two formal procedures are required to start a business, thereby encouraging entrepreneurship, and 194,000 new Canadian enterprises were started in 2007, the sixth highest in the world. Canada achieves a high score for the value added in its service industry, and it ranks in the top 10 countries for royalty receipts, suggesting that Canadian companies are able to commercialise their intellectual property. Canada’s score is lowered by its very low levels of high-tech and ICT exports, which rank the country around 30th in both variables. Spending on R&D is 1.9% of GDP, which places Canada just outside the top 10 nations on this variable.
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How does Canada perform on innovation overall?
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Despite a decade or so of innovation agendas and prosperity reports, Canada remains near the bottom of its peer group on innovation, ranking 14th among the 17 peer countries.
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This does not mean that Canadian inventions are themselves inferior. In fact, Canada produces some great inventions and inventors.
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Canada’s low relative ranking means that, as a proportion of its overall economic activity, Canada does not rely on innovation as much as some of its peers. Overall, countries that are more innovative are passing Canada on measures such as income per capita, productivity, and the quality of social programs.
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Pretty significant disconnect between the Conference Board of Canada and Legatum Prosperity Index. Personally I would put my money on the Legatum Index.
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Ian Graham

Filed under: Featured, Innovation by Ian
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The best metaphor I can think of for the titanic struggle that goes on within the mind of all entrepreneurs is a Cherokee legend known as the “Two Wolves”.
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Within every person there live two wolves; a light wolf representing faith and a dark wolf representing fear. These two wolves are constantly battling within everyone and particularly in entrepreneurs during the first two years of their business. The wolves are constantly fighting each other for dominance.
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A young child that was listening intently to the elder the story asked; “Which one wins?”
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The elder stoically replied; “It depends on the one that you feed.”
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The same is true for the entrepreneur.
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“Think you can or think you can’t either way you will be right.” Henry Ford.
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Next Post – The Bad – Demons from without
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Ian Graham

Filed under: Entrepreneurship, Featured by Ian
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Passion is a double edged sword and needs to be tempered with reason. Reason is usually complimented and aggregated from without and within. I call this “The Bad” not because it is a horrible thing but because it perhaps the most difficult of balancing acts that any entrepreneur must perform.
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The ability to deal with that conflicted set of signals that tend to indicate either; the irrational and emotional “I love this idea and I am going to make it work” versus the cold logic of Jim Collins “face the brutal facts”. That conflicted set of signals that form the bad or as I like to call it the demons from within and without.
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In summary the bad is made up of the inner demon of self doubt and reason battling against that entrepreneurial spirit of forward at all costs. The second demon is the demon from without usually made up of people asking things like;
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- Why are you doing this?
- Shouldn’t you get a REAL job?
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These demons from without and within make up “The Bad” of entrepreneurship and the cure for which will be revealed in the third post from now.
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Ian Graham

Filed under: Entrepreneurship, Featured by Ian
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Nominations end tomorrow.
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Done something cool and innovative?
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Are you a bootstrapping start-up seeking fame and recognition for your hardwork?
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Check out the nomination form at “Bootstrap Awards”. Nominate yourself or a deserving start-up.
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Nomination Form
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Ian Graham

Filed under: Featured, Ottawa, Start-up by Ian
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