By Aaron Dishno Ed.D.
In Part 1, I discovered that education, technology, intellectual property, great ideas, and small business experience, wasn’t enough. I still needed a Strategic Investor Viewpoint to become fund-able.
What is a Strategic Investor Viewpoint?
Basically I need to be Strategic and reassemble my business concept into a Viewpoint that will attract Investors. OK, that didn’t explain anything! Try this…
There are a few things in life that you just can’t explain to someone without a common reference. For example:
- Calculus and Physics
- Completing Higher Education Degrees
- Loss of a Child
- Winning the top Sporting Event
- The Afterlife
What I mean is that unless you have mastered it, lived it, or experienced it, you are not “in the club” that can relate to fully understand it.
I will never know what it feels like to play in and win the Superbowl.
But in the 7 years and 4 full rewrites of my dissertation, I now see the difference and understand why the first 3 didn’t cut it.
First of all, I was aiming at an invisible completion target that is constantly moving. The doctorate committee or my “coaches” had all hit their own invisible moving targets in the past. So they had to guide me, direct me, encourage me, until one day I finally saw the target and completed it. Once I did, there was no doubt in the world that I did it! I could have written a new dissertation on any subject and hit it first time after that. I was now in the Doctorate club.
With my education and technical background I invented and patented 3D Browsing. But when I tell someone, I get the immediate wow factor, followed by more questions than understanding.
To become a great CEO, I now have to change my place in the world, my viewpoint. I had already completed all of the research I could, documentation, plans, timelines, and what I thought were strategies. Nothing was in vein, but once I started working with my mentor from The Brink, I quickly noticed it was the beginning of a transformation, a new way to view my own invention. I was learning to speak investor!
If you are someone trying to get started, let me sum it up in my mentors terms, everything you do, each page of your slide deck, each statement, script, advertisement, and plan needs to be concise, clear, compelling, credible, and contagious.
My mentor’s (coach’s) guidance reminds me of my doctoral committee. Someone that has been successful, from the other side of the fence, guiding me, directing me, and encouraging me to find and hit my invisible moving target!
I can’t stress it enough, research and find a mentor in your area.
I can’t wait to reach my goal as a successful CEO! The path to my target is getting clearer every day.
I know I am on my way!
Cheers and Good Luck on your Ventures!