startupi

Part 2 of the article Bootstrap education.

Have you seen what happens in Brazilian cities when a multinational corporation uninstalls itself? It leaves behind thousands of people without jobs and a market unable to absorb the impact.

So, too, with any closed system, be it a paternalistic government or a large company the size of which allows it the autonomy and authority to function like a nuclear power plant: if you shut it down or stop maintaining it, it explodes and takes out everything around it. Recognize the interdependence of all the actors and factors; embrace co-authorship!

Being a new, small or experimental business or project means that every effort to grow, multiply or mate (combine with others) has to provide continuity and be sustainable through the grace of greatness - not the power of bigness. There is not even a World Social Forum as socialist-like or communist-like as in the new participatory economy that’s extended to the globe from Silicon Valley. It’ based on cash, questions and answers, and an intense collaborate dance of learning and achievement.

A new world is possible, and likely to happen at any moment, if instead of using your knowledge and money to “educate the consumer”  you use your time and intelligence to learn from him what really makes his life (and the life of the planet, the universe) better. The moment has already arrived in which we adopt capitalism - the abstract doctrine of individual empowerment through money - and it becomes an accelerator and enabler of things that we build together to do good, always.

If you want to undertake a web project and you can’t see where the business opportunity is (whether it’s technological or social), I suggest you stop reading the instruction manual and success stories and start talking to people on the street. They do have a sense of reality and understand the need for a service. Start feeding evanescent desires with the makings of addictive consumerism and you’ll get a bonus. “You’re just a toy,” says the movie Toy Story.

The best, most adventurous, risky and profitable ideas put into practice find stability in the minds of those who believe in justice, progress and meritocracy as something you offer, not impose. In the same way that businesses and schools sell illusions and fantasies, there’s a whole generation of social and technological innovators conducting businesses that many investors would love to have supported.

Pablo Handl, who’s been running The Hub São Paulo for four years, laments the fact that “his” social incubator is better known in the press as a co-working facility than a center for innovation. I say innovation happens for Pablo and his team as people with light in their eyes work together in a way directly related to the market.

So let’s move on. Brazil is no longer what it used to be: nation of the future, land of carnival, nature and soccer. Those who don’t know how to play, come to the playground and learn together and throw yourself into the mix! Enough with the bubble, the mattress, throw yourself into reality, upgrade your house of cards, mark your own cards! Don’t fail to plant your dreams in the hearts of people just because you can’t sell it to big venture capitalists! Try dreaming with more people and see what happens! Try community micro-credit, try bringing people together. Learn to do business in a radically better world - better all the way down to the roots, which seek nutrients and sustain the plant.

In closing, a thought in defense of what emerges and that which collaborates to change chaos into a healthy spread of order: “the force of right must win over the right of force.” This was not said by an idealist, nor an activist, but by the most capitalist symbol of pristine beauty and luxury; the best selling doll in the world: Barbie in Toy Story 3.

Now run to the Winter School at The Hub because the schedule generated by the participants is excellent; and stay in touch by Twitter - someone is usually live streaming.