Telluride Venture Accelerator: Leadership Workshop with Jerry Colonna

04 Mar Telluride Venture Accelerator: Leadership Workshop with Jerry Colonna

“Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?/Where is the knowledge we have lost in information,” T.S. Eliot, “The Rock.”

This is a guy who can strike a darn good tree pose. I saw him do just that online in a lecture before an audience of CEOs and entrepreneurs. He also quotes a metaphysical poem that opens with trees, as follows:

“Stand still/The trees ahead and bushes beside you/Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here,/And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,/The forest breathes. Listen. It answers,…”

The poem, entitled “Lost,” ends with an injunction to stand still. Let the forest find you. New Age mumbo-jumbo? Or perhaps, just perhaps, a new way and more effective way of regulating the flow of energy and information in your personal and professional life.

Consider the source.

Jerry Colonna was an early investor in Twitter. That’s some serious street cred in 140 characters.

Since 2007, Colonna has worked as a certified professional coach. Prior to that the man was a very successful venture capitalist, a Master of the Universe who, as he openly reports, was heading for his very own bonfire of the vanities at the tender age of 38.

Today, Colonna is on Upside magazine’s list of the 100 most Influential People of the New Economy; Forbes ASAP’s list of the Best VCs in the Country; and Worth’s list of the 25 most generous young Americans.

On Thursday, March 12, 2–4 p.m, Nugget Theatre, Jerry Colonna returns to Telluride as a guest of tellurideXchange, the region’s local entrepreneur and small business network, an outgrowth of the Telluride Foundation’s major initiative, the Telluride Venture Accelerator.

Through the network, interested parties – entrepreneurs, executive directors of nonprofits, interested locals and guests – can meet TVA mentors and super successful individuals such as Colonna, while connecting with other local businesses for synergistic opportunities.

Jerry Colonna will speak about the apparent paradox of “Standing Still While Your Hair Is On Fire: Surviving Leadership.” Also the challenge of caring so much, you are in danger of getting lost in your work, which he labels the “Paradox of Caring.”

Among the questions Colonna is likely to explore during his talk:

Does your self-esteem twin with the work you do?

What is work and why is it so difficult?

Why are we afraid to take risks?

What is the arc of dysfunction?

What is radical self-inquiry and how is that idea tied to success?

What conditions create a sustainable work culture?

What is the single biggest reason start-ups fail?

Are you making choices out of fear or love?

Bottom line: Jerry Colonna believes great companies get created out of love.

Twitter that.

More about Jerry Colonna:

Colonna’s resume is salted with names such as Flatiron Partners, a darling of early-stage, technology-intensive startup programs during the hair-on-fire 1990s.

By 2002, Colonna had joined J.P Morgan Partners, the private-equity arm of J.P. Morgan Chase, where he led the firm’s investments in companies such as ProfitLogic Inc. Colonna served as a director at ProfitLogic until its purchase by Oracle Inc.

During his time at JPMP, Colonna also made a deep commitment to the non-profit sector.

In the fall of 2001, he worked with The Partnership for the City of New York to help launch the Financial Recovery Fund, a $10 million-plus program that made recoverable grants to small businesses impacted by the attacks on the World Trade Center.

In January 2002, Jerry Colonna was named co-executive director of NYC2012, the organization designed to secure the City’s designation as the representation in the competition to host the 2012 Olympic Games. In that capacity, he helped raise more than $6 million to further those efforts.

In 2003, with Sarah Holloway, Jerry launched Hudson Heights Partners, a start-up consulting company for non-profit organizations seeking assistance with strategy, growth, fundraising, and management.

Colonna also serves as a director, trustee, or advisor to a number of for-profit and non-profit organizations including Naropa University, a four-year undergraduate college and graduate programs in the arts, education, environmental leadership, psychology and religious studies and the only accredited Buddhist-inspired university in North America.

To learn more about this remarkable man, click the “play” button and eavesdrop on our conversation.