Resource: Time, Energy, And Information

Every time someone makes an excuse about why they haven’t done this or that it tends to come down to a basic element of life. It is the primary needs that we have to fulfill be for we can ever hope to accomplish anything amazing. If we want to build a successful company we might need a great team. If we want to life a healthy lifestyle we need access to good foods. No matter what it is there is some essential component that makes it all work. These are the resources that all of us need, there are so many and yet there are a few that are prominent. I am very interested in these components, and how we view them as a culture, share, and acquire them.

The one we always think about is money, but we know that money alone can not solve our problems, especially if we don’t know how to spend it. So maybe money isn’t a primary resource, maybe it one of them is information. They say knowledge is power, and that certainly has held true for many. Even people with tons of money want to know  what is coming next. So those insights, that knowledge can be more valuable to them than the money itself. So much so that we will pay a high premium for information even if we don’t know what it is. And yet once you have the information you need to be able to apply it and put it to action.

Assuming you have all the knowledge a brain can hold you still need the tools to put make it real. It is not only the same as the mind body connection in a person but this exists in a company or a computer or a machine. As true a metaphor as “knowledge is power” may be. Energy is literally power, the brightest mind can not create if it is tied to a body that lacks the capacity to move.  Ideas need a way to interface and change the conceptual into actual and this is real work that must occur by use of machine, computer or our own bodies. Energy itself is abundant around us but it takes certain processes to harness it so access to energy is a concern for individual and organization everywhere.

Mortals of all sorts know can agree that time is perhaps the most important of all resources. It is the very driver of our own will to reproduce. The battle against time is as old as our cells themselves and we will need to look into our relationship to time and all resources this month.

I am particularly interested in understanding  how each variety of resource is disseminated and handled based on our perceived value of it. For example we might need to look at our natural resources and he trouble we seem to have with managing them as a collective society. Why do we value money, over water, or clean air, or organic vegetation? Some of these questions can be answered through behavioral economics and others may be reliant on out religious views but it is necessary that we investigate. If we monitor the Dow Jones and the NASDAQ fluctuations everyday as part of national news, why are we not monitoring the overall health of our planet in the same way?

As mentioned above at times the resource we need it people, and we need to look at how connections are made, and how our interests align. What communities are formed around these resources, not only the tribes that may live a long a stretch of river, but also the local economy that may be supported by the relocation of a major corporation.  Along with these communal interactions we need to look at the individuals ones as well. We all have friends but how do we manage the time we spend with them when we acquire new friends or begin a serious romantic relationship. The notion of time management can’t just be for busy entrepreneurs, it is something we must all understand.

We’ll talk this month with people who are “resourceful”. A feature with a vintage shopper who has created a business out of reclaiming our used clothing. We will feature an entrepreneur who has taken it upon her self to recycle electronic waste and give jobs to the formerly incarcerated. And we will also speak to a CEO who has created an online platform that serves as a digital network to fund and distribute films. Each of these people are incredible in their own right and we will ask them how their perception each of their resources influences their dealings in business and in life.

Thanks for coming along, and spending some of your precious time with us.

Enjoi,

Maceo