Many folk I know have been dis­cussing their 2009 chal­lenges and vic­to­ries and look­ing for­ward to what 2010 has in store for them. I’ve felt the need to at least review and refresh, but knew I had to get my thoughts in order first.

This post is just a first pass at doing so for me and this company.

After hav­ing, in 2009, what could only be described as a less than stel­lar year over­all (not quite an annus hor­ri­bilis, but get­ting there), I’ve come to the real­i­sa­tion that 2010 is the make or break year for me and this busi­ness. Either it really clicks, or I have to reimag­ine what I do and what the busi­ness is all about.

The attached mindmap (also embed­ded below) shows where my head is at with respect to:

  • the work I do — what I do, what I want to do, how I do it
  • my think­ing — all the stuff that fills my mind and where I’m headed with it
  • my inspi­ra­tions — the busi­nesses I look to as exem­plars and the indi­vid­u­als I respect for sup­port­ing me, inspir­ing me and call­ing me on my crap when I say it
  • my vision and thoughts about acid­labs — stay or go, grow or remain the same, issues and concerns
acid­labs 2010 Vision

It’s a work in progress and will be sub­ject to some major revi­sion over the com­ing month or so as I bed it down, but in the inter­ests of walk­ing my talk and run­ning the open, col­lab­o­ra­tive busi­ness I preach should be the way we do things, here’s my thoughts.

The list of indi­vid­u­als to whom I owe a debt of grat­i­tude for any num­ber of rea­sons is long — please look for your­self. If you find your­self or the organ­i­sa­tion you work for in my inspi­ra­tions list, thank you. You have made a dif­fer­ence to me and I appre­ci­ate it.

I’m look­ing for feed­back — your ideas, input and views on what I should be doing with my speak­ing, work and busi­ness. This isn’t an exer­cise in crowd­sourc­ing, we know that isn’t as use­ful as it seems. Rather, I’m reach­ing out to the peo­ple I trust — my com­mu­nity of read­ers and col­lab­o­rat­ing and con­vers­ing with you -  and look­ing for your guid­ance in mak­ing me, acid­labs and 2010 the best pos­si­ble combination.