Project John Galt

"What is the most resilient parasite? Bacteria? A virus? An intestinal worm? An idea. Resilient... highly contagious. Once an idea has taken hold of the brain it's almost impossible to eradicate. An idea that is fully formed - fully understood - that sticks; right in there somewhere." - Inception, 2010.

For someone who makes her living out of training people how to find the next BIG idea, I personally am infected with this one idea past few months. Actually it started as incoherent jumble of thoughts, something I brushed off for a long time because it didn't make sense. The more I ran away from them, the more intensely I got chased. I didn't realize how bad this cat-and-mouse chase became, until one dawn I woke up, called my dad and asked to put mom on speaker. I needed an intervention. I spoke non-stop for the next few moments, and they listened  - about this crazy trail of thoughts chasing me and how restless I got to the point of thinking if I am losing my mind. After a long pause (which seemed like forever), my dad said - "No, you are not going mad. Being restless is a good sign. It means you are ready to take the risk." And to which my mom added -" Embrace your thoughts. Don't fight them, see where they lead you. You have nothing to lose." Thank God for having entrepreneur parents, nothing ever seems crazy!

But for me, it was still an unsettling thought. I had to remove myself from that situation and think from a different perspective. So I booked the next flight to Paris, spent the whole weekend with friends eating cheese and drinking wine, and basically trying not to think about the conversation I had with my parents the week before. However in one of those long walks along Seine, finally the thoughts started morphing into shapes in my mind's canvas. Talk about woman being obsessed with an idea. Hah! 

Days changed to weeks, weeks changed to months and I was not perturbed by those thoughts again. Until that fateful Startup Weekend Hamburg event. While sound boarding few ideas with another "start-upper" over one breakfast, my fuzzy thoughts started clearing up. One thing led to another, and by the end of that event, this whole 'craziness' seemed like a rational doable entity with few like-minded crazy thinkers. I don't know what comes next, but last night during a Skype meeting, Project John Galt was officially conceived. 

Why John Galt? If you know what the character stands for, you have basically figured out by now what is the underlying philosophy behind this idea. I haven't had a wink of sleep since last night. I am excited about finding where this new journey is leading me to. Endless possibilities. And I think I am ready this time - Ready to face John Galt.