Archive for January, 2010

Over the holidays I watched “The Empire Strike Backs”.  I believe this movie is the best of the Star Wars trilogy because of the struggles that Luke faces and the wisdom given by Yoda.   Every time I watch the movie after more than thirty years, I hear a different quote by Yoda that makes me think.

When Luke is struggling to learn the Jedi ways Yoda tells him to “unlearn what you have learned”, this quote stayed with me.  Many times when starting a business what you have learned in the past may not be the best course of action today.    While running on January 1st, the quote just stuck in my head.  Unlearn what you have learned…..was there something I was missing that could make my young company better.  Was there something I learned in the past that was making things worse instead of better but yet I had not thought of unlearning the knowledge.    I started to feel liberated at the thought of letting go knowledge that was not working and exploring the possibilities of unlearning.

As I continue to revise the website, I started to think about what knowledge has been learned by startups that needs to be unlearned.   Some marketing consultants will tell you that if a company puts too much information on a website, clients will not need your services.   This learned knowledge bothered me because I want to share with our clients and startups valuable information about starting a business.   Yet, I believe the clients will still call us as they need assistance beyond what we have shared on the website.    The information posted is one dimential and many times clients need guidance to understand the information.

I also considered the quote from a personal perspective as being a startup many times your personal and business life merge into one where it is hard to determine where one part of you stops and the other part of you begins.  Was there something that I had learned in my personal life that needed to be unlearn that would bring about a positive affect on the business.    Cornbread dressing came to mind, it is a learned tradition that has been in our family forever; however, cooking and eating the dish this past holiday did not seem right.   Something seemed different, the food and the setting did not fit our urban lifestyle and food taste.  Again, our family has always eaten this dish but never discussed the glaring fact that it no longer fit our lifestyle.    Think about the quote, think about what you have learned in the past that may need to be unlearned.

May the force be with you.