I was in a session with the ‘School of thinking’ founder Dr Michael Hewitt-Gleeson on Friday. (he co-founded this organization with guru Edward De Bono)
The session was amazing. I wrote down a particular quote which resonated with me:
“The perfect pitch being worked on at your desk can send you out of business. The imperfect pitch being presented to a customer can keep you in business.”
Get out there.
Hemingway once wrote a story in just six words (“For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”) and is said to have called it his best work.
Heads up from wired.
There is a phrase I learned in College called ‘having a healthy disregard for the impossible’. That is a really good phrase. You should try and do things that most people would not.
….squint to see Larry….
Chances are we’ll still fail to do the impossible most times.
If we don’t try we are certain to fail every time.
Cold Calling – is the hardest part of being an entrepreneur. A skill which is game winning.* Don’t believe what you’ve heard, the truth is very few businesses can grow without getting on the phone.
* We’re not talking about selling insurance to unsolicited numbers…no.
We’re talking about contacting people in our world, our place of business, our industry, our corner of technology. Contacting people where a relationship could be valuable to both parties. We’re not selling either, we’re collaborating. But have no doubt, we are still cold calling.
It’s not cheating, it’s collaborating
It’s Ok to draw outside the lines
Neat handwriting is not a pre-requisite
Touch typing is not a pre-requisite
You don’t have to all wear the same clothes
You can have a respectable job and wear jeans
Conforming does not necessarily lead to success
the ‘Soft’ – subjects are the most important
Talking is not evil, it’s the most important skill you ever learn at school
Having a contrary opinion is fine
You can have a future and be bad at maths
Being different is OK
Doodling on your paper is good for the mind
Daydreaming is fine
…add yours here….
School is vital to our learning. But just remember which bits to ignore.
Lacking the cash to commence a start up is a misnomer. There’s so much cash floating around western markets at present that the owners of this cash simply don’t know what to do with it.
All money in the world resides somewhere based on an idea. Let me explain:
Money in your wallet – based on the idea we’re going shopping, will need cash for lunch or maybe just for an emergency.
Money in the bank – based on the idea we’ll need it at a later date for something more significant and want to save it for this future transaction
Money in shares – based on the idea that this companies fortunes are improving and the money will grow and provide us with dividends and or a capital gain.
Money loaned to us – based on the idea that we can use this money to create something of bigger financial worth than the original loan and the cost of interest repayments.
All money follows an idea. Sometimes both parties profit. Sometimes one party profits, sometimes we all lose. But the thing which there is no doubt about, is the fact that money is out there for any idea, any time.
If our start up is that idea we ought chase it and give that idea the money it deserves. The better the idea the greater the chance of accessing the money.
There is no such thing as a big idea.
All ideas are the same size.
Because ideas only exist metaphysically.
An idea that really works, becomes a big idea (after we proved it).To find a big idea, first we need lots of ideas (of which all are the same size). The ideas that worked didn’t have an advantage over the other ideas. They we’re all equal, but maybe other stuff happened to that idea.
Maybe we nurtured it,
maybe we believed in it,
maybe we developed it better,
maybe we tried a bit harder,
maybe kept pushing it,
maybe we modified it slightly,
maybe we resisted the temptation to modify it…
….maybe that idea had an advantage because of the way we treated it?