January 13, 2010
‘cube grenade’ case study: the monster inside your head
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Jerry Colonna used to be a Venture Capitalist. He was EXTREMELY successful as a partner with Fred Wilson at Flatiron Partners. Before that, he was an investment banker on Wall Street.
Then he decided he wanted out of the business. He had made his money, he now wanted to give back. He wanted to teach.
After teaching business classes at CUNY in New York for a little while, he set himself up as a business coach. A damn good one.
“A bit like being a shrink,” he told me, “but more business-focused.”
A big part of his modus operandi is not telling people what to do with their businesses, but trying to get them over their fears of achieving that which they MUST do, if they want to become the people they one day hope to be.
“The issues my clients fear the most tend not to be the actual stuff out there– competition, cashflow, marketing,” he says, “but the worst-case imaginary scenarios. ‘The Monster Inside Their Heads’, as it were. So a central tenet to what I do is helping them to get over The Monster.”
So he commissioned me to draw a Monster-themed “Cube Grenade”, as a signed, fine-art print to give away as presents to his best customers and allies. Something to keep on the office wall as a constant reminder.
I was glad to do it. I’ve always got my fair share of Monsters, myself. Rock on.
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Tags: Cube Grenades, Flatiron Partners, Fred Wilson, Jerry Colonna, office desing Ideas, office wall art
Excellent and effective idea, Jerry. And excellent use of your talent to put what we all think into a little drawing on a little piece of paper, Hugh.
I say keeping your monsters close is a good idea, or was that supposed to be — friends, no wait, was it enemies? I don’t think it was family, was it? Well, they could probably all be interchangeable from time to time!
Love it!
Tell Jerry to write a book. This is a huge subject that people don.t even realize. YYou know that some people do not want to get rich because they are afraid it will cost them their marriage…others have anxiety attacks when things are going well and so sabotage any venture they start…CDR’s tend to be messed up in the head anyway! Jerry write a biok and I will buy!
In my head (yeah you so do not want to take a peek in there!), The Monster In Your Head dovetails with my favourite cartoon for 2009 — “RECESSIONS ARE FOR WIMPS”
Both allow you to create your own resolution or story about overcoming seemingly insurmountable issues. The Wimp spurred me on to get through a year with no job. It really did and I hope many thousands of others were motivated by it too.
So, now as I am about to embark on Career #3, how much for a signed Wimp print?
I dig the cartoon.