Over the past few weeks I have had the pleasure to experience several entrepreneurs share their business ideas with great interest and expectation. Each person has developed a truly unique technology or system solving a wide variety of business and life needs. This activity spurred my mind into thinking about what type work I like to do.
The answer is simple: Cool Stuff That Matters!
Have you ever sat down and really dissected the work you do on a daily basis? Does it matter? Does it make a difference in the life of your customer? Does it make an impact on the world? Would you buy it? Would you use it? Simple questions that, in many cases, will begin to get you to think about what you are going to do with your life.
For me, once again is: Cool Stuff That Matters.
Doing cool stuff does not explain what I like to do. However, it does set a stake in the ground that I can evaluate the work I perform. For example: I can choose to work with a group like FolioMatch to assist high school students generate meaningful and unique resumes and make them available to college administrators or business leaders. This enables the academic and business community to become aware of students making a difference with the drive and initiative for intern positions as well as scholarship opportunities. This has an impact. This can make a difference in the life of a high school student.
Doing cool stuff means I get to work with a group like CampusEye with the ability to use the crowd source concept for safety and awareness on high school and college campuses. CampusEye enables all students, faculty and visitors to keep the campus safe with a mobile application with immediate dispatch for issues and needs across the grounds. A simple concept designed to decrease the time it takes to respond to a need. This application can be the difference between life and death. This is meaningful and unique. This is cool stuff.
Every day people go to work thinking about what they are going to do after work. When you do cool stuff you look forward to going to the office so you can get engaged. Doing cool stuff takes effort. You have to look at the mundane things you do and generate new ideas on how to do it better, different, faster, etc. What kind of impact could you make?
What kind of cool stuff do you get to do?