Passion, Entrepreneurship and what is really worth doing

I´m in the middle of a tough thinking process. Since I sold my last company SpokenWord AB to my ex-companion I have been working on an idea of a TV-format combined with a lottery and a board game. From the start I´ve had a VC backing the concept and one of Swedens most known celebrities has agreed on a lunch to hear more about the concept. With those key players interested I´ve felt that this could really take off once all pieces of the concept are in place. The working name of the project has been Bull Shit Bingo and the two cores combined in one concept are bingo and storytelling.

The problem
In the middle of the process, some time about early february, while sitting and chit-chatting at my neighbours place he (Jan Zakolski), he gave me an idea I just couldn´t resist. I got totally obsessed and event tough studying 150% and working 50% and doing the BS Bingo I couldn´t hold myself to fill all blank minutes with doing research on the idea. The more I found the more exciting the idea became. With an unexploited market on the European side of the Atlantic and some really successfull high-growth companies on the American side this really looked like a perfect gap on the market. The idea was to provide a simple signature application for B2B, B2C and C2C.

Once I found firm proof of concept I started to engeneer the business strategy and to identify the core competences needed. Being a real suit with really limited tech competence even though very interested in these issues, the natural competence needed was a developer. I have some good friends that are really talented programmers also having their own code-squad teams such as Artilect and Apogo. So I had some people that would be natural to ask. The problem though was the time frame. My main concern with the idea was that the gap on the market wouldn´t last for long and all of my friends were busy with their own techie projects untill atleast early summer. I needed someone faster. Doing some wild shots contacting programmers in the far outskirts of my network I was extreemely lucky to find a top-notch programmer that got fired just a few days before I presented the idea to him. I screened him with my techie-friends and he didn´t just get an OK, ge got standing applause and one top notch programmer basically fell in love with his level of competence. So now, since more than one month back we are together developing the app now named skrivaPå and everything is looking really good.

All this isn´t really a problem, rather something really good. The problem though is that the BS Bingo really has been waning into the background more and more as the skrivaPå project has evolved and the 27th of april there is supposed to be a lunchpresentation with the celebrity, the investor, some people from the gaming industry and me of cause. And I´m not really sure about this anymore. Specially as I´ve had some tough time getting the concept together.

Meeting with the VC strange things happened
Last thursday I met with the VC to present the last version of the BS Bingo concept. We met in the eventing and after having seen his horse win in a Swedish national horse race (on TV) we went and had the most pleasant pitch evening ever. We started off with watching the former Head of the Swedish Military Flight Force having a lecture about a world known swedish wood-sculpturing artist. Then a prolonged discussion about Swedish ship-craft with his 70 year old father and finally the presentation which was made with his father as the concept judge. I didn´t get a thumbs down but they were not very convinced of the draft.

Going home something strange happened. I asked the VC how he could manage being involved in so much business and at the same time manage his private life with wife and children. His answer was stunning: there was no problem in having a perfectly functional private life, his main problem he though was the frustration of not being able to give time to all those wonderful new ideas. One of two main ideas turned up to be exactly the same as skrivaPå. (!!!) I was jumping of over-excaltation. In my portfolio, in my right hand I carried the busines plan of the project that I had printed just before our meeting in order to hand it over to him in the end. As I wanted to hand it over just between me and him, I decided I would give it to him on our walk home. So now was the time, I immediately handed it over to him and an intense discussion ensued. Finally we decided we had to meet again as soon as possible to discuss a potential investment and I also got a home assignment: over the weekend, think through if I really want to present to the celebrity or if we should call off the lunch.

The assignment
So I have been thinking. I have been lying awake until 4 am trying to get new angles of the BS Bingo and doing some deep soul searching. What is an opportunity? What is really worth doing? Is it really worth to do an opportunity for opportunitys sake? Here are some of the thoughts:

I do have a wonderful project (skrivaPå) that I´m really passionate about. Still BS Bingo is a very interesting concept and an interesting opportunity. Though I have really been frustrated with having to devote time to the BS Bingo when the only thing I want to do is to dedicate all time awake to skrivaPå. Is is worth diluting my passion with something that is just an interesting opportunity? What is the real motivation behind continuing the BS Bingo? Maybe it´s just fear of loosing an opportunity to cash in. If yes, that´s not really a good motive. One thing I´ve thought alot about is what a good friend of mine Therese Gedda once said: "There are two main motivators: fear and passion. Try going for the passion."

Maybe this is such a moment. I thought about the possibility of handing over the project to someone else but it´s really to late, there are to few days left. I have a new draft. But that´s not really the main problem anymore. To get some good input I´ve been watching some videos and listening to some podcasts from Standford eCorner. Jeff Hawkins "inside the mind of a reluctant entrepreneur" was some very interesting listening. He really is on fire: