It's Important To Have Faith, And I'm Not Talking About God

A quick one for you today:

A fundamental pillar in the halls of entrepreneurship is the belief in ones' ideas.

Speaking of my own experiences with my business that I'm trying to get started, I have had people tell me that my idea has been done and that I should move on. That what I'm trying to do is not worth it, and that I should think of something else. It is of course extremely important to always at least listen to feedback. There often are pieces of valuable information being given when someone critics your idea. In fact some of the biggest changes we have made and some of the best innovations we have come up with have been born out of other peoples comments on what we are trying to do.

On the other hand I have had 3 out of 4 people representing larger institutions tell me that what I want to offer will address a long term issue they have had are a willing to test the product once its been built. The person who said they didn't need it still said it was a good idea.

So just as in life its important to have a little faith sometimes and believe in your idea. More than that, you need to take the blows and envision your grand idea because a vision is something to aim for. The road towards success is not an easy one.

Here is one of those cliche motivational videos. You don't have to watch it, just listen to it because what it says speaks true to the challenges of being an entrepreneur and I think that for some of you reading this, it may inspire you to get up and keep going with whatever business or idea you think can become a success.

Science Needs a Voice

If you happened to watch the TV series Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, you probably know that the charismatic presenter is Neil Degrasse Tyson. I recently had the pleasure of going to an event that he spoke at called 'An Evening With Dr Neil Degrasee Tyson'. My goodness was it an experience to remember, full of humor and wit as well as a clear message that science is vital to humanity now and into the future.

This got me thinking about the world around me and how much science plays a role. After spinning that idea for a few minutes I then hit what I believe is a fundamental question for all of science. How can science, and scientists, become better communicators?

Below is an image which pretty much summaries 6 key parts of being an effective science communicator. Being authentic, particular in a world where everything from product endorsement to politicians are as fake as a that 'genuine' Gucci Bag you bought for $20 on a beach in Italy, is critical to effectively talking about science. I think that when the public think of science they immediately construct an image men and women in white coats laboring in a laboratory. While this is true for many scientists, there are I think equally as many who want to speak about what they're doing to someone else other than their colleague. It's just about building a conceptual bridge between the public and science. Do I have an answer? If I did I certainly would't be writing about, you'd have already hear about it on the news. But I do think that the list below is a great place to start.

Image taken from Jack McMartin's post in Kuleuvenblogt

Telling a story conveniently brings me back to where I started, talking about the Cosmos TV show. This show was received by the public with so much interest, not because it had a major celebrity presenting it or the endorsement of some major company, but because it told a story. The story of us and the universe we live in. Neil Degrasee Tyson and the production team took science and turned it into a big novel that we could all follow along with. He isn't the only person doing this either. Brian Cox, Bill Nye, Michio Kaku and the late Carl Sagan have all done or are continuing to do the same thing. (Cosmos is actually derived from the original series by Carl Sagan)

What I'm trying to say is, everyone doesn't need to know all the time about how important science is in their life. Because things like the arts, sports and engineering are also  critical components of our day to day life. But when it comes to the time when science needs a voice, its important that there are those to speak, effectively, and that we listen with open ears and widened eyes.

Thanks for reading and if you have any comments or thoughts please comment below, I'd love to hear your opinion.

Can Entrepreneurship be taught at University?

As part of my Uni degree we spend a year looking at things like  'what is an entrepreneur?' and 'what makes a person entrepreneurial?'. These are both valid questions and ones with not so simple answers. I think however, that an even harder question to answer is can entrepreneurship be taught at University? As someone who is trying to be entrepreneurial by developing a business to address an issue I have identified, I feel that the answer is no.

Lets stop for a second and consider what a university is. For a kick off its an educational institute that has units with guidelines and marking criteria. Completing a subject and progressing your degree requires you to hit certain standards and work towards a knowledge base that will allow you to answer questions in a test. This process is repeated again and again until you hit the right number of credit points to get your degree. The process as a whole is very linear, worlds away from unpredictability and uncertainty of an entrepreneurial lifestyle.

