My three year old is all about superheroes.
My ears are battered daily by cries of their super lizard grip, their super cat speed, and even their super web slinger swing. I feel somewhat insecure at times, not possessing such abilities.
I’m trying to find the language to explain that neither of us were born with suction pads, and to get good at stuff requires practice.
I’m currently practising what may become a super power of my own. I’m hoping it’ll make me a kinder person, a better friend, more compassionate, and more productive. I’ve not seen evidence to suggest it will – instead my hopes are built on a hunch about who I am, and how I best function.
I’m trying to be more interruptible.
By people, that is. Not by alerts.
I’m trying to put others’ priorities before my own, whilst keeping my act together, in as relaxed a way as I can get away with. The dream is that my friends and colleagues get the best of my attention, the best of my creativity and the best of my (considerable?) wit.
The visible consequences I can bear witness to so far are that:
1) It’s easier to be kind with your time if you know it’s something you’re practising.
2) People appreciate your time, and will approach you differently.
3) Every so often you need to close the door for a few hours and deliver on your existing responsibilities.
Making the effort to be interruptible isn’t just something I’m working on; it’s also a trait we believe makes us a better team.
We have a cadence which kicks off discovery and market scanning at the start of each calendar quarter, and concludes with an Investment Board where we make decisions-in-principle, subject to legal diligence. Right now for instance, my colleague The Great (Samuel) White is knee deep exploring Ageing in Place and Later Life, and we’ll be reaching out to companies that fit our thesis through Q1 2019.
However, we won’t be able to find all the best opportunities from research and this process alone. We need to complement our method with open ended conversations that don’t conform neatly into a cycle of activity. We welcome intriguing inbound ‘interruptions’, and actively want to hear about companies and ideas that share our values but aren’t on our radar.
So far, we’ve found that around half the conversations that develop into real investment opportunities are from outside our regular scanning activity. It’s really simple to get in touch with us directly: either write to the email address at the bottom of our home page or hit us up on Twitter. My son and I are particularly interested in hearing from anyone developing jet packs or invisibility cloaks.