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Failure, is an option

When I was first starting as a school teacher, I used to wonder about the reality and impact of technology on education. I know, now, that many schools struggle, not only with having the latest tech but also in being able to make that technology a part of a core curriculum. You have to teach certain skills for students to be able to pass the national tests. The problem with the national tests is that they are the mid-point. Designed to capture the needed skills, but it really can’t. In the book Freakonomics, the author speaks of creating and maintaining economies. Not, the global buying and selling of billions of the dollar, but the economy of an area, of a group of a family.

When you break an economy down to the atomic level, the lowest point is a single person. You are an economy of one. In being that economy of one, you may extend your economy to more people. You may become an economy of two, three, four or more. Either in becoming a larger economy your buying power increases or your limited resources get stretched much thinner. When we consider the reality of crowdfunding we come to this economic problem. A crowdfunding campaign is an economy. Sometimes you are pledging to help a person move forward. They need an operation. They have to pay, or funeral or they want to go to college. Or they want to make something.

All are reasonable; all convey with them a sense of participation. I am helping. Giving at church and other charitable organizations achieves the same thing. I am giving it. What becomes interesting is when you, give to a crowdfunding campaign with the intent of that campaign producing something tangible at the end. Something honestly like the now former crowdfunded, former companies  Jibo, Keecker, and other products. Sadly just because a campaign reaches the goal and ships what you were funding, doesn’t mean they are a company. I have a really good friend that says the startup technology market is a crocodile. It moves a lot faster than people think, and if you aren’t careful, you won’t know the crocodile is about to eat you.

No one ever hit a shot in basketball that they didn’t take.

But, no one ever missed a shot they didn’t take.

 

  • Question of

    Have you heard the term startup?

    • Yes
    • No
  • Question of

    Did you know that more startups fail than succeed?

    • Yes
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Written by DocAndersen

One fan, One team and a long time dream Go Cubs!!!!!!!!!!!!!

41 Comments

  1. Hmmm… Some of the things in your writing have recently become a trending issue for the talk of my country’s people after these things; technology in education, national exams, and especially startups are the material debated by presidential candidates.

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  2. For a successful business first, a person must have a very well developed commercial flair. Knowledge of economy and, of course, some capital. Many times I have witnessed the bankruptcy of people who have a lot of money, but they lack the other qualities. There is an old Bulgarian saying: “Every tree can not make a whistle.” It is not from every man that can be a successful businessman.

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