Or…you could start a business.

For many of us, the 54 hours from when Friday ends and the welcoming fresh breeze of the weekend begins until early Monday when the cloud of the work week rolls around are a small bit of heavenly bliss.  It is a great, however brief, chance to free ourselves from the pressures and responsibilities that are present themselves throughout the week by many, if not frequent, forces.

But what if you CHOSE to work on the weekend.    It’s an unpleasantry that many will go to great lengths to avoid.  What if you chose to work not out of guilt or the prospect of overtime, but merely because you wanted to contribute to creating something great? Or just make a lot of people laugh.

I don’t remember where I heard about Startup Weekend.  You see, we live in Grand Rapids, a semi-metropolitan Midwestern city in the heart of west Michigan.  I am sure that in other parts of the world (you know who they are) there are software developers, engineers, and designers hanging out at every coffee shop and coworking facility on every street corner.  But there are many parts of the United States, like GR, where technology (especially the Internet) is still viewed as a utility of business instead of a focus.  Despite these challenges, a small but dedicated group of geeks in the area decided to put on an event called Startup Weekend.

Startup Weekend fundamentally changed my perspective on what is possible in today’s society.  This was the first year for me and it was great.  Yes, I ended up pitching an idea, but there were many great ideas pitched at the event.  It’s execution that counts.  The idea changed dramatically over the weekend and it would not have been possible without our amazing group.  And I am proud to say, that after Startup Weekend, we decided to carry on as Interaction Works.  Our customer feedback tool, Mobile Suggestion Box allows businesses, events and other organizations to survey customers using their own mobile phone.  It’s a platform that has a lot of possibilities for business owners and users.

The other guys could have done something else that weekend…I’m just glad they didn’t.

Our start, finish and retrospect was also documented by bloggers at Atomic Object.  We thank them for their support.