Goalscape is a promising young app that runs on the Adobe AIR platform. AIR has a plethora of interesting apps, yet Goalscape stands out among the crowd for business nerds because of its goal achieving focus.

In my recent review of Goalscape, I illustrated how the program is a a fascinating example of how beautifully designed software can help a person shift paradigm, change mindset, and become better at achieving their desired outcome. I think that, as simple as the software may be (it's still early in development), the way they have visualized a 'radial paradigm' of project management is a true innovation.

So who are the visionaries behind this innovative software?
I had the opportunity to get down to business with Goalscape Founder, Marcus Baur. In the interview session below, Marcus reveals some great insights about their software development experience so far.

How has your experience been in developing on the Adobe AIR platform?

Its been great. That's what OOP is all about. Not building everything from scratch, but instead building on a solid foundation. We have always aimed to provide a trusted management system that works seamlessly on all three major platforms - PC - Mac and web browsers. Adobe Flash/Flex/AIR was our only chance. It means that we depend to some degree on Adobe, but they seem to be a good bunch to depend on.

Huh, you can sell a product while it's still in beta? Of course. In fact, you can sell a product that is still in prototype. And I'm not talking about selling it to an investor, but selling it to your target customer. Heck, with a few enticing screenshots you could probably sell it in the conceptual stage. It all has to do with these three principals: how strong is your vision for the product (how much you believe in it), how well you can articulate the advantages (how detailed is your vision), and how easy you can make it for your prospective customer to make a buying decision (how good you are at selling).

These core principals combined will together form your…sales pitch. Yes: this is all about selling. And I know many of the software programmers & designers out there will cringe at the thought of having to sell an incomplete product. But once you understand that people aren't buying your product - it becomes easy. People are buying YOU. They are excited about YOUR vision and how it can help them. They trust you because of your unshakeable belief in that the product will do what you says it does (or eventually will do).

You might assume that pitching to a VC is the only way to raise a huge amount of fast action capital for your innovative new startup. Yet there is an alternative strategy. And it involves pitching to foreigners.

A new company based in Alabama caught my attention yesterday as I read about their efforts to raise $1 billion of startup capital. It wasn't this lofty target that caught my attention, but rather, it was their strategy to make it happen.

The strategy involves taking advantage of the EB-5 Visa immigration program.

It is the spice of life which sparks action, manifestation, and results.    Bolstered by momentum.

What is the spice of life?  To me, it's anything from which you can absorb momentum from.    Your friend buys a Ferrari: that's awesome - and you too are inspired to generate the income you need to buy one for yourself.    That's momentum, and it started with your friend buying the Ferrari; the spark.

Momentum can also be harnessed from negative things.  You're fumbling with programming C++ applications.  You present a software beta to your business peers and your own friend says, "you've ruined this concept!". Turns out, his thoughtless comment was just the spice you needed.  And you apply this momentum  as an inspiring wave of motivation to make the program go above and beyond, creating a product better than anyone imagined. Silencing the naysayers.

More easily defined: the spice of life is any inspiring action, thing, thought, or experience.  And from these inspiration acts a great wave of momentum materializes. Which is applicable to exactly what you are trying to accomplish.   I'll reveal my exact postulation in a few moments, but first let's go deeper.

I don’t agree with the old sentiment that, “It takes money to create money.”
Because this just simply isn't true.

Ben Bernanke’s printing press aside, it is innovation that creates money. Via new ideas, new skill-sets, new knowledge, and new paradigms of thinking to kickstart new ways of doing old things. My philosophy is that value is created by innovating a new way to reach a current objective [dibs on trademark].

And once you achieve that objective, you raise the bar and set yet another objective to reach for. Requiring innovation once again to achieve it. And such is the nature of perpetual human progress.

Strategy, to define it simply, is a method for manifesting a desired outcome.

How well your strategy performs is effectively how good you are at manifesting reality. And as much that sounds theoretical, advances in quantum physics validates this statement. The law of attraction holds true.

Furthermore, it is your big, ultimate vision that is most essential to your success, not the strategy itself. Strategy is a means to and end result, and thus it cannot exist without a specific & precise result defined in advance. Your strategy is based on the results you want to achieve. Your vision.

What is the vision you have for your business in the end ? What does it look like when you get to where it is that you want to be? Specifically denominate the end results as elaborate as you can : in dollars, in time, in the impact you want to make, and in the results you want to create. And from this, you can deduce objectives...

How can you buy a business with no cash of your own? It's actually simpler than you might think. And surprisingly few people know about the strategy - so I'm going to spill the beans on this arcane method right now.

The way you do it, is by leveraging the assets of the specific business you want to buy: at about exactly the same time you buy that business.

It's called a full leverage buyout: acquiring a company by using the assets and cashflow of that company to finance the purchase.

Although the strategy is generally unknown to most internet nerds and even general business owners: big corporations have been doing it for a long time. And the strategy has become an accepted and widely practiced financing strategy.

But nevermind the big corporations. For the small business owner or an individual starting with little or nothing: leveraged buyouts can effectively help you skip the 2 to 5 years it generally takes to build a strong company.

Every once in a while, we all need to step back from the daily grind of business and look at the big picture. Here is a selection of insightful quotes to help you do just that - from great business leaders and philosophers of our time...

High expectations are the key to everything.

Sam Walton
Founder of Wal Mart

It starts with a vision of the final outcome.

Achieve that vision by creating a strategy to get you there.

Eecute the strategy with tactics.

Fuel the strategy with ideas.

And constantly measure progress to stay on target.

The set of statements above represent a powerful philosophy that I use to empower success in business and virtually any type of project. By applying this model to your business, your projects, and sub projects - you become a well oiled machine capable of completing even the most monumental of challenges. And I think you can do it by having a lot more fun.

Let's take a closer look.