Make the Future Work

Yesterday,one of my friends called me to say, “I have taken the advice that your elderbrother gave you. To get a loan from a bank and buy another house”. I laughedout loud. Because, I knew instantly what the words behind his words were.
Whenthings are comfortable, thoughts about future life distract from work. Abiggish financial liability burns excess libido and brings back the focus to earningsand therefore to work. And life goes on as it is generally supposed to. That’swhat my brother told me over a year ago.
Othermemories surfaced.
Aproclamation by someone, “professionals who aren’t brands in their own rightshouldn’t even think about going on their own … they’ll trigger little recalland won’t get anywhere”. True enough.
Anadmission by another, “I get work done by others and focus on macro items … ifI were to start off on my own I would either have to invest in a firm and paypeople to do different levels of work … or stay by myself and be content withwork that doesn’t use my full abilities since potential customer organisationswould have their leaders to take care of the macro stuff … it’s like frying panand fire”. Sure is.
Preferences- people making choices, doing different work and working differently. Evidence- organisations experimenting with different models of engaging skills. Direction- networking platforms and collaboration technologies.
Atask at hand distracted me from these memories. Work towards launching mywebsite - attractive design, super functionality, reader convenience, sociallyknown. Big agency costs were prohibitive. Boutique firms were too focussed ongetting big-agency-like customers and would put me on lower priority. Freelancerswould have only one or the other of the skills I needed.
A boutique firm thatcharged fair money, and believed that our collaboration would get them a greatcredential plus enjoyable work, should be my choice. But why would such a firm sway from its set ways ? Yes,most likely not. Then, how about if there were a platform or associationwhere I could find two or three great guys with the sum total of the skills Ineeded ? And they collaborated with one another and with me to deliver a greatproduct ? Wishful thinking.
Idon’t know why I thought about a group of cabbies we know. It’s been four yearssince we’ve been using their cabs. It’s an informal association that now has overtwenty cabbies. They have a few simple rules. More customers for theassociation means more customers for each individually. So they pass onbusiness to one another. Retain and grow the customer base for the association bya service offering that easily beats the individual cabbie and also takes on thebig daddy cab companies. So they have good and polite drivers. Differentcabs to suit your need of the day. Fair but flat price agreed in advance, whereloyal customers get lower rates and an exemption from paying waiting charges. Aguarantee, that they would reach customers at the appointed time andplace. So they make sure that one of them reaches you, even at odd hours, and even if he could afford not to.
Nowthey do not wait at taxi stands nor ply about in search of business. Theyget familiar, quality customers who give them respect and admiration. They are open but choosyabout which other cabbie they accept into their group. When members rub againstone another they iron out issues as a collective and move on. They offeremployment to willing and able relatives and friends as their assets multiply.Each can solicit business for himself but doesn’t anymore. Everyone can leavethe group at will but very few have.