[Sunday supplement]: It’s time to unleash your 3i’s

Published: Sun, 05/09/21

One of the interesting outcomes of the pandemic has been a resurgence in entrepreneurship. This comes as no surprise to those of us who run our own businesses. As one such entrepreneur said recently:

“…there is a much better understanding of the importance of the role of entrepreneurs in our society that was the case perhaps five or ten years ago. There is an understanding by most people (although by no means all) that the future of our nation depends on the likes of you and me …. And that is why ours is the most worthy of professions.” Nigel Botterill

His reference to five or ten years ago is especially apposite. Consider this: in 2000 we had the dot com boom – then bust – in 2010 we were just emerging from the financial recession, and in 2020 we have had a pandemic. It’s as though every ten years in recent history there is a body blow to the economy and businesses.

But look at how entrepreneurial businesses responded to these setbacks in earlier decades. How many of these devices and applications were around before 2000 or even 2010?

Alexa

Apple Watch

BombBomb

Evernote

Facebook Messenger

Google Ads

Instagram,

iPad,

Netflix

Receiptbank

Siri

Slack

Smartphones

Starling Bank

Stripe

Vidyard

Xero Accounting

Zoom

I could go on.

As I said in last week’s blog “We need to create change in order to survive. To improve, to succeed, to grow is to change. To help others is to help them to change. We should welcome turmoil, disruption, discontinuity, volatility, and all the other “buzzwords” that denote constant change. Not only that, we should be creating the change. We need to see volatility and disruption as effective weapons of change.”

This is what the entrepreneurs behind the devices and apps above all did: they made change happen with imagination, innovation and invention – the 3i’s of entrepreneurship.

This time will be the same. So instead of wondering when things will go back to normal – which they won’t – it’s time to unleash your 3i’s. The world is waiting.

To your success.

Noel Guilford

PS For the pedants (like me) I know that 3i’s isn’t punctuationally correct, but I like it better.