In an odd way, some my best successes since NWC opened for business have been things I haven’t done.
Here’s how: leading up to NWC’s opening, the short-term vision was fairly clear and got more concrete as opening day neared. Post-launch, the vision for what was to happen beyond that wasn’t yet fully formed. At that point, it was more of a framework.
Along the way, opportunities came up. We were approached by people who had ideas about where NWC could go, and we came up with a few ideas ourselves.
We put a lot of work and thought into some of these ideas. We could have, for example, built and run the Downtown Alliance’s new coworking space. We also seriously considered setting up a satellite network using extra office space sitting around town.
These were ideas with merit, and might be viable unto themselves. But they weren’t New Work City.
Exploring these opportunities helped me gain a more practical understanding of what the vision was and how we should proceed.
Choosing not to act on those opportunities preserved our freedom to execute that vision.
Now we’re ready to make a move, confident that it’s the right one.
I spent most of 2009 learning what we weren’t. Maybe I could have learned this lesson more efficiently, but nobody’s perfect. If you’re running a coworking space or are about to be, I’d advise that you watch out for the opportunities that will come along which challenge you and what you’re trying to do. Don’t let them take over; instead use them to solidify your understanding of what you should and shouldn’t do next.
Protecting the vision is your responsibility. If you take the time to ensure that you’re only doing things that advance your vision instead of things that distract from it, then you’ll always be moving in the right direction.
