Month: May 2016

Having come back recently from Carter’s Bluecloud Event in Hawaii and hearing some of the amazing stories of the presenters there, its helped crystallise for me the keys to success, whichever field you decide to master.

#1 Have a strong “why”

You need to have a strong reason for doing something that takes you outside of the norms of society and outside of your comfort zone.

My why I guess was the challenge of creating something from nothing, for achieving financial independence.  I’m very competitive so competition is a strong driving “why” for me.

And of course freedom to do whatever the hell I want and pursue any business ideas or interests that take my fancy, without needing to consider financial matters.

I knew that I would have to succeed or die trying – there was no other option.

#2 Be persistent as hell

The mantra that was running in my mind was what I mentioned above – I would succeed or die trying.  Success did NOT seem like a certainty to me but I knew that I would do everything in my power to succeed.

David Reichelt created 40 games that made no money before he created a hit, Color Switch.  He knew he would never quit and he had this dream of travelling around and being able to run his business from his laptop, having complete freedom so that he could pursue all his creative interests.

OMGPop created created 35 games before they had a hit with Draw Something.

Rovio had 51 failed games before Angry Birds.

You WILL fail. That is USUALLY a pretty certain thing.  So you need to be persistent and have enough grit to push through the failures so that eventually you will succeed.

#3 Have an attitude of learning

Adopting an attitude of learning I think is SUPER important to succeeding.

When I started out creating my first app with my business partner, we decided to invest a small amount of money (up to $500) to create an app.

We didn’t care if the app would fail or succeed financially (of course we hoped it would!), the main overt goal was simply to learn the whole process – how do we hire a developer? artist? how do we upload to the App Store? how do we get download?

When I speak to people who are interested to start a business these days, this will be really one of my top tips.  Whichever field you go into invest in your learning initially and DON’T look to making money as the main outcome.

The next step is to make sure that you do get the most out of your experiences, debrief and make course corrections so that on the next iteration hopefully you will see improvement in the right direct.

 

In my opinion, the education system is extremely flawed. If not flawed, at least the focal point is wrong and our kids are missing out on invaluable tools for life.

 

So, on the fly, these are the things I think should be added to the school curriculum.

 

Or perhaps someone can start an after school school which teaches kids the following skills.

 

Interpersonal Skills

When I was at school, there was absolutely nothing devoted to interpersonal skills.

 

Interestingly, in medical school, we DID have interpersonal skills woven into our curriculum, because obviously someone woke up to the fact that being personable and compassionate as a doctor is a pretty important skill which patients value highly.

 

There should be lessons on empathic communication.

 

There should be lessons on how to attract and communicate with the opposite sex (how to attract your life partner, could there be something more important and empowering to teach???)

 

There should be lessons on how to sell (oh, selling is such an important skill) and the psychology behind sales.

 

There should be lessons on how to handle conflict and to be assertive – to express your opinion and make yourself heard.

 

There should be lessons on relationships, setting realistic expectations and communication within a relationship.  How to find a life partner.

 

There should be lessons on leadership and how to work together as a team (these days more and more I believe we rely on teams rather than individuals… I like a section from Sutherland’s book on Scrum where he gave an example of a teacher who introduced students to Scrum and eventually got them to work together using the Scrum framework in his lessons…)

 

Money Skills

There should be lessons about how money works, because it becomes such an important thing in our lives.

 

That means teaching kids about the basics of economics, inflation, investing and pensions.  Not in a dry and boring theoretical way, but in a practical way, the bare essentials that kids need in order to grow up to adults who understand how to protect their financial future.

 

I remember we had as some extra-curricular activity a stock market investing game with make believe money.  But I think as part of the curriculum kids should invest with REAL money, there is no better way to learn, even if it is a tiny amount.

 

There should be lessons about mortgages (which barely any adults understand) and analysis done on whether it is better to own a home or rent and buy investment property.

 

Meditation and Self Reflection

 

We need to teach our kids mindfulness and meditation, so that they can experience more clarity in life.

 

We need to teach kids how to keep a journal which enables self-reflection and self-improvement.

 

Get kids to start a practice of gratitude (one of the only proven methods to increase well being).

