Hello Everybuddy!

Last weekend was a long weekend as we got Monday off due to the Memorial Day holiday. When Paul invited me to come along to a Summer Camp run by his friends in Pennsylvania, 7 hours drive each way (giving us effectively only a day at the camp), I was not sure. The journey would be long, destination uncertain (or shall I say, I wasn’t certain exactly what did Paul & co. mean by the 'rough country people’, ‘They will shoot you if you accidentally wandered on their land’ and ‘Amish people drive horse buggies and don’t use electricity’). I wasn’t sure how much it would cost at the end (although there was an initial ball park idea – calculated risk, eh) and how the whole experience would pan out.

Well….

I am glad I made the decision to go. It turned out to be a marvelous experience on so many levels.

I got to see a US summer camp (120 acres of mountains and plains, the farmhouse, the jungle, the huts). Summer camps are a big thing in the US. I met people I would normally not have come across, we had a Barbeque and some people played guitar in the evening, and then camp fire until later hours of night … I had my first marshmallow (yummy) but most importantly, I finally understood what that Marshmallow man was made of in Ghostbusters (a 15 year long mystery finally solved!).

We went to a nearby country town of Amish and Mennonites communities. These communities live a very simple life, devoid of superficialities and pretenses- some might argue perhaps too simple- mainly driven by their faith and belief system (derived from Christianity). The town is called ‘Intercourse’- honestly!

We spent a lot of time outdoors. The accommodation was superb. The journey on the road, 7 hours each way, was surprisingly good and not very tiring (since I wasn’t driving, heh heh). It was good to see America from the vantage point from where most people see it, i.e. on the road, from inside a car, although, to my utter disappointment, unlike most road trip movies, we didn’t come across a bus full of cheer leaders flashing- I was ready with me camera the whole way ;),  on the other hand, I am also delighted to report not to have come across any psychopath killers on the road.

The camp is a small family run business, with some great opportunities yet having its own share of problems. It was interesting to see us (SF fellows) being able to realize opportunities that exist for it as well as analyze the root causes for its problems… Babson education IS getting into our heads…. somewhere.

And I got to know Paul, Verna and Rosie (a mutual friend) more and now we have a shared experience we can reminisce about on our reunion after 80 years. All in all, a good trip.

Entrepreneurship is a lot like this… like a road trip. And we don’t  or can’t know how the whole thing would turn out. It usually costs more than initially anticipated, takes longer than expected, and along the way there could be a few hiccups or roadblocks… but it is still worth taking the journey. And usually persistence pays off, we arrive at the destination. The rewards of the journey are satisfying (intellectually for sure, and hopefully financially as well). The learning is there. And we are better prepared for the subsequent journeys. There is no reward without taking some risk. 'No pain- no gain'.  Of course, everyone’s desire for rewards and tolerance or ‘stomach’ for risk is different. But, if we never ‘swing it for the fences’, we won’t get any home runs. In the process, we are quite likely to have some strike outs as well…

I think we need more swingers* in Scotland to move things forward, rather than only base hitters.

- Mubbasher

*Swinger: One that swings it for the fences in baseball…as defined here in this article: http://entrepreneurs.about.com/od/becominganentrepreneur/a/swinging4fences.htm

photos here: http://picasaweb.google.com/tvrscurtin/MemDayCamp2009?authkey=Gv1sRgCOXv5NOP_Y_AgQE&feat=directlink#5339497850231498466
http://picasaweb.google.com/tvrscurtin/MemDayCamp2009?authkey=Gv1sRgCOXv5NOP_Y_AgQE&feat=directlink#5339497850231498466