Robert Paterson's Weblog

Startup Canada - Lessons Learned for PEI

 

The big lessons of the tour were:

• Culture - The natural entrepeneur is not well served by the culture of the traditional school system. They tend to ask questions and be rebels. School does not like this. School values obedience and conformity.
• Mentorship - So this is why Mentorship is so vital. We cannot change the school system but we can make it easier to mentor the rebels. Nothing is better than an older entrepreneur helping a younger one. PEI's Entreepreneurs are ready. The work is to build the bridge
• Create an ecosystem - When the PEI Entreprenurs and the funders and Government get together as a system - much good will emerge. As things are with separate programs etc, it is a tough system to make work.
• Shift the focus from established business to startups - that is where the jobs will come from

Update on when my new books will be ready

When I get settled in my new place - by the end of September - I will launch the first 2 books of a long series of short books that will explore how the network can help us live better.

This is the cover design for the series.

The first two books that I will release are:

1. You Don't Need a Job. Here we explore how to make a living in an era where the jobs are disappearing. Disappearing forever!
2. You Don't Need a Banker. Here we will explore how to get funding for what you need outside the banking system as it is today. I hope that you may find this an excellent guide to Crowd Funding.

In the late fall I will release - You Don't Need a Doctor - where we will explore how each of us can take charge of our own health and avoid the costs and the bad outcomes of the health care system. And You Don't Need a University - where we will explore why a BA is a poor investment today and how to get a great education outside the institutions.

Next year look for You Don't Need a - Supermarket - an Office - a Farm and other titles where the new Network alternative is making ground.

All these books are designed to be read quickly and to give you the very best examples of how people are doing well by using network and natural principles.

If you want to go deeper, I plan also to release deeper works on "How Natural Networks and Human Tribes Really Work" and "Tribal Parenting". In these deeper works we will explore the math and science of human relationships and human development. Here I write for the reader who needs to get under the hood and see how the natural human social system really works.

My hope over thre next 3 years is to offer you a body of manuals that collectively show the revolution of our time - The death of the machine model and the advent of the natural model.

I think that we live at a time as momentous as when we stopped hunter gathering and settled as farmers. I think that we are living at a time of a great return. When we re-integrate with nature and use our science to learn how to use her rules.

This is the shift. Click on the image to see a larger more readable version.

Much of the new is now here. We will look over the shoulders of the pioneers of our time and also back at the eternal truths that these new rules are based on.

The books will be as practical as I can make them - they will be manuals of between 12,000 and 20,000 words each. They will be designed to be read at a sitting and will be priced accordingly. I will use Kindle Select.

I am itching to get started but the practical issues of moving into an old new home just before winter have to be dealth with first. I just wanted you to know that I am still on track to publish soon

Exploring Local Food In Knowlton - Highland Beef from Jadhore #resiliency

Last night we had two steaks from Maple Lea Farm who raise Highland Cattle.

Wow! I think the best steak I have yet had anywhere. And to think they are just around the corner.

Highland Cattle fit well on the local landscape and can and do live outside all year. They also are wonderful mothers and rarely need a vet. If you think dogs, Highland Cattle are Coyotes to the Pekinese. For we have bred animals that can only live in a barn now and who depend on us entirely.

The opportunity is to change the economics of ainmals by moving away from the "Pekinese" and going back to the "Coyote" Work with animals that fit the world and not the barn.

Then you avoid all the costs of the dependency and you get a better product.

For it is the same with the Meat King Chicken. Most of the chicken we eat is from this one breed that is market ready in 8 weeks. By 10 weeks, most cannot walk they are so big. They are so stupid that they cannot forage. It is the same with a Berkshire Pig or a Black Faced Sheep. More on the Berkshire here.

The new farmer mainly sells direct to their customers. Thus capturing more margin here too. Here is a list of vendors at the Knowlton Local Market. At Jadhore, you can buy half a cow and so get your costs down too - I plan to go in with a few friends and do this.

 

Assange - Wilkes - Liberty and Deja Vu

So the British Government threaten to take away the diplomatic immunity of the Ecuador so that they can extradite Assange! What will that do to the world of diplomacy?

As we watch what could be a major event, it might help to know that ALL of this has happened before and that the Assange of the time, John Wilkes won the battle.

Back then it was illegal to print the proceedings of Parliament. It was also illegal to speak ill in public of the King. Wilkes did both. Protected by the immunity of being an MP he survived this - even he was wounded in a duel.

So they got him on a sex charge! Yes for writing a porn poem, he was declared an Outlaw. You can read more about his extraordinary story here. He did go to prison. But in the end he was vindicated and even became the Mayor of London.