 

We should teach kids about the fundamentals of well being and positive psychology.

 

We need to teach and mentor our kids in goal setting and visualization, the types of things that elite athletes are taught we should make available to everyone.  They should have personal coaches who help them develop and explore their own unique interests, develop their personal goals and achieve their own unique potential.

 

I also think kids should have their own websites and blog as a way to connect with other like minded kids and develop an online presence.

 

Business & Entrepreneurship

 

We need to teach our kids about business – finding needs and meeting them.  I believe there is little that is more useful. Business is creativity, it is an engine of economic growth.  While not everyone may go on to start their own business I think the skills that they learn here will benefit them in whatever they do in life.

 

They shouldn’t learn theory. They should go out and start businesses and be mentored in the process.  They should hear from entrepreneurs who have started businesses in different fields.  They should learn from each other and their own successes and failures.  They should learn to take small, hedged bets and carry out lots of experiments until they find success.  They should learn to talk to potential customers, to work out their needs and desires, and then together with the customers to develop products to meet these needs and desired.

 

Learning Skills

We should teach kids how to learn.

 

How to find journal articles and work out what scientific research has to say on a subject.

 

How to find books, courses, etc on given topics (there is so much information out there, they only need to know how to access it).

 

Independence and Curiosity

 

Most of all, I think we should foster their own independence, curiosity and their own uniqueness.

 

They should be mentored to find things they are curious about and take on the necessary self-motivated learning.

 

 

 

I think if someone cracks this, they will go on to make a lot of money.  If you like this as a business idea, take this and try it out.  I think it will make you rich and make the world a better place.

 

Who knows, maybe I will do something about this one day… After all, I am curious about it…

Follow your passion is common and fucked up advice.  The unfortunate but realistic state of affairs is that most people don’t know what their passion is.  Imagine how frustrating it can be when talking heads preach to follow something that you don’t know what it is or where it is leading.

 

There is an audio book I listened to recently, which while I found it quite painful to listen to with its airy fairy wafting, did give one golden nugget of advice which I want to pass on to you.

 

If you are one of the lucky few who have a passion and know what it is, go ahead and embrace it.  Grab it and ride it.

 

But, if you are one of the many who don’t have a clear passion then the more sound advice is to follow your curiosity.  It might start out as just a little inkling.  A little nagging. Not much of an interest, but something worth of further investigation.

 

So, like Liz Gilbert advises in “Big Magic”, follow this curiosity.  Do some digging.  Curiosity may lead to nothing at all.  But sometimes by following your curiosity it can bloom into interest. And interest can bloom into passions.  But it is critical to let yourself explore lots of interests and see where they lead you.

 

I can’t agree more with this advice.

 

This is very much in line with my belief of how entrepreneurs should start or even grow their businesses.  Throw out little experiments.  Hedge your risk, make sure your downside is capped, but test in lots of directions.  Most will be misses, but once in a while something will meet a need in the market and then you have a business on your hands.

 

That’s how I started out in apps.  My first app (apart from Make App Mag) was a little novelty app.  It cost about $300 to make, maybe $500.  I framed this for myself as an educational expense.  I hadn’t gone to business school after all, I had no business in business.  So instead of investing in an online course or some fancy university MBA toilet paper, I figured I would rather invest in MAKING something and learning from the process.

 

I was CURIOUS.

 

I wanted to understand what was involved in making an app.

 

I didn’t care too much about the outcome (of course, secretly between you and me, I was hoping this app would hit the top charts and would make me millions… didn’t happen…)

 

And this curiosity grew into my current business, which I am wildly passionate about.

 

If you don’t care much for business, that’s OK.  Doesn’t have to be about business. Could be a hobby or a skill.

 

Take this 30 Day Blog Writing Challenge, for example.  I’ve been curious for a long time about writing and blogging, but haven’t done much with it.  So I set up this challenge to investigate my curiosity.  Who knows where it may lead…

 

So, if you don’t have a passion DON’T WORRY!

 

Just let yourself be curious and actually follow up on your curiosity.  That is the way to go!

 

And if you’re not curious about anything… Then I pity you, really I do.