Linkedin founder Reid Hoffman has a well known quote. It goes “If you’re not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.”
Have a look at Linkedin homepage when they first launched in 2003.
Clearly, Reid did not wait to perfect the product. He had the key elements that defined Linkedin baked into the product, but in the most minimum viable way.
In the past week, I tried something similar with SolarAcademy. I have had a hunch for a long time that companies need to integrate mindfulness and awareness practices not only in their own operating culture, but also into the way they interact with prospects and customers.
We launched an event series called “CONVERSATIONS about POWER” where we integrated mindfulness/awareness practices into a solar energy webinar where we talked about benefits of solar energy for home and property owners.
The fusion of the two separate content areas, mindfulness and solar energy, was a bit confusing for some people. Partly because we did not communicate our premise in the most clear way. People need sustainable energy as well as more awareness and consciousness to lead sustainable and healthy lives.
Many people live blind to the fact that they go through life unaware and unconscious like the mouse depicted in the book “Who moved my cheese?”. And when they stop running in their running wheel, they feel more stressed than before. The COVID crisis is hopefully making these people realize this fact in a faster way.
In summary, I was a bit ashamed of the quality of our version 1.0 of this new event series, but I felt verified on my premise that the world needs both more solar energy and increased human awareness and consciousness.
Kerim Baran 