Holding On To Nothing
How many of us have heard this phrase in the GCC ‘I don’t want anyone to see this, because people steal my ideas, so please don’t tell anyone’.
A recent study showed that the one way to fight unemployment is to encourage entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurs today, save the day tomorrow by creating businesses that hire more people. Governments should be investing in supplying entrepreneurs with key resources and support to get their business up and running for them to hire and invest in training locals and get them off their backs and lessen the stress on the public sector. Bahrain is a high unemployment epidemic with over 30,000 unemployed Bahrainis. One of the my biggest frustrations as an entrepreneur is how others starting businesses approach their work.
A lot of people I have been chatting with recently have been brewing and crafting their business idea in private, careful not to share the concept with others, scared of conversing it and discussing it with even the closest of friends. This misconception of stealing someone’s idea is ridiculous. 9 out of 10 times, the idea has probably been done before by someone else, your best bet is that you can do something better or that you walk the talk and actually do what you say it is that want to do.
One of the best practices I have had before I start a project is to discuss it with those around me, and almost every time I do it I don’t regret it. Everyone has a different way of viewing things, everyone adds value or advices me what to avoid in the future. An idea is just an idea and talking about it does not cheapen it. If one steals it than so be it, there is plenty of room in the market for more business, and it actually forces you to compete and think 10 steps ahead, aiming to be ahead of the herd.
Which brings me to the point of short attention and focus span. The amount of entrepreneurs that change their idea on a daily basis is mind boggling. One minute you want to open a bakery then next a salon, the next you want to be a fashion designer, oh now what about a restaurant. We change our minds faster and quicker than drinking water, with no real respect to the art of thought.
When I was living in the UK, many of the designers and artists I had met, collected references, books, archives of material for them to use over and over for projects. They gave physical matter such value, and were careful to hoard and collect items. You will always find that people work at a much slower and careful pace in the UK adding layer upon layer to perfect a product, an item, or a concept. I learned to slow down, think about what it is that I wanted, spoke carefully of what it was that I was trying to achieve.
Back in bahrain I find myself speeding up, skipping through things, skimming instead of reading, rushing instead of perfecting. It was about quantity rather than quality.
What I love about artists that I have met in the past, is their work is their history, there archive. Here we are so bloated with products that our mothers force a spring cleaning every 5 minutes, if it looks old, out it goes. I guess this also comes down to the help, when I lived alone, I had to do everything myself, the cooking, the cleaning, the grocery shop buying. I had a real appreciation for time, and allowed me to a respect the ‘process’. Back in B Town I don’t have to so much as lift a finger. My food is ready, my coffee is made, my room is clean, my car has been to the service. I lose appreciation for time, and I become lazy, choosing to procrastinate or outsource even the simplest of activities like bringing a pen from another room.
We have the luxury of doing more, but also means we end up doing less. All this extra labour that we have surrounding us, makes us disabled. And all this extra paranoia we have with our ideas makes us scared.
Am I achieving as much now as I did back when I was a student or working abroad. I used to achieve 15 things a day, now I try to do 3 – 5 big ones, I get frustrated and angry very quickly when things don’t go my way, and I rely too much on other to get the nitty gritty done, when in reality it was the nitty and gritty that forced me to be creative, problem solve, and get things done.
I say we are holding on to all the wrong things, and putting off what we should actually be holding on too.