The Agile Entrepreneur

Can we be agile entrepreneurs? The world of project management and software is filled with people being “Agile”! It is the new hip way of saying “we are not doing things like our granddaddy corporation – we are swift and powerful.”

Brian Rabon, a team member on the IEM program, is a project management expert who teaches agile project management. I have also seen others teaching agile programming.

I wonder if we should start an Agile Entrepreneurship program? Perhaps an Agile Escape from Cubicle Insanity program?

Why? Most people I help are corporate types in with strong technical backgrounds. They are thinkers and planners. They have big degrees and big brains to go along with them.

But they are – to be nice – slow. They analyze every detail. I know way too well how it feels – I am in a recovery program from such behavior myself. There is just something comfortable about putting the data into Excel and doing some analysis and sorting. I can even create charts of how it will look – once I finish making pretty pictures and actually start doing something.

But the term AGILE is really starting to grow on me – even though I know companies who adopt agile methods are often just using terms that sound fast – but are still powered by turtles. The term agile means something – at least now. It means speed.

Entrepreneurs looking to escape cubicle insanity need to be agile!!