So a little over one year ago I had a moment of insanity and decided to start my own company.  It has been (and continues to be) a wild ride.  Here are some of my reflections:

• Life rarely goes according to plan

I had a plan, even a strategy on how to establish what I thought of as a difference maker in the technology consulting market.  But just because I had a plan didn’t mean that is what was going to happen.  There were no straight lines from the point of an idea to the point of actually getting a contract signed and starting work.  Which leads me to my second point:

• Be ready to say “Yes” and know when (and why) to say “No”

Since life wasn’t going to follow my plan, being flexible was key.  Over the course of the year I have had the opportunity to help an insurance organization rebuild their security program, kick off an agile transformation effort for a company that makes software for radiologists, run workshops on exploring the feasibility of enabling faster disease outbreak detection leveraging routine health systems in Liberia and perform architecture review and mentoring on software that tracks logistics and management of vaccines across Pakistan.

Every one of these stretched my skills and capabilities.  And even harder were the opportunities where I had to say “No”.  The pressure to try and bring in work made it hard to pass up opportunities.  For myself I found it critical to run back through my core values and ensure that it was a win-win for both myself and the prospective client.

• It is personal

While we frequently say things like “it’s just business”, here is what I have found, it is all personal.  It is about people, always.  The quality of the relationships that we form allow us to speak truth and work through difficult issues.  When I have opted not to pursue an opportunity being clear about why with the client has generated more credibility to act as a trusted partner.  Business relationships are just like personal ones – they should be built for the long haul.  People will remember how you made them feel long after they have forgotten what you did for them.

• Be stubborn

There are always more reasons to think that you can’t do something.  More things to distract and pull you away and wear down the belief that you can achieve.  Be stubborn.  So much about any kind of change, whether it be personal or organizational, is about simply having the courage (and support) to keep working at it long enough for it to take hold.

So here goes another year of helping people change their world one project at a time.