Innoveering Nebraska

I’ve not traveled much outside the United States, so I’m not certain about the rest of the world.  However I am certain that a shockingly large percentage of business in America is conducted in coffee shops.  Local, little, fragrant, friendly coffee shops. 

Today I’m at my favorite coffee shop – a Scooters near 120th and Blondo.  It even has a small meeting room you can sign up to borrow.  I’m sure business would get done without coffee shops, but life would be much less pleasant and we’d see our friends and aquaintances much less often.  Plus we’d all have to find another source  of caffeine – and who has the energy for that? 

My point is that in all this rushing around that seems to accompany modern life, I love the peace and companionship found in coffee shops. 

I long for a larger coffee shop that would contain the trappings of an office (basically a copier/printer) and rent tables or desks (though I’d refer a tall table) to really small businesses like mine.  Perhaps this would destroy the magic.  Let me know if you hear of any such place.  It would be fun to visit my personal business/coffee promise land.

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One of the Biggest Reasons I Love Nebraska

I meet regularly with two different groups of people.  By regularly I mean that I meet with each of the groups at least twice a month for 2-4 hours at a time.  Both groups are committed to a particular topic to study, but strongly encourage tangential discussions.  It’s a serious commitment of time, thought and energy.  

I love these interactions and feel it would be truthful to say that I need them.  (This is a little stickier for me to say than it used to be because one of my groups is studying truth – what it means, what it is, how you recognize it, what should be done with it once it’s found…) 

I’m a better human being because I interact regularly with these wonderful people.   They make me smarter.  They also encourage me to dream, hold me to high standards, tell me when my ideas stink, give me advice and provide all other sorts of support that I fear I generally take for granted. 

While I don’t have any quantifiable data, I do know from friends who have moved away that these groups are not so common elsewhere.  Even my most gregarious friends have encountered difficulties in forming and maintaining these kinds of groups outside of Nebraska.  I don’t know why this is the case, but I do know that these groups are a wonderful benefit of being a Nebraskan. 

Are you in such a group?  Do you want to be?   How might your life change if you were?  Every group I’ve ever belonged to began with just one person asking another to meet.  Trust me, it will snowball from there – and that’s the truth.