Alison is struggling with locating the pulse of her new business venture. She’s recently left the armed forces, having spent years on manoeuvres in Afghanistan, Iraq and all points west of insanity. She’s been decommissioned now and returned to Civvy Street harbouring memories of attacking pirates off the coast of Somalia, nursing early morning nightmares of civilians dying feet away in pools of late night blood and the camaraderie of mates she would put her own body and soul on the line for.
Civvy Street is not the same as it was before she signed up and the currency of what she’s gained from the armed forces is having precious little spending power in the bizarre bazaars of urban lite living. She’s perplexed, thwarted and struggling with bringing her business idea out into the open.
She’s looking at it, laying on the slab of the screen of her desktop and wondering what it’s all about. Should it be a commercial operation which makes her a fortune – or a charitable enterprise which speaks to and for the thousand of other Alisons and Alans who are currently wandering their Civvy Streets, armed with skills, knowledge and passion but with nowhere to apply them?
The pulse of a new start up is always hard to detect, swamped as it is by the noise of personal doubt, family expectation and social distraction. But she’ll find it as long as she can just sit alongside it for a while and just listen for it- quietly and intently. No amount of business planning, cash flow projections or social media strategies are going to help here. Only by listening and waiting will she detect the pulse of her business telling her what the next step is and why her business matters and who it’s important for. We’re all hoping she makes the right decision.
drnickombe 