Open

[TxDoc]

About a year ago, tv used to play the Open Forum commercials quite often.
If anyone has not seen them, here is their main commercial:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2SMl...feature=relmfu
Open Forum was created by American Express to promote networking between small businesses and support their growth.

And, no, the purpose of my post is not to give AMEX free unsolicited advertising - although I do like the fact that their company always support small businesses and entrepreneurs in general.

Actually, my post is more of a "please watch and share your thoughts" kind of thread - and I will start by sharing mine.
I do agree that this is a time of re-building and re-inventing ourselves and our professions/businesses to revive the economy.
In times of economic turmoil we see entrepreneurship at its best: it is the time when people try to re-invent themselves and to start something new, the time when we take risks and innovate, either out of entrepreneurial spirit and quest for wealth, or even just out of necessity.

In my case, I am not currently a business owner: I am employed by a large academic medical center. However, I did own a business when I was young, and definitely liked both the freedom and challenge at the time. Then at some point I took a different direction.
Since then, I always had in the back of my mind the idea that sooner or later I would start one (or more) side business(es) again, to maybe grow them into full-time activities by the time I retire from medicine.
Haven't yet taken action on it - but I admit that in the last year or so, I have often been thinking about some startup company ideas.

So, what about y'all? In these last couple of years, have you started a new business or thought about it?
Do you care to share your thoughts?