It’s a sim­ple ques­tion, really, and one that we all get asked on a reg­u­lar basis.

Regard­less of who’s ask­ing, the answer is usu­ally quick and stock: I’m a designer…a lawyer…a chef… I think those stock answers miss both the point and the under­ly­ing opportunity.

I first real­ized the impor­tance of hav­ing a bet­ter answer when I attended a con­fer­ence about how to approach ven­ture cap­i­tal peo­ple. Dur­ing breaks, some of the biggest VCs in the world would stand on a kind of soap­box where peo­ple would jockey for posi­tion to give them a 60-second pitch.

Watch­ing that process was an amaz­ing education.

The VCs accepted the busi­ness cards of those who did a really good job describ­ing their audi­ence, the prob­lem they solved, and their path to rev­enue. They rejected those who fum­bled through their minute using too many com­pli­cated words and acronyms and talk­ing vaguely, if at all, about the things that are of obvi­ous inter­est to a VC.

That made me real­ize that answer­ing the ques­tion, “What do you do?” isn’t really as straight­for­ward as we think it is. While devel­op­ing a good response can be chal­leng­ing, it’s worth the effort. Even so, it’s only half of the story. The other half is under­stand­ing what the ques­tion actu­ally rep­re­sents, and that’s a bet­ter place to start.

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Beige: Earthy, clas­sic, neu­tral, warm, soft, bland, melancholy

Blue: Truth, heal­ing, tran­quil­ity, sta­bil­ity, peace, har­mony, wis­dom, trust, calm, con­fi­dence, pro­tec­tion, secu­rity, loy­alty
Inter­na­tional sig­nif­i­cance: China = immor­tal­ity; Hin­dus = color of Krishna

Light Blue: Peace, tran­quil­ity, quiet, cool, clean, soft, pure, understanding

Teal Blue: Emo­tional heal­ing, pleas­ing, rich, pro­tec­tion, unique, expensive

Brown: Sta­bil­ity, mas­culin­ity, reli­a­bil­ity, com­fort, endurance, sim­plic­ity, friend­ship
Inter­na­tional sig­nif­i­cance: Colom­bia = dis­cour­ages sales; India = the color of mourning

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