Posted by Jason Hardebeck
Jason Hardebeck
Jason Hardebeck is gb.tc’s chief instigator. Follow his thoughts on twitter and his travels via foursquare around greater Baltimore.
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The Board Leads from the Front
Earlier this week, the gb.tc Board of Directors met for a regularly scheduled board meeting, just as they have done every two months for the past dozen years or so. This meeting was special, however, because it resulted in fundamental changes to gb.tc's business model and a brand new slate of directors. I am thrilled and gratified by the leadership and support our board has provided as we work to transform the way gb.tc creates and delivers value, and they demonstrated it in a major way by their actions this week. Here's a summary of what we accomplished:
Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!
Yesterday marked my 6 month anniversary as part of the gb.tc team, and it seems appropriate to reflect a bit. I'll be brief (at least for me), but I'll elaborate more in future posts.
Baltimore is poised to fail...and it's a good thing
The idea of celebrating failure is strange and scary and completely opposite from how most people are taught to think, which is exactly why we need to do it. Failure is what happens when you don't get what you expect; in other words, it's how you learn. All technical and creative processes rely on an iterative process of trying something, examining the results, and trying again until the desired outcome is achieved. In other words, failure is essential to progress. The key is understanding the modes of failure, and learning how to fail more effectively. Failing fast and cheap means you can learn, adjust, and try again without consuming more resources (time and money) than absolutely necessary. This process exists in all occupations and industries; whether you're a computer programmer, an artist, a pharmaceutical researcher, a marketeer, or a kindergarten teacher....success depends on trying new things until you find something that works. Try, test, tweak, try again, rinse and repeat...it's how innovation happens.
Baltimore's entrepreneurial inflection point
There’s a buzz in the air. At the ETC in Canton and across the harbor accelerators are fueling up. Forums like the Baltimore Tech Facebook group are abuzz with announcements, debate, and discussion. Volunteer-driven events and meetups are proliferating, and there is a flurry of activity all around us.