February 18, 2015
Yesterday, I was watching the wonderful Nature series by BBC’s David Attenborough (specifically Frozen Planet). During winter, most things that fly escape the freezing arctic to warmer southern regions of our planet.
There is an exception it seems. The Spectacled Eider, instead of moving south, heads for the frozen seas in search of ‘polynyas’, which are naturally occurring ice holes in the otherwise frozen ocean. The entire Eider population gambles on the open ice hole betting that it will continue to remain open through the harsh winter. Polynyas are reported to remain open over several winters sometimes. Others may just not sustain the thermodynamic conditions required to keep the ice from forming. For the Eiders its important they choose a Polynya that doesn’t close in. But when the bet fails, like in the video I watched, the open ice hole becomes too small for the crowd to stay afloat and alive. Its like a noose that slowly tightens freezing many to their deaths.
The best part of my career was like the abundance of spring. Seasons do change and when winter set in some 5 years back, I cut loose in search of my own Polynya, navigating entrepreneurial waters. While watching Frozen Planet, I was struck by what mirrored those doomed Eiders! My startup Polynya seemed perfect when I chose that space, and it was the best contrarian bet. At least I believed then. It was so good that it reflected in my improved health very quickly. Its worth noting that being my own boss, chasing a dream was an amazing stress buster in itself. My higher cholesterol levels were down. Later, my curious enquiry of changes in eating, exercise, sleep patterns revealed nothing. I was left to conclude stress was the silent killer. And I beat it in my own Polynya. In the micro climate of the startup ecosystem, talking to investors, fellow entrepreneurs, businesses at networking events, award functions so on, the Polynya comes to life, nurturing the dream. Until it starts closing in!
Everyone in the ecosystem is aware of the thermodynamics at play. Similar to the Polynya, the freeze tries to extend constantly, while the upwelling currents continue their churn bringing rich nutrients to the surface for the ducks and seals to feed, not to mention the submerged naval vessels that need to rise to surface on occasion within a Polynya. If I may draw a literal parallel, these naval ships are the big enterprises with their ‘open innovation’ programs, launching funds, accelerators, shared IP, so on to ensure their large appetites constantly find new sources of food to keep that magical growth number going or in search of technological progress and visit startup Polynyas.
Unlike the poor Eiders doomed within the confines of a false Polynya, a startup is afforded an exit, for the lucky few its newsworthy and others end in a icy, watery grave. As unreal as failure is, reason informs one that I took a chance, I didn’t fail, it was my aspiration, my expectations that failed. More importantly, I realize these can be shed. (I remind myself its all gravy, and I welcome back myself to this neglected blog.)
The optimistic pollyanna that I am tells me — here its spring all through the year! It will be unfair to the Polynya that fed me during tough weather and open conditions and like so many of us do, I am richer for the experience! In my next post, I hope to share an insight gleaned from that journey, where I will try to makes sense of what linkages there are, if at all, between two worlds I straddled (I am no deep diving Eider either), the ‘user centered’ world of design and the ‘data centered’ world of big data. As for my future, I believe I have not failed, but emerged from a cauldron or should I say ice bucket of learning, ready to apply in new work that I will take up.
Meanwhile, enjoy this stanza V from the 1925 T.S.Eliot poem — ‘The Hollow Men’ (quote taken from All Poetry). Its a sort of feeling I get as I exit the startup Polynya.
Here we go round the prickly pear
Prickly pear prickly pear
Here we go round the prickly pear
At five o’clock in the morning.
Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the Shadow
For Thine is the Kingdom
Between the conception
And the creation
Between the emotion
And the response
Falls the Shadow
Life is very long
Between the desire
And the spasm
Between the potency
And the existence
Between the essence
And the descent
Falls the Shadow
For Thine is the Kingdom
For Thine is
Life is
For Thine is the
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.
Originally published at uxgravy.com on February 18, 2015.
