The Curious Shall Inherent the Earth.

I really enjoyed the speech Jim Coudal gave along side Jason Fried of 37Signals at SXSW Interactive this year. Jim commented on the shift the creative community is taking. In the past the focus of our community has been to create and adopt standards. We needed to determine the best practices so we could perfect our craft. But now that all has been done. It's always developing but for the most part we've accomplished a level of standards that allow us to apply our craft effectively.

What's happening now is really exciting, creatives are realizing that after doing all of these per diem jobs we've gained enough experience and business knowledge to bypass the client completely and launch our own businesses. Entrepreneurship is the new focus of the creative community and that is a really exciting thing. Especially considering what's already been done. Just look at flickr, del.icio.us, BaseCamp, Campaign Monitor, or BlinkSale.

The fact is it takes very little to start these types of business if you are the master of the craft. Marketing materials, identity design, and web development are EXPENSIVE. It's a fact. If you are the resource that creates the external face of the company as well as the core product and functionality (in terms of a web based company and or service) you can create companies with almost no budget whatsoever. It's really an exciting time. A lot of people are trying it out. Many of them will be unsuccessful. That's how all business is. The sharpest minds in the industry will win; those who are curious shall inherent the Earth.

Listen to the Podcast from Jim and Jason at SXSW to gain some wisdom.