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Vapourware and Pumpelsdrop

The entrepreneur life can get quite lonely. My views  come from my perspective as a newly minted learning consultant entrepreneur. There are times when the market doesnt care if you exist. And like any other entrepreneur, such times have to be navigated.

Here is where the story of Pumpelsdrop (previous post) comes in.

Suddenly, out of the blue, one gets a phone call. To make a proposal. For a company you have always wanted to work with or sounds too exciting to be true or some work which you have always wanted to do or a new opportunity to learn something. And then, the works begins in right earnest. There is a flurry of activity, a few phonecalls, data, research, books to be read and much reading about the current state of the company, industry, concept.

It elevates the energy to a different level. Powerpoints are made. Structures are created. Frameworks are conceptualised. Meetings are arranged with alacrity. And with that last minute scramble, the said proposal is sent on mail.

This often leads to some other long pending work also being completed - lifted along with the rising tide of energy. In preparation for this new work, decks are cleared off other pending work, dates are finalized, moved and kept available in case this great new shining piece of work comes in.

And then, like the story of Pumpelsdrop, the work vanishes. The proposal makers, collaborators, requestors, company -everything. Like an illusion. Gone. And gathers the proverbial dust in a forgotten folder on the machine. And occupied space on the cloud in a forgotten folder. The whatsapp group created urgently for the proposal is deleted as part of the clean up.

But by then the vapourware has served its purpose. The work has been done. A few days lull has been taken care of. New concepts have been created - and they are unused. And they go into the ideas store.

Until the next one.  

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