Hi blog readers hope you are all well
Scotland Cando Scale feedback
Last week I went to the week long inaugural Scotland Can Do Scale entrepreneur programme. I was on the Scale part of the programme which is for organisations wanting to expand and diversify what they do. I have to say it was a great week. I met with many other entrepreneurs and potential entrepreneurs all doing great things. I learned a fantastic amount about entrepreneurship from participants, lecturers and speakers at the programme. It was the hardest working week of my life phew 9am to 9pm long days with very few breaks. My head was mince, as they say in Scotland, by Friday afternoon.
This was all about taking a disciplined approach towards entrepreneurship, which for me as a totally undisciplined typical dyslexic, was not going to be easy. Something I would like to ask all my dyslexic blog readers. Are you a very disciplined person? Answers in comments please.
The programme itself was funded by the Scottish Funding Council, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and Scottish Enterprise and is part of an ambitious Scottish Government programme make Scotland into a centre of entrepreneurial excellence with a focus on innovation as key driver of growth here in Scotland.
The main man was Bill Aulet, (picture above) who is the Managing Director, Martin Trust Centre for MIT Entrepreneurship. He is a really nice guy quite humble but he knows his stuff. I had dinner with him and we sat around talking about music mainly with other people at our table. He is into Elvis Costello, Madness and Ska music would you believe. Great with the banter as well.
Lots of people wearing fitbits here. Fitbits measure how many steps you take per day. Apparently you need to walk 10,000 steps per day to be healthy.
As a social entrepreneur myself I would like to see something like this being organised for social entrepreneurs in Scotland. As a social entrepreneur my organisation is about meeting our social aims and using profit to meet our social aims. There was nothing about this at all.
One puzzling thing I never met another dyslexic all the time I was there. Which is quite surprising considering 35% of entrepreneurs are dyslexic. I think part of this may have been down to the selection process for this programme which was, from my personal experience, more than a little dyslexia unfriendly.
I believe there were around 300 applicants for this programme and I was one of the 100 who were shortlisted. As part of the shortlisting process we were told to prepare a three minute pitch to give to the selectors. I duly prepared my pitch in a dyslexia friendly format and we ready to go. When we got there we were told this was not going to happen. Instead we were split into pairs and we had to pitch to each other and then pitch for the other person. All well and good but this was to be done under timed conditions.
For me with my slow dyslexic hand writing I was going to struggle to do this task effectively. There was also a lot of noise going down making this task even harder. I was, to say the least miffed, so I stood up a pointed out these issues to the board and everyone else in the room. I was met with blank stares lol. My point dyslexics might have been put off by this change and many may not have been able to stand up and complain. I felt I had no choice but to stand up and say something. Not for myself but for any other dyslexic faced with this. It was also not only unfair to me but my partner. Any way as it turned out we both got selected and the board took on board what I said for future programmes.
I met and chatted to three of the board afterwards at the Cando Scale event who felt I gave a great presentation and presented my issues very well hence getting selected for the programme.
Other news:
I had a meeting with Alex and St Andrew uni on Monday regarding my application for a Scottish innovation certificate. This is now ready to send off to Interface to see if we can get £5000 funding to move the project onwards. We have honed the idea down to developing a tool for dyslexic readers using visual tracking hardware and a bespoke piece of new software. If there is anyone in Fife who would like to get involved in testing this new tool / software please contact me. I will be setting up a friends of group for this soon.
In my last blog I mentioned I was seeking an appropriate individual who could examine our accounts and sign them off as good accounts. This has now been sorted out so I will soon be writing a couple of new funding bids for this.
Tee shirts:
We have nearly completed the finished designs for the tee shirts and I will be posting photos in a later blog and asking for feedback regarding these designs.
Ta for reading my blog please share it with others.
PS: If there is anyone out there who would like to support us in our work, help us fund our work through a donation etc please just send me an email.
We at Dyslexia Pathways CIC and through our Unique Dyslexic Campaign promote and support the social model of dyslexia:
#dyslexia is a difference that reflects #diversity
#vivaladifference
Neuro diversity is as important as biodiversity
#vivaladifference
Ooooops nearly forgot above is a picture of my certificate from the Scotland Can do Scale programme.
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