Discovery

Location: In front of Crawford on Riverbend Drive, Kitchener

Description: Looking down Riverbend Drive on the left, a "Hidden Driveway" sign is in the centre with a line of trees on the right.

Story: "When was the last time you did something new?" she asked, jotting down points on her notepad.

He continued to stare out the window. "Discover a cure for cancer new, or buy a new car new?"

Resistance. She'd come to expect it from him, and continued to ignore it. "More the second. When was the last time you stepped out of your comfort zone?"

He scoffed. "You make it sound physical, like it's a circle I've painted on the ground and stubbornly sit inside." He turned and faced her dead on. "I'm happy, healthy, and content with myself. To use the language you like so much, I'm water. I used to flow downhill constantly, and I've gone over a few waterfalls, but now I'm part of the sea, finally at rest. Yes, I'm stationary, but that's the whole point."

She nodded and wrote as she spoke. "Fair enough. But on your journey, you changed from fresh water to salt water. You're stagnant." She smirked slightly. "Perhaps a little overweight to boot."

He genuinely laughed at that and grinned. "Alright, fine, I'll give you that much. So what should I do?"

She got up and walked over to the window, and he followed her. "There are so many things to see out there, and I'm sure you haven't seen them all. Why not just go for a walk every day? That's the new I spoke of before: new to you. Maybe you won't discover a new continent, but you might be the first person to look under that rock, or climb that tree. Just go out there and see what could be."

Curved

Location: The intersection of Riverbend Drive, Bridgeport Street, and Riverbend Drive in Kitchener

Description: The road signs for an intersection a top a stop sign as seen from behind, with a tree on both sides.

Story: Situations change, and plans must adapt. There's a pitfall in planning too much, as filling in the fine details only leads to more erasing when something gets upset. Thus the choice is between broad strokes and adaptability, or contingency plans and incredible forethought. Both have their merits, yet we usually opt for the larger picture and fill things in on the way.

There's a certain beauty to planning everything, predicting how it will all play out, and trying to prevent anything from going wrong. You're not working to win, but solve an incredibly intricate problem and find the ultimate strategy. It's like planning a city and accounting for how things will change over the next two hundred years. How will rivers get diverted? Where will subdivisions be built? What new methods of transportation will be around, and how will that affect traffic? Can the initial infrastructure be expanded to accommodate a population that may increase tenfold from its original size?

Most often, the variable we account for the least is ourselves. How will I change? What will my desires be in a month? Where will my priorities lie? Knowing everything about a situation, necessitates knowing ourselves.


I've begun to restructure my life and I realized that seven posts a week is currently a standard I can't easily maintain. Instead I will begin mirroring others before me and post on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, hopefully reducing my workload and increasing the quality of what I produce.

Instant

Location: The bridge at the start of the Grand River Trail near Riverbend Drive, Kitchener

Description: An open storm drain with water flowing down the middle and plants on either side.

Story: Excerpt from the rough copy of "End Down, Start Up: The Parabolic Arc of Business", Chapter 6:

Things will change, and the hardest thing to change is space. If you need more money, you can borrow it; more people can be hired; and more products can be bought. Most things can be upgraded once you know that the demand is there, but it's better to have at least a little foresight and plan ahead. This means buying a bigger office than you need right now, more durable devices, and establishing ways that you can grow quickly.

You don't need to overdo it and get a lot more than you currently need, because your needs may change in the future. It's best to guess what you'll need in a year and see what you can do to get it now, or at least plan a way to get it quickly. Planning for tomorrow may look like excess today, yet today is only one instant.

Groundwork

Location: The intersection of Lancaster and Bridgeport in Kitchener

Description: A sidewalk before an open expanse of dirt that has been driven over by numerous machines

Story: Excerpt from the rough copy of "End Down, Start Up: The Parabolic Arc of Business", Chapter 1:

You need a vision, and if you're reading this book I expect you have one. You know what you want as an end goal, and have spent days planning how it would look, how perfect it would be, and how much of an improvement it would make. However, you still need to start. This is obviously a great thing though, for the only way to make something amazing is to start.

What skills, surroundings, and changes do you need in order to begin? The more you know about your goal and the better defined it is, the more you know about your path there and what your first steps should be. Write down exactly where you are today and where you want to be by the end of this journey, then connect each item so you can see the progression from now to then. It may be scary making those changes, but it's all for the best. Imagine what could be and keep that forefront in your mind as you take those first steps, and you'll overcome your fear.

Excitement

Location: Under Highway 85 on Guelph Street


Description: A tunnel with a blinding white light on the mid-right of the picture.

Story: Excerpt from the rough copy of "End Down, Start Up: The Parabolic Arc of Business", Chapter 8:

After a company launches it's first product, regardless of its success, they start thinking about doing another one. This can be exhilarating as everyone is ready for a new challenge, but also daunting because they now know how much time and effort was put into the last one. Just like when you launched your first product, you need to unite everyone under a common vision and goal, and inspire them to do wonderful things.

It seems really slow when you start a second project. People will keep seeing how far they have to go, not how far they've come. It's hard to overcome that, but the best solution is to keep building excitement about the product and what's being done. Each step takes you closer to your goal, so you should always be excited that you're making progress.

Security

Location: Spring Valley Road near Springwood Park

Description: A green fence with a locked gate in the middle, and a tree behind it that has grown through the gate

Story: Excerpt from the rough copy of "End Down, Start Up: The Parabolic Arc of Business", Chapter 9:

Security is very hard to balance, especially when privacy concerns are present (we'll return to the issue of privacy near the end of this chapter). Far too often people leave important documents in unlocked cars, unattended backpacks, or unprotected files. Just because people are unlikely to find something doesn't mean they won't, and it's more important to secure something than hide it.

There are lots of security tools and ideas, but how you do security is highly dependent on what's important to your company: it could be files, a prototype, or your database. Knowing how your employees will be dealing with these sensitive things is more important, because while you want to slow or stop thieves, you don't want to impair your employees with 30 digit passwords or hourly pat-downs. The main challenge of security is making it easy to access your property, but only for you and your employees.

Exalted

Location: Near the intersection of Guelph Street and Riverbend Drive in Kitchener

Description: Guelph Street stretches down a hill and goes under Highway 85

Story: Excerpt from the rough copy of "End Down, Start Up: The Parabolic Arc of Business", Chapter 7:

Just because it's done by everyone else, doesn't mean you have to do it. Peer pressure may be something introduced when we're younger, but the desire for conformity is deeply ingrained in us. When we see someone doing something successfully, one of the first things we want to know is "How did you learn to do that?" Gaining this knowledge is sensible, but you should evaluate it first before following it.

When you get from A to B on public transportation, will you take a train, bus, plane, or a cab? These are available to you and each have their own advantages, including comfort, cost, and travel time. Just because other business leaders fly to their meetings doesn't mean you shouldn't take the train. There are well established ideas everywhere you look, but have they survived through success or lack of competition and scrutiny?