I’ve been engaged in a lot of biz-dev stuff lately.  Not so much “productive” biz dev, I haven’t been signing contracts (outside of NDA’s which I’ve begun to hand out like Chiclets in a Tiajuana dive-bar), but lots of meets and greets and deeper dives into the world of finance and cost analysis and all sorts of places I haven’t been for quite a long time (not since I left my Series 7 at the door and went into videogames).

It’s been interesting.  Normally I’m not the social butterfly type, getting up the oomph to speak with a total stranger in a room full of total strangers in suits and ties takes a bit of doing for me.  If alcohol didn’t wreak such irritating havoc on my creative capacity, I’d probably need a stiff shot before attempting any sort of real conversation, but it it’s turning into something I don’t completely suck at.  Which is a good thing.

I have all these irons in the fire right now.  A couple of them are approaching hot, just coming up at the point where I will need to strike.  They’re almost all connected, all branching and supporting one another.  Once one goes hot, the rest are going to follow in short order and I am talking, asking questions, seeking advice for the things I am going to need to put into play. 

I ask questions.  I ask a LOT of questions.  I ask a lot of n00b questions in the areas in which I am not yet well-versed, and occasioanlly make statements that are not so much designed to prove I am an expert (which, lets face it I’m not even close in many of these fields) but to provoke a conversation that will allow me to ask those questions.  Sometimes these conversations are less than pleasant (particularly if I’ve hit a nerve unintentionally) but they are *all* a learning experience, they are all the chance to meet someone new, to find someone who can give me a glimpse behind the closed door of my immediate future.

And it’s a heck of a lot more fun than it ought to be.