I had a mild epiphany at my birthday party Saturday night.

J and a friend were discussing the possibility of a new start-up venture, when I noticed something interesting about the conversation.

Our friend, who works in finance, approached the situation from a “How can I make money from this?” point-of-view.

J’s first instinct was to dissect the situation and find all the possible cons and pitfalls. He would design test-cases where everything that can possibly go wrong would go wrong…and he would try to find ways to fix those “bugs,” or at least find methods to circumvent the problems. After all, he is a software test engineer by trade.

By this time, my cousin had joined in on the conversation. She, who is an attorney, asked “What are the liabilities?”

The reason I found the conversation so enlightening is because each of their responses tied in so closely to their professions.

I then asked myself how I would approach the situation. I work in marketing, but I do not specialize in any particular type of marketing…I do it all! Would I try to find a visual representation of the product? Would I try to write about it? Or would I get excited about the product and try to get as much people to join in on the product buzz?

I then realized that I would do as much research on it as possible. Then, if I thought it to be a good product, I would go spread the word using all the tools and talents in my pool of resources. Just like a true maven.

How would you approach the situation?