There have been a number of articles written over the last years about the changing face of Venture Capital and the type of companies now funded by VCs. We are now, depending upon who you ask, in the third generation of West Coast Venture Capitalists. From the early days of guys like Bill Draper who made Sand Hill Road synonymous with venture capital, to today when we are seeing those who reaped rewards from early successes like AOL, Yahoo!, PayPal, Google and Facebook become the next generation of VC's.
I tend to think that this current generation looks more like the first in that we've learned a lot over the years and are now back to following the basic principles of business before the majority of investments are made. Sure, venture investing is like trying to predict what an eight year boy will be like when he is 24, but it's been encouraging to see that the focus has returned to underlying fundamentals. The second generation had some growing up to do and it seems to have worked. As we consider approaching investors now, we better have our ducks in a row because this time around we are pitching to grown ups.
Paul tells us clearly that we all have to grow up and put our immaturity aside and stay close to the truth. In our spiritual journey it is easy to fall back into our immature ways and lose discipline, focus and discernment. It's no different than how we try to grow in our business life so that we become more knowledgeable, prepared, broadening our perspective and finding our points of view. We don't get there by being lazy or flitting around our work. We rise to the occasion because we are ready and have put in the hours, work and energy to do our best when called upon. That is what Jesus wants from us too. We can't expect to do our best if we continue to allow ourselves to develop spiritually in an immature fashion. Consider today what you are doing to act like a grown up in the eyes of God?
Reference: Ephesians 4:14 (New Living Translation)
No comments:
Post a Comment