Richard Reed: The entrepreneurs’ job

Did you watch the recent Richard Reed - “Be your own boss” TV series on BBC3? I found it very interesting, because the questions raised in the show I ask of myself.

In Wednesday 10/Oct/2012's shoe, mr. Reed said, “You simply have to have a vision of what one day your idea can become. You've always got to be able to look up & look forwards and go, ‘one day this little tiny thing will become this big, huge thing.’ You have to have that vision; you have to believe; that’s the entrepreneurs’ job.”

What’s your vision for where you are & what you’re doing?
I’d love to know - please http://www.biblecartoons.co.uk/contact


What’s my vision for Bible Cartoons?
Good question!
I admit, I find that hard to define. You’d think it would be easy to dream a bit & think up things I’d love to achieve for/through the Bible Cartoons, wouldn’t you? I’m an imaginative, creative bloke too, so again, you’d think that would be exactly “my cup of tea”, or coffee, or peppermint flavoured squash, or whatever!

But my past has left me apparently unable/unwilling to dream a personal dream of success. I think I have been disappointed too often. More specifically I have disappointed myself too often by poor & inappropriate choices in my past, leaving me unwilling to dream for success in the future, because it is painful to keep dreaming & then sabotage my own chances of success!

If we succumb to temptation & “fail” ourselves too often then we have a weakness in that area, & that leads us to believe that we will probably fail again. Do you know what I mean? How unpleasant is that?!

On the other hand, if we can’t dream any dream (for fear of failure) then we will never achieve anything! If I can’t dream a big vision of what Bible Cartoons might morph, grow & develop into, then how can I aim for anything? I need that dream & inner vision of what Bible Cartoons could become, to carry me over the obstacles in my path.

It takes courage & continual effort to maintain your faith shields; to deliberately choose to believe that things will work out for you; that God wants to bless you... which I believe He does.


Taking what Richard Reed said in bits & looking at the opposite to gain insight...
“You simply have to have a vision of what one day your idea can become.”
If we don’t have a vision of what we want to achieve, how will we know if we are moving in the right direction?

When the going gets tough & you have a lousy day, that vision of what you want to do with your life may be all you have to sustain you on the road to success. Without it, you may well fold up under the pressure & give up altogether.

You are the best person to make your dream come true... with help from the Lord, of course!

”...You've always got to be able to look up & look forwards and go, ‘one day this little tiny thing will become this big, huge thing.’

That’s interesting... Richard Reed said we have to look up. Funny how we subconsciously associate “up” with God & heaven, even when the Bible says that God lives within us. We still associate looking “up” with positive thought & looking “down” with negative thought.

Anyway, I think there is enormous self-belief called for in mr. Reed’s statement. To be able to think & say, ‘one day this little tiny thing [your vision] will become this big, huge thing’... is vital. If we don’t believe that about our vision, then who will?

You can’t convince someone else of the validity of your vision if you’re not totally “sold” on it yourself. So we have to be certain inside ourselves that we will go all-out for the successful completion of our vision.

”...You have to have that vision; you have to believe; that’s the entrepreneurs’ job.”
If you don’t have that guiding, inner dream & vision of what you might achieve; what you’re going all-out for, then you don’t have a guiding, inner compass, that accurately points the way to go, even when the going gets tough; you get waylaid by problems & obstacles, or someone in your organisation (including you) temporarily lets you down.

We might fail in the attempt; set-backs are going to happen - that’s life.

But the true test of courage is what you do immediately after that set-back. True “failure” is only, irrecoverable failure if you get knocked down & you choose to stay down & don’t get back up & try again.

So, after typing all that, I’m off to dream a bit & come up with a plan to turn Bible Cartoons into the greatest thing I can imagine: an excellent website, full of brilliant, funky Bible-based cartoon illustrations & merchandise, which loads of people love, want & buy!

That’s a good dream!

What’s been going on lately?

Sorry I haven’t written anything for the BC blog lately. It’s been a very “bitty” few weeks. I haven’t drawn any more Bible Cartoons (BC)  - gasp, horrors! But I have been doing various other BC-related things. Christmas is rapidly approaching, & this is usually a very busy time of year for us.
The main project I am working on at the moment is producing 6 “Bad Day” mug designs. The idea is to have a scene of disaster from the Bible, like the flood, or the expulsion of Adam & Eve from the garden of Eden, with the words “And you think you’re having a bad day!” on the other side of the mug.

Here’s a photo of the first 6 mug designs I’ve come up with from left to right & top to bottom:

Jonah being swallowed by a Big Fish.
The Egyptians being drowned in the Red Sea.
Goliath being felled by David & his sling shot.
Noah’s ark being pounded by waves in the flood.
Adam & Eve being expelled from the garden of Eden.
Daniel being lowered into the lions’ den.

My next task is to get a limited print run of these mugs into local Christian bookshops & gift outlets, as part of our ‘testing the market phase.’ If I can prove that the designs are salable in sufficient numbers then hopefully I can convince  a Christian distributor to take these designs on & mass produce them.

I am also designing our 2012 Christmas cards.

We will soon see the 3rd Bible Cartoons Activity Book out in print. This one is based on the book of Exodus, with some very exciting puzzles, mazes & colouring pages for children.

I visited our church’s (Brixworth Christian Fellowship) youth group on Tuesday evening & told them all about my journey of faith & how God brought me to Bible Cartoons. We had a quiz, based on my cartoons where the children had to guess the story, with bonus points for guessing the book of the Bible too!

I’m also trying to figure out how to write code to allow customers to the Bible Cartoons website to be able to purchase a whole set of related cartoons in one go.

So you see, I am not being idle!