If you don't litter...

Let's review.

• A picture of a person littering.
• A large red circle with a line through it, indicating it's a no-no.
• A gavel with $500 near it.

Interpretation: If I [don't] litter, I will be fined $500 in court.

hmm.

Fine dining in London and Brazil

Here are a few restaurants that I had the chance to visit while in London and Brazil in 2007.

LONDON

Souk Restaurant

Rasa Samudra

The Red Fort

BRAZIL

Marius Degustare

Fogo De Chão

Color your world

During the CONES event of 2009 I stumbled upon the International Bootstrapping Association's (IBA) table. It was a nice surprise. Kevin Gadd shared the concept with me and how the meetings work. Essentially small business owners and entrepreneurs get together and share best practices on a given topic. I was hooked.

As I was weighing through all the goodies and business cards the following day I decided to dig deeper on the IBA. Come to find out the meeting would be held at The DEC (The Dublin Entrepreneurial Center) and I was just waiting for an excuse to make my way over there. The given topic for our meeting was customer service.

The ground rules that they set up were quite helpful. You can just imagine, a colleague shares a problem and then one by one each business owner ripe with knowledge and wisdom shoots out of the gate with, "Well you should do this, and you should try that." That didn't happen. One of the guidelines included that your contributions of wisdom are best told in story form and that they be told in first person.

I was shocked how much more thought had to go into my responses.

One thing in particular that I wanted to share was the concern that led to branding, more specifically personal branding. One of the members shared how he has decide to take on a color as part of his business brand as well as his personal brand. This way anytime someone saw that color orange they would think of him, and his business. Does this make sense, and most of all, does it work? Well, large companies do this, why shouldn't small business owners do the same?

While growing up my family used to joke that I whenever you accidentally wore all the same color that you were like one of the Power Rangers. You remember them right? The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers would strut around in their street clothes which just so happen to be their signature color until it was time to fight crime, then they break out the Ranger Suits.

Can we 'claim' colors as businesses? What about as a business person? And if so, do I need to declare it, or would it be something that people eventually detect after several meetings?

It has been often said, "We don't buy from a company, we buy from people." So then should the 'people' be branded too?

Gee, Rob sure does where a lot of blue

Foresight is 2010

Once a mistake has been made, or a experience has been fully realized someone often sighs, "Hindsight is 20/20."

20/20 refers to visual acuity, and is considered to be the normal ability. Often when a bad experience is over and done, you have the clarity to look back and decide what would have been better. If hindsight is 20/20, does that mean foresight is 20/10?

I contend that it is.

Over the last year I have become quite engaged in social media and in particular the option to keep a web log. When considering my goals for 2010 I couldn't help but think about the benefits of taking time to think, write, and reflect. My goal for 2010 is actually a long-range which simply starts today, 01.01.10.

I will write [at least] one blog on robdavlin.com each week until 2020.

What do I expect to gain from such a simple goal?

• Clarity: just as I mentioned earlier in the cliche, "Hindsight is 20/20," I am hoping that my weekly reflections provide insight, and eventually foresight.
• Documentation: when I shared my new goal with my wife, she responded with the wonder of how much our lives will change over the next ten years, let alone the changes in society, technology, and economy.
• Increase personal brand equity: my latest professional success was the result of a combination of my personality, networking skills, and social media presence. My hope is that consistent blogging will yield continued to success.

What is your Foresight for 2010?