About
A brief introduction
In my 20+ years working I’ve been a programmer, a business analyst, an auditor, an account executive, an IT Director, and now work in an incubator coaching high growth potential technology entrepreneurs.
Along the way I’ve been directly or indirectly involved in just about every other aspect of business, from marketing to strategy & operations to personnel management. I’ve helped develop worldwide service offerings for a consulting firm and I’ve been part of the team that more than tripled membership in a regional non-profit in the space of three years.
I feel I am especially good at taking a lot of complex information, combining and abstracting it, and presenting it in a simple to understand format that doesn’t compromise the underlying breadth of the topic.
Hopefully my varied work and personal interests and experiences will add value to the discussion on this blog. Now that you’ve found it, I truly hope you stay around and join in.
Why did I start this blog?
DaveCrainOnline.com was started July 17, 2008 in response to a fortune cookie and a college brochure.
After having just shut down my first blog, a fairly high-trafficked hobbyist blog, I found that I missed the writing. I do manage and author a blog for work, but I wanted something that was my own again. I also wanted to focus more on life and business issues. I had been mulling over what I was good at, what I knew about and what I could be passionate writing about, when a trip to visit Hiram College’s new Integrated Entrepreneurship program gave me some inspiration.
Hiram’s Integrated Entrepreneurship program brochure described entrepreneurship as follows:
Entrepreneurs by nature tend to recognize and act on opportunities where others do not. They are masters at adapting to change, are comfortable with complexity, learn constantly across a breadth of disciplines, and are generally able to separate that which matters from that which doesn’t. In short, entrepreneurs excel or perish.
Through this short program description, I found the inspiration to link together the topics I was most interested in writing about: Leadership, Entrepreneurship and Personal Excellence; the common thread being individuals not content with the status quo or simply doing things “good enough”.
So this blog is for:
- Leaders, who strive to inspire others to create the future,
- Entrepreneurs, who constantly see a better way, and
- Persons of Excellence, who are never content with simply getting the job done, and
- Everyone who is trying to constantly expand their horizons and grow.
Oh - that fortune cookie?
Ideas you may believe as absurd ultimately lead to success!
What I’ll bring
On this blog, one of the topics we’ll discuss often are the traits and qualities of excellence and success. Following are three strong personal traits I intend to leverage to keep this blog fresh, interesting and valuable.
Passion
Above all, I am a passionate person - both in life and business. If I’m interested or involved in something, I tend to throw myself into it 110% and I’m never quite satisfied with how things are. I’m one of those people that simply isn’t satisfied with just checking deliverables off of lists, it’s the quality and depthof the deliverables that matter to me.
My hope is this blog will pass those tests of quality and depth with flying colors on all counts, providing valuable, insightful, practical information and guidance to help you build a better person.
Curiosity
I’ve always been an extremely curious person. I’m an early adopter of technology. I can never simply look a word up in the dictionary; I always find ten more that look interesting. Throughout my life, I’ve been involved in a wide range of personal and professional pursuits. There are very few topics that I don’t want to understand in more depth.
I try to bring this curiosity to every post I write, both in the variety of topics covered and the breadth of the coverage.
“Synthesis”
In a Weekend Reader a while back, I posted a link to an article talking about synthesizers versus assemblers. The article portrays synthesizers as people who take facts and information, and add value and meaning to tell a story. In some cases this will be through discussion of the broader context, in others it may be the addition of perspective to help make information more relevant. In any event, I am always striving to rise above merely reporting information and instead add meaningful value to the topic at hand.
Full disclosure
There are many self-proclaimed leadership and personal development ”gurus” out there. I am not one of them, and I don’t intend for this site to be a site that tells you what personal excellence is, so much as a site that will help us all discuss what it means. From that perspective, I will be the facilitator, ring-leader and chief investigative reporter on our, hopefully shared, journeys.
Seth Godin has a wonderful concept of Tribes. Seth’s premise is that we are all ultimately social beings with a basic need to connect with other people. When you connect with others in a fashion that allows you to develop a relationship that is especially useful, these long-term connections can be very helpful in guiding you through your life, as well as aid you in feeling happy.
In Seth’s world then, my hope for this blog would be to create a place for a tribe of like-minded individuals to form:
- People who value personal and professional excellence
- People who are innately curious
- People who want to start or grow a business
- People who aren’t afraid of risk
- People who desire to continually grow in all aspects of their life
- Lastly, while “readers” are certainly welcome, I’m also looking for people willing to join in the discussions. It’s through our shared observations that true value and insight takes place.
I wish you well on your journey, whatever it may be.