There’s a right time to do a lot of things, like send thank you cards, invitations, Christmas cards, leave one job for another, start an MBA, read a book etc. But for some things if you wait until the time is right you’ll never really do it.

Having a child, and starting a business are two things that I don’t think you would do if you were waiting for the perfect storm. You might not be in the right property, the right country, the right job, or the right social situation, whatever it might be. Some friends of mine had children earlier and some friends have had children later, either way you end up with crazy highs and crazy lows when you have kids. The key I believe is to enjoy the highs and know that had things been different you probably would have had different lows.

Starting a business is similar. Of course every opportunity is different and there are times when markets are matured and when infrastructure either cheapens or new things are introduced to make a business more likely to succeed but, like having children, if you wait for the stars to align you’re likely to miss the opportunity entirely. I know fellow entrepreneurs who started companies before having children and I know people who have waited till their children had left home to start businesses. Either way the right time is when you have the idea and the ability to execute.

Sure there can be things that help make the decision easier to make, being made redundant and finding the job market to entirely welcoming has been a key driver for some businesses, but the real thing is knowing that these decisions require a lot of patience and hard work and if you’re ready to put the work in both can be amazing experiences regardless of the timing.

I’ve been working out of the Yahoo! offices for a couple of days a week and then out of the London Business School Library and most recently I was granted access to Camden Unlimited’s Collective project this is great as it allows early stage entrepreneurs some office space for a short period of time. I’m really hoping I can help shape the space and make it a really good environment.

Then, the Bee and I were having a conversation that turned into an idea for a work space that could encompass childcare and working space, and then someone tweeted about Third Door which is trying to do something just like that. I think this is a great idea and I really hope they’re able to get it off the ground and expand it into different areas.

And finally, today I came across this great blog post from Seth Godin, goodbye to the office, it’s great post discussing why do we need an office and how technology and our society has progressed beyond the need for a traditional office. I think Seth’s right, but I do think there’s something to be said for social interaction with individuals, they just don’t necessarily have to be in the same company.

Imagine if there was a group of hubs in different areas of cities where local residents could go with childcare and an office set up. Where people were working but not everyone worked for the same company. Where you could socially interact, where you could hold meetings, where video conferencing capabilities were available, but it was walking distance from your home and everyone had access to one of these work hubs. Companies pay a lot for overhead, where they have to pay for cleaning, supplying basic stuff like utilities, water, coffee etc. Imagine if they gave employees a work space allowance that allowed individuals to subscribe to a office away from home but close enough that you could roll out of bed and be at work. People may say that working in the same place helps as your team helps productivity but having worked in traditional offices for the most of my career and having worked away from my teams for the last couple of months I don’t buy that.

I’m a big fan of Scott Adams, the creator of dilbert, and I love the fact that he has an office across the street from his house, or something like that. Why can’t everyone have an office across the street. Think of the environmental impact (transport emissions saved), the societal impact (less time commuting means more time with the family) or the productivity impact. I think that’s the future of the office.

The last post on blogging as a channel and not a chore got some interesting tweets/comments (on facebook but not on the blog, exploring commenting is another blog post in my head). Specifically around a throwaway remark I made about how “Perfect is the enemy of the good”. I can’t remember which post or when (see first paragraph) but Farhan Thawar once commented that phrase on this blog. It was in response to launching products early and innovating / making them better on the fly.

I still believe this is the best way to do things. Have a long term aim/vision but create stuff and see what sticks, what should be invested in further and what doesn’t work at all and should be dropped. Unfortunately too many people, companies, heck even governments and society at large try to get things perfect before doing anything.

There was a great chapter in Peter Sheahan’s book Flip which I know I’ve blogged about before, called “action creates clarity” I totally believe that. Doing things, figuring out what works and what doesn’t is the best way to figure out what is the best strategy. I call it on the fly strategy – those not familiar with ice hockey see the wikipedia entry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_fly

So why am I writing about this from the hospital bed? Well, I’m scared sh**less about being a dad, but I’m going to apply on the fly strategy to fatherhood. Some things might work, Baby Bee seems to like the my singing and reading the economist (left Dr Seuss at home), some things might not, we’ve tried waking her then feeding or letting her wake up and let us know when she’s hungry, getting her on a schedule is a major task. But I don’t have time to go read a book and make a plan at every occurrence, you just do things and you do more of what works and less of what doesn’t. Why should anything else be any different?