What Happened?

As many of you know, back in May I posted about starting my own entrepreneurial adventure. I’ve been asked by quite a few people about what happened to it.

For a while I was embarrassed at the fact that I was a guy that had all these ideas, said I was going to do them, and never followed through. Now, I thought it was about time I owned up to what happened and let you know the issues faced.

Bknown was an idea that would help Young Professionals brand themselves in an attempt to land the career that they want. While I still think it’s a great idea (we’ve just shelved it, haven’t killed it off), here are some issues I personally faced with continuing on it’s development at this point.

1. After understanding life from a different perspective in my leadership development courses/books, I became very worried of branding someone’s ‘ego‘. The last thing I want is to guide someone in branding themselves, when they’re not quite sure what they want in life and may have hidden intentions they’re not even aware of themselves (i.e. money, fame, etc.). Although I’ve been challenged that ‘why’ they may want something and to be branded by it is none of my business, I can’t with an honest conscious be motivated to create a brand that isn’t surely in line with their passion. That’s just how I feel personally and cannot speak on behalf of my team for this point.
2. Now through coaching it is possible to help someone start discover their passion; however, it is a time consuming process. It takes a lot of conversations and understanding. With this in mind, the business model we initially developed would not work out and changing it would mean creating a greater cost to the young professionals we would work with. I feel the costs involved would not be realistic to the target audience we were going after.

Now none of this is to say the business model can’t be tweaked to make it work, however; I don’t feel the timing is right for this idea. I feel there are some factors that come first.

If you have any ideas, comments, concerns or even want to challenge me at what I’ve said, please feel free to do so, even if anonymously. Your input may help me see a different perspective that I’m missing. Thanks in advance for your time!