Dreams & Inspirations

The Autumnal Legends Series : IX

An idea that we receive … and the way we transform that into a commercial enterprise … has always fascinated me. I used to teach marketing ... from the text … whence we always referred to situations where the idea was transformed into the commercial process. But in coming back today to other aspects of the individual experience … it occurs to me that an idea … no matter how promising that might be … may mean many things other than the purely commercial.

In the university village where I live there are 3 sections of commercial outlets ranging from low-price to the high. As is usual, businesses come and go and I'd noticed some shutdowns occurring from time to time. But in taking a calculator to the experience, I found just the other day, that for the intermediate and high-priced sections alone there were 21 closures these last two years or so.

It involved quite a cross-section … a gaming products store, laundry, stationery, boutique, a clinic, a bar, 2 internet cafes, 2 clothing, 3 western food outlets, 5 restaurants, 2 grocers and a gift shop. Some of these had shut down in the first year of operation.

I was at one of the western outlets for dinner one time when I caught a glimpse of a conversation between the husband and wife over the obvious expenditures she was making. He wasn't happy … but seemed resigned to allowing her her zeal. It helped me deal with my own initiatives. I had owned that gift store I mentioned.

How did I transform a passion I was feeling into a gift store? It was after my retirement … and then the separation from the wife … and then it began … the nagging sensation that I wasn't doing enough … about what? On a fine sunny day … the idea suddenly blazed like a comet into view … I could open up a gift outlet and bring an object of endearment to other people's lives. Whoa there … horsey! … I mean dream-maker … are you sure its a … too late … I was already walking around looking for a vacant business premise.

My own personal preoccupations at that time involved the pursuit of a greater realization about myself and the world … I was coming to a refinement of my understanding of the self. How did that transform into a commercial reality? … I would call that a case of finding the easy way out … mixed with our conventional attitudes about commercialization. I shut it down after a year when I realized it wasn't about gift items.

I'll have to say that which I thought was a business idea was an impulse to bring into greater application, my insights into my nature and share that with others. It was a force of the will I had thought physical … not product oriented instead to turn mere thoughts into a physical perception. It was to live the idea. I thereafter underwent a further period of refinement during which I wrote two books, set up a blog and arrived at Writer's Cafe.

The way an impulse translates itself into reality is indeed curious. A sandwich outlet took over from the western outlet that was there. I went to order a sandwich the other day … the decor was designed to be simple, plenty of straight lines, wooden flooring, white and blue color theme, menu on brown paper and I was the only customer. Simplicity … that's good.