entrepreneurship Archives - Page 77 of 235

The truth about goal setting

Posted on January 4, 2012 by Steve Sammartino

I’ve been setting visual and written goals for a few years now. However last year was one of the more limited goal setting years I’ve had in some time. In truth, I achieved less than in previous years.

I’ve also come to the conclusion that some times the goals we set for a year, take a few years to yield, for our brain to work out the subconscious algorithm needed to make them happen. I’ve never had a year when I have achieved all the goals that I have set, but it is also true that I achieve more in the years when I have made more of an effort in creating, reviewing and refining my goals.

On occasions I have made a personal postcard and sent it to myself with my goals as the visuals. I’ve shared one of these below, and while some of it is personal, it’s more important to share the goodness than worry about what people might think. You will notice that some things on it are not specific, and can’t be ticked or crossed, while others are specific. I really believe that very specific goal setting can actually work. I don’t know why, it just does.

Some of the Ticks included:

– Getting rentoid.com to feature on A Current Affair (if you click this link, you’ll see how close the reality was to my mashup up preemptive visual goal – quite extraordinary)

– Traveling with my, now wife, to elope

– Starting a family (see baby pic – my daughter even looks like this picture I found on-line!)

– Going to New York & Rome

– Getting published articles in the AFR, the Age and Sydney Morning Herald

– Surfing Weekly

– Graduating from being a University Tutor, to becoming a University Lecturer

– Turning my Startup Blog into a Startup School

– Helping my father sell his farm

– Getting rentoid in the news multiple times (Just google rentoid)

– Travel overseas in Business Class

– Collaborate with rental Industry to become leading portal

Some of the Crosses included:

– Flying in a private jet somewhere

– Having 10 million+ in net assets

– Upgrading my home (Including pool & eco friendly house features, and grand design renovation)

– Running a marathon

– Opening a new office for rentoid

– Getting on the cover of a business related magazine

– Becoming known as a respected business thought leader.

Some of these goals that I am yet to achieve, but am still seeking, in fact some I am very close to…. if they eventuate I will let you know. For 2012 I want my goals to be more specific and I intend on sharing them here to be honest in public and make myself more accountable.

The one thing I know for sure, is that we don’t achieve any of the goals we don’t set.

Simple & memorable

Posted on December 30, 2011 by Steve Sammartino

When I first met Sean Callanan for SportsGeekHQ he gave me a business card which I thought was pretty cool. An old footy trading card – with a player from my favourite team. As below:

What I love is how he did it. It’s a simple mashup. No printing costs – just a card with a sticker of his details on it. He carries with him a card from each team and during the conversation (without me realising) he asks which team I follow. When we said farewell he gave me the card – which I clearly took notice of. Not only was the player from my team, he was even from an old era – my one!

How to invest $1500

Posted on December 29, 2011 by Steve Sammartino

Invest it in yourself. Go to local Melbourne (Y Combinator) Statup site Adiso.com and book a flight to San Francisco.

Spend the next month working on your best idea startup idea.

Get a working prototype, or do those updates you’ve been talking about for the last 6 months on your current startup. Get it in shape.

Book meetings with VC’s, write up a schedule of where all the events are, startups weekends are and build a calendar of people to meet, things to do and actions to take while in Silicon Valley. Ask some locals who’ve been there and done it.

Get your spiel tight. Know how to pitch in 1 minute. With no slides, just your voice box.

Make sure your spiel covers what it is, who it’s for, what it disrupts, and the final revenue model.

Go there, pitch and win (or lose). But you’ll win regardless. You’ll win with knowledge gains and contacts made. Get excited, have a story to tell, get 2012 off to a fast start.

Didn’t you know it’s an Aussie gold rush over there?

Non Products

Posted on December 24, 2011 by Steve Sammartino

Today I noticed an outdoor advertisement for the local lotto here in Australia.

Their New Years Eve lotto draw: 31 Million Megadraw. Cleverly placed on the 31st of December.

It got me thinking about what people are really buying. I don’t think it is the chance to win. I don’t even think people are buying into hope. I think people are outsourcing their worries – they are buying the right to imagine what it could be like.

There are a lot of what I call non-products that people buy. Products and services which have no ‘real utility’. In this instance, lotto, they have bought some time to imagine the possibilities. But in some ways we could do this without the ticket… because the reality is we are not going to win.

I wonder what other Non Products fit into this category?

The future is less

Posted on December 23, 2011 by Steve Sammartino

You’ve heard this:

If all you ever do, is all you’ve every done. Then you can only expect all you’ve ever got.

It’s changed slightly, actually it has changed radically:

If all you ever do, is all you’ve ever done. Then you can expect much much less than you used to get.