My sense is that history is on Julian Assange's side.

 

In Limbo

2 more weeks until we close the deal to buy our house in Knowlton. I feel a bit lost right now. I am doing all the things we need to do - get the Notaire and Insurance lined up - buy appliances. BUT it is hard not having our own space and no easy access to the web.

Reading, walking the dog and cooking dinner is not enough for me.

A life of leisure is not for me 

Exploring Local Food In Knowlton - YES!

I knew this would be good and it is. The Knowlton Farmer's market is in an open space 5 minutes walk from our new home. It has a strong focus on meat. There is a chicken/egg/rabbit stall. A Lamb stall. A Pork stall and a Highland Cattle stall + a Trout stall. Paleo heaven. 

"Organic free range" eggs in the Metro - $6.95 a dozen. Real eggs in the market $3.00.

And CHEESE!!!! This is cheese heaven. My peril is that the baguettes are to die for - literally. So I will have to learn to have my runny stinky goat cheese on its own.

And talking about perils: one of the perils of growing veggies here are deer. Need more coyotes! But the peril of livestock, especially lamb are the local coyotes - a no win situation.

Rob and Lawrence of Arabia

I  am re-reading Lawrence's epic story of the Great Arab Revolt - The Seven Pillars of Wisdom. I first read it in 1978 when I began a 3 year assignment in Saudi Arabia. I read it then to gain some insight into the Bedouin culture and how an Anglo could be effective there.

The book was invaluable. Cultures don't change much and 1978 was only 60 years on.

Then Jeddah was still much as it was in 1918. Narrow streets with screened balconies for the women. My hotel a 1 minute walk from the old airport could have been used as a set for the Lean film. Riyadh was then still 65% a mud city. Most importantly, the tribal Bedu mind was as intact as in Lawrence's time.

I too discovered that in the tribal world, institutions don't count. I, like Lawrence was only 28 - 31 then. But I was the person who held the trust. Not the senior folk at my firm. Trust was earned over time by my patience and by being helpful. Only then could I ask for something.

This is Auda Abu Tayeh - THE hero of the revolt - played by Anthony Quinn in the film. I met several modern day Auda's. I remember Hisham Alireza especially. A great man.

All were judged on the total person. There was no separation between work and life.

As I read this again, a new insight emerges for me. If you want to know how to live in the non institutional world, then Lawrence can guide you there too.

For the tribal world of the Hejaz in 1918, is here again in full in the great return of tribal society that will emerge from the wreck of our institutional world.

It's a great read Please try it. You can find it on Kindle

In the dark - No access to the web - Living back in the 90's

How I take the web for granted! But for the next 3 weeks I am living in a place that cannot even get a cell phone signal - let alone the web. We are in a  beautiful valley at the foot of Iron Hill in the Eastern Townships. I type this in the Knowlton Library. 

So yes I can get online - but not as a matter of course. How strange to be reading a book and not be able to look up more on the topic at will! I am re-reading the 7 Pillars of Wisdom by T E Lawrence. So much more to learn but I am blocked.  How strange not to look up a new place on Google Maps! How hard it is for me to even follow Twitter and FB and so the mundane lives of my pals.

This of course was how we all lived not very long ago. I don't like it and look forward to being back online in September

The Journey ahead

There are 3 versions of the Road song - this is the penultimate one and I think the one that fits me best right now.

The Road goes ever on and on

Down from the door where it began.

Now far ahead the Road has gone,

And I must follow, if I can,

Pursuing it with eager feet,

Until it joins some larger way

Where many paths and errands meet.

And whither then? I cannot say.

PEI Tourism Fees? Get rid of the system!

PEI Tourism Operators are reeling since they were told this week about the massive fee increase for Inspection. My question in response is do we need an inspection at all? Details here.

Today with social media being ubiquitous, most intelligent operations rely on ratings by customers or on feed back on Twitter and Facebook. This kind of feedback is real and is trusted by the client. It also allows the operator a chance to rate their customer too!

The inspection system is a fake as it is. It is a one day snapshot that looks at how clean and neat the place is. It ignores the wider experience and focuses on the detail. So a place can have a vile setting and get a high rating because it ticks off all the boxes. The place can look ok but have a vile operator.

The inspection system is expensive by its design and cannot be made less so.

Who does the system protect?

When I travel, I look not for an official rating but a user rating. If I have a bad experience, I tell others. I suspect that the system protects the not very good operator who can game the system.

Time to push back and get rid of it completely.