Last year Business News Daily spoke to 15 successful entrepreneurs and asked them what they thought it meant to be an entrepreneur. Sandra Ponce de Leon of Trunx said "An entrepreneur takes a giant leap of faith in the pursuit of a belief" and David Greenberg, CEO of Updater, said that "entrepreneurship is completely dedicating yourself to creating something out of nothing". Leaps of faith and creating ideas from nothing, are not what I would associate with a Uni degree. At its centre, entrepreneurship is about taking your own bright ideas and turning your vision into a reality. There's no one way of going about it and no set of steps that you must do to achieve your goals. Furthermore there isn't a set time frame that things will also be done in. It can take as long to make your first entrepreneurial steps as it will to complete an entire degree.

All of which brings me to a person who I feel has to deal with this paradigm every day, my unit co-ordinator/lecturer. He has experience in starting up his own business and has learnt what its like to do so. In working through this semester I have seen how he has tried to foster an atmosphere of creativity and encouraged everyone in the unit to try pursue their entrepreneurial passions. We must not forget though that he is also a lecturer who must come up with assessments that can accurately gauge the content we are taught. And so here is the issue. How do you create assessments that can accurately quantify the work of a student when each individual is on a different path? Each idea is different, and will require different amounts of time and resources to make it work. Therefore at any one time each person my be at different places along their path towards potentials success. Everyone isn't always going to be on the same page and yet we must all do so in order to hit those marking criteria. Its a frustrating situation for all involved.

So whats the solution or is there even one needed? I'd really love to hear your opinions in the comment section below. It amazing seeing the views go up on this blog but it's rewarding and thrilling to hear back from you, the reader, so I encourage you to do so.

Thanks for reading and for more articles that agree and disagree with me, I've put some links below.

Forbes - http://www.forbes.com/sites/georgedeeb/2014/06/19/can-entrepreneurship-be-taught-or-are-you-born-that-way/

Richard Branson - http://www.virgin.com/richard-branson/can-entrepreneurship-be-taught

Wired - http://www.wired.com/insights/2014/12/yes-entrepreneurship-can-be-taught/

Hard Work is Everything

"Entrepreneurship is living a few years of your life like most people won’t, so that you can spend the rest of your life like most people can’t.”- Unknown

There's no way of getting around it, hard work is one of the biggest keys to success.

It doesn't matter if it's Steve Jobs, Richard Branson or Serena Williams, they all worked as hard as they could to become what they are today. Putting in the hard yards doesn't just mean spending months or years working towards your goals. It's also about getting knocked down and getting back up, being put down but never loosing sight of your goal. It's about doing things that most wouldn't do to achieve their vision.

Thinking back to my previous post, or more specifically to Michelle More, I remember her saying that she spent the first 3 years of her career at ultimo working in her bedroom. Big things truly do come from humble beginnings. Jim Carrey, Sylvester Stallone and even Mr Bond himself Daniel Craig were at one point during their lives homeless. And yet today they are some of the most successful and well known people on earth. Why? Because they didn't give in at the first sign of hard work.

To give a more personal example I'd like to use my Dad. Today, along with a dedicated team, he runs a business called Coolkidz,which sells products for mothers, babies and young children. It's been a few years since its conception and I can tell you that today it looks a lot different to it did on day 1. I remember distinctly the afternoon when a 20ft container was lowered onto our driveway to be emptied into the garage. No warehouse, no employees and little to no orders. Thinking back I'm not sure if I could have turned a garages' worth of stock into enough to fill a warehouse that's over 16,000 square feet in size. But he did, and he did it because he pulled endless late nights and early starts. He made phone calls at cringe worthy times to overseas suppliers and spent countless hours on planes chasing new products. For every problem there was going to be a solution. Right there is (as I eluded to in my last post) the key to being an entrepreneur. Not taking no for an answer.

So the next time someone throws a spanner into the works of your big idea remember that being able to overcome those challenges is what will bring you more success than giving in will ever would.

