Quite often it pays to be malleable, especially in a corporate environment. The powers that be only want to hear about incremental improvements that build on the status quo. Not change it.
Once we leave and get out there on our own. We must make sure do this:
Have an opinion, create change and go beyond the incremental.
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.
We often have a default thinking that we must ‘own’ something to benefit from it. Particularly when it comes to assets. The truth is more like this…
we only need access, not ownership.
We don’t need to own a Boeing 747 to fly to Sydney, New York or London. We just need a seat on it – access to it. A lot of the time it doesn’t make any sense at all to own something.
It’s just as silly to think we need to have (own) all the technical skills our startup or business requires. And here’s an example which will makes us all very excited.
Yes Skype. The founders of Skype, Zennstrom and Friis, are not programmers. They outsourced all their technical requirements to a team of coders in Estonia. They wanted fresh eyes on the project. None of the coders had telecommunications experience either. They just told them what they wanted and made it happen.
No need to discuss what happened next.
You’ll look back in way in which you can’t grasp how much opportunity lay before you.
You’ll consider the freedom of choice you really had which made anything possible.
You’ll see your business ideas, predictions and philosophies transformed into an abundant economic reality.
10 years from now you’ll be able to look back on your choices today.
In 10 years….
…don’t be the shoulda, coulda, woulda guy*.
*guy means person at startupblog in a 2008 kind of way!
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?
Occassionally a consumer promotion does what it’s intended to do.
This is one such promotion.
Summary:
Surfers compete in a surfboard paddle race. The first four to the Red Bull buoy in each race will be the only surfers winched from sea to sky by the Red Bull helicopter, and whisked away to spend a weekend surf trip in a top secret location hosted by Ross Clark Jones & current World Champion Surfer Mick Fanning at an awesome beach house retreat. Winners will get to mingle with Mick, demo some awesome new boards and order their very own free custom surfboard!
Click the image above to check out the details.
Simple mechanics, enhances brand value, anyone can have a go, zero cost to enter, unobtainable prize which money can’t buy, worth talking about.
Sure, they’ve got the budget to do it, and I’m a self confused surf junky… but neither of these things are what makes it so impressive. It’s the idea, the execution and more so “The Experience” – even the losers will enjoy participating.
As life becomes more about experiences, rather than consumption smart startups will take notice.
What experience does your start up offer?
Kudos Redbull – again.