This is because there are a nearly 2 billion people in the BRIC nations who are prepared to do what you do for around 10% of your price. And in a ‘web everywhere’ world people can find them. Yes this includes nearly all of us – Architects, Engineers, Accountants, Lawyers, Graphic Designers, Coders, Developers, Journalists – every single task that can be done remotely, and even some that can’t be.

For them 10% of your pay is a 50% pay rise. A pretty good deal from where they sit.

What to do – do more with the stuff that lives around the edges. Make meaning from the seemingly disparate. Add a creative edge by mashing things up in a new and interesting way. And demand the people near you take notice of your ideas. If they don’t, then find a better place to share your creativity.

The trick to the future is to organise the factors of production, not be them.

Another brand having fun – Pringle

Posted on December 20, 2011 by Steve Sammartino

The thing I really dig is brands that are honest. No point being uptight. Pringle Scotland does a good job of this. Hat tip to Big Red of Haul.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoiW5-uA3_E]

You meet the most interesting people on line

Posted on December 19, 2011 by Steve Sammartino

This story is kind of weird and long. It’s about a person I meet on the internet who lives in Romania.

Counter to what most people normal people would do I decided to ‘gift’, sorry invest, a significant amount of money in this person to embark upon a project. I have never met him. I did limited checks on him to testify that his words were true. I have already given him the money. Below is the story – so far.

I was on-line late one evening when a request came through from a stranger to connect on skype. It didn’t look like spam or some girl promising lewd conduct. So I accepted the request to connect from Raul Oaida. The discussion then started with him hoping that I could connect him with one someone I was linked to on LinkedIn. The person in question was Esther Dyson. Esther is a renowned Venture Capitalist, Entrepreneur and innovationist in many fields. Quite the tech celebrity. I informed Raul that my link to her was limited and tenuous. That I only have only met her twice at Stream Conferences as she is a board member of WPP. Sure I know her and have had a conversation or two, but I couldn’t introduce someone to her, let alone someone I only met on the internet. I challenged him to contact her directly, but certainly not to mention me. Next, I bid him an on-line farewell and wish him luck.

Fast forward 1 week. Raul contacts me again via skype. This time he doesn’t ask permission. He is already connected to me on-line. He tells me that Esther has responded to his query, but is unable to assist at this time. So I engage a little futher, assuming his interest lies within the startup arena. It does – kind of. He tells me that he is a rocket scientist looking for funding on his latest rocketeering project ‘October Sky’. The honest truth is that this piques my interest. It is not everyday that a startup entrepreneur is interested in sending rockets into space. It is certainly more interesting than someone the next guy pitching a mobile app or CMS idea.

I tell him he doesn’t need Esther, or anyone in particular. What he needs is a little more imagination, and a bootstrapping startup ethic to make the thing happen. I go on to recommend a few books, reading material and other ways people have got their startup into action any cash of their own or direct funding funding. In the interim, he disagrees telling me this is impossible.

From the actual Skype chat:

Steve Sammartino: My advice is don’t wait for permission. Just start.

Raul Oaida: I have no funding, that is the problem. I am an 18 year old from east europe

Steve Sammartino: You don’t need funding – you need imaginiation
Get a book on how to start your project without money.
A good one is ‘The art of the start’ by Guy Kawasaki. read this book. it will help

Raul Oaida: It is impossible, cannot make anything without money and I’m not out for profit, if you remember one of the 3 main goals is to found a non-profit.
For me I belive a better book is Rocket Propulsion Elements by Sutton 🙂
Do you have any contacts from the aerospace field?

Steve Sammartino: No sorry. If you want to get your project going you will learn how to self fund… it is possible. Feel free to ping me later.

Raul Oaida: It is impossible to make a rocket without money 🙂

Steve Sammartino: I will try and help you in more detail on how to get your projecty going without money….
there are ways of doing this…. it is a skill in itself – like rocketeering is 🙂 I will prove it to you….

——–

You get the picture, nothing like teaching someone the art of bootstrapping, on what is fundamentally a cool project.

So after a few more skype chats, I teach him that a smaller project is needed. A proof of concept, or in this case, an example the skills he has in this area. So We developed a smaller version of the October Sky project which will get our ‘Propulsion Device’ into the near space field – that is an altitude above 100,000 feet. This project was only 10% of the estimated cost of the larger rocket project October Sky.

We also decided that we should make a mini documentary of it to show case the planning, the process, the visuals and the event. I agreed to fund it, if I could choose the payload and have the rights to the visual footage for my ‘own purposes’. From this we will create some very interesting film for viewing on the web. And in doing so Raul, will start to become known as a Rocketeer – taking him closer to the bigger projects.

Already he is learning the art of inspiring and collaborating with others to make a project happen.

I’ll keep you posted as the project details arrive – including what we are sending into space.