Embrace Randomness

Posted by Jeff Carter
on September 9th, 2012

Randomness is something people love to talk about. A new popular catchphrase is, “That’s so random.”.
We talk about randomness with regard to a lot of different aspects in our lives. But what is randomness?
Randomness can be distilled into a statistical concept, variance.

Variance is really opportunity. Great businesses can be built by wringing out variance from supply chains, manufacturing, and targeting customers. One of the true powers of social media is the ability to make things more sure for advertisers targeting their customers.

But randomness extends itself to other things. Brad Feld sets up a time each week where he takes a meeting with anyone. He embraces randomness. By doing that, he met David Cohen and TechStars was created. Of course, TechStars tries to take the randomness of entrepreneurship and try to discipline it giving companies a better chance to succeed.

My wife and I do a lot of driving around the US. We have put over 70,000 miles on our diesel since we bought it January 1, 2009. In our travels, we meet a lot of interesting people. But, you have to put yourself in a position and frame of mind so you are open to it. A lot of times we meet people at bars, but sometimes on nature hikes. I learned a lot about the German countryside once on a hike from a person I met on the trail who had grown up in Germany.

Sometimes I find new entrepreneurs by embracing randomness. Or, you can learn new ideas and apply them to old methods by taking random disparate thoughts and turning them into a cohesive strategy. Some of the best businesses do simply that. They take an old strategy and apply it to something new, turning it into a modern powerhouse.

As you go through your day, be disciplined, and add some randomness to it. You never know what might result.

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The information in this blog post represents my own opinions and does not contain a recommendation for any particular security or investment. I or my affiliates may hold positions or other interests in securities mentioned in the Blog, please see my Disclaimer page for my full disclaimer.