The Sydney Opera House will turn red tonight to help celebrate the Year of the Rooster.
Earlier in the week my father phoned to ensure that I had received the website link he had sent via WhatsApp.
My 76-year-old father is as connected to his smartphone as his 19-year-old grandson and regularly communicates via his assortment of apps. He says it keeps him alive.
I hadn’t yet had the chance to check my WhatsApp messages so he attempted to explain the main message of the article to me. It was about how my Chinese zodiac animal would fare in the Year Of the Rooster. January 28 is Chinese New Year as the Chinese follow the lunar calendar.
“You don’t have to worry, it’s very positive,”he said.
“Your mother is a Rooster and she will help you. Also Jackson (my son) is a Rooster and he will help you too.”
I had no idea what this help was that he was referring or why I might need it to so I opened the link to find out for myself.
According to the master astrologer providing the reading, there are no lucky stars for the Snake (my zodiac animal) during the Year of the Rooster. There are five negative stars, but apparently only three of them are problematic, all of which can be overcome if I partner up with people born in the Year of the Rooster. Many people would probably have shut down the link at that point but I was brought up to believe.
A month ago, when 2017 rolled around, I took an early morning walk along the pristine sands of Cabarita Beach in Far Northern NSW and had a very strong sense that this would be a year of collaborations, so I was already open to the idea. Every good thing that happened in my career during 2016 was the result of a collaboration with someone else, either formally or informally. It became increasingly clear to me that solo was not the easiest way, or most direct route, to fly. But focusing on Roosters above all else?
I have become very good at networking and the best collaborations have usually come from the people that I have met in this way. But sorting those who can help connect you from those who can partner with you on a specific project for mutual gain is the tricky part.
Sharing your idea so that you give away enough to pique someone’s interest, but not so much that it could be immediately replicated, is the key in my experience. A year ago I had an idea for a push-notification, geolocation retail app called Daily Siren. I shared the idea with a former colleague who immediately was keen to assist in getting the app developed. I then shared the idea with someone I had met through networking and he offered to fund it.
As I was strolling along Cabarita Beach on January 1 I was thinking about further collaborations that would potentially fast-track its growth this year. If my father and the Chinese astrologers are right, then I should be seeking to work with people born in the Year of the Rooster.
I hope 2017 is lucky for your Chinese zodiac animal or that you too find a way to make it so.
