Milan/Newsletter May 2006
Dear Friend,
Currently I am living in Whitianga, I moved here on March 28. My friends Dot and Geordie have have been my kind hosts during April while I established myself here.
If you don't know where Whitianga is - here's the view from space:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fr33m4n/113058085/
I have been working with Dana and Dan, who are currently writing a business plan for a new kind of alternative energy company - “Energy Alternatives�?. The month of April was like a trial period, after which we agreed that we should carry on working together.
Once the business plan is complete, which will be within the next few weeks, we will be looking for investors. As soon as the funding is secured for Energy Alternatives I will be working full-time, filling a management role and making sure the communications and IT systems requirements of this new company are met.
The working hours are pretty long and I will need to generate some part-time income until the funding kicks in, so it feels like a bit of a slog at times – a lot of work for a little pay. I also feel lonely at times, since I don't really know a lot of people here and I have lost contact with a lot of friends after moving away from Auckland and being so busy just staying alive.
Nevertheless, I am hopeful that things are going to change soon, since I have a good team to work with, and I have learned a lot through working with Dana, a 50-something Canadian ex-pat, about what leadership means and how to focus on what I am good at, not to get lost in details and to communicate what matters in a simple and effective way.
These newly-found skills will also affect my work with Aran on “The Project�? – our ongoing effort (since 2003) to create software rooted in sustainability, which will allow software developers to combine the latest technologies to form simple, robust tools that will help people work together in a decentralised way.
Another project I will be very focussed on during the next month is to clearly define and effectively communicate my goals and values, it means that I will break down my goals into roles and processes, which will form the core of my organisational system. I believe it is fundamentally important to do this, so that the way I use my time and resources can be streamlined toward the achievement of these goals. It also allows me to see how the small and sometimes mundane things I may be doing fit into my overall life goals. It is just common sense that developing clear and achievable goals as well as a keen understanding of one's current state will make it easy to move toward those goals. It may still be challenging work but at least the path will be clearly defined.
While working on my own requirements I will also be creating self-improvement tools and organisational templates which will eventually form some of the content of the software tools Aran is developing. It is still hard for me to communicate these notions simply and concisely and I hope to do some further writing on these topics when I get a chance - but first things first!
The other big topic for me right now is communication and networking, that is why I am writing this serial letter after all! After a time of being too busy surviving to look after my connections nationally and globally I look forward to once more being aware of the needs and resources of my friends as well as being able to communicate my own “haves�? and “wants�?. In this vein, I am exploring new ways to share and connect. There some services which you can simply access by following links with your Internet browser:
For instance, you can see my photos on Flickr:
The following services require you to download and install software or sign up and create a profile if you are not already a member:
For phone calls, you can use Skype, the Internet telephone service,
- http://www.skype.com - my username is fr33_m4n
I have also created a profile on the business networking site “OpenBC�?, you can find it here:
If you would like to join OpenBC let me know and I'll send you an invite - you'll get a month's free premium membership if you follow my invite link ;-)
That's all for now, I will be in touch as things unfold and I look forward to hearing about your life, your thoughts, your successes and your adventures.
Milan