Being an Entrepreneur Isn't About Being Smart, It's About Being Strong

I recently watched an episode of Peter Jones's 'How We Made Our Millions' which is essentially a TV show looking at successful entrepreneurs and how they have become what they are today. As someone who is aiming to be an entrepreneur and create their own wealth I was interested to see not just how effective some enterprise models can be, but also what it takes to drive it. I was frankly quite shocked. To help understand what I'm about to say it would be ideal to watch 20:45 to 21:10 of the episode or even the whole thing if possible.

Many of us would think that being an entrepreneur and becoming wealthy are very similar things and furthermore that its more about having a great idea than hard work. Of course its very important that if you want to be entrepreneurial, you put a lot of time into thinking about what idea you want to turn into a business and how you are going to do it. But the side of enterprising and driving your idea that isn't that well known is the side which takes the biggest toll. Let me explain.

They say that behind every great man is a great women. Behind (almost) every great entrepreneur is someone who is fastidious about being in control and doubts themselves at every step. In the episode I mentioned above at 42:20 Peter speaks to a former investor of one of the subjects, Michelle Mone, who started the lingerie company Ultimo. He mentions, quite powerfully, that under that rock hard exterior of determination and strength, Michelle is actually quite fragile. Many people trying to get a business of the ground find that their own worst enemy is themselves and fight this doubt, giving them the drive to get things done and make them work. So while the public sees these figures turning rags to riches, behind the scenes is a person who finds themselves fighting their own self doubt every day.

Really then, those entrepreneurs who succeed do so, not because they've got the best idea, but because they have the strength to carry on in the face of overwhelming risk and failure. There is a lesson in this. Often barriers standing between you and making it big are ones created not by external factors, but by yourself. Instead of saying I can't, people like Michelle simply don't take no for an answer. Any issues are just problems to be solved and deal breakers generally don't exist.

Really then, if you want to be an entrepreneur, be ready to challenge yourself on both a mental and physical level and get your mental hiking boots on because there's gonna be a big mountain to climb. But by chipping away at it every day and keeping your head up, you'll get there.

Video by Armando Macedo:

A Reflection On The Pitfalls Of Being Different In Business

For this blog I want to reflect on my experiences of trying to complete an assignment for my Uni degree. The assignment was basically to generate profit for charity with $5 seed funding in under 4 weeks. Now while I can feel already many of you are thinking right now of brilliant fast money enterprises, there's an issue with almost all of them.

What is that you may ask? Well being different doesn't always pay dividends.

Take for instance the first idea my group had. It was essentially to offer an errand/lunch/coffee service to lecturers and tutors who don't always have the time to get their own food. They give us $1 or $2 and we do a job for them. While this is by no means groundbreaking its definitely a little different to your lemonade stand or raffle. We felt that this model was easy to carry out, required $0 funding to get it started and could easily be managed by the 3 of us. And so we began speaking to customers and finding out what they wanted, got a fairly good response too..

So wheres the issue?

The issues lies in that we barely got any orders. While other groups were doing simple stuff like baking cookies or scones or organizing movie nights and bringing in revenue, we weren't. My group chose to try and do something that was not the norm when it comes to rapid fund raising. To be honest I felt a bit disheartened to see that trying to be a little different made nowhere near as much cash as doing what everyone else does.

So is it wrong to do something generic?

Not at all. Let's not forget that these models are so common because they consistently work well and are capable of bringing in revenue fast and in a relatively easy manner. It's just that when you're told on a weekly basis by your educators to be different, try new things and stand out, it all seems a little pointless. Will this stop me and my fellow students from trying outlandish ideas? Absolutely not, as failure and learning from failure is an essential component of entrepreneurship and business success.

So where does that leave us?

Yes it is true that the most common business models for fundraising are generally the most reliable and successful compared to more left-field ideas. But trying new things and testing out new models is truly the key to making bigger strides in the business world. Therefore I'd recommend using a common business model to get you started on your entrepreneurial path, but always be thinking outside the box when looking towards the future.

How Tech is Making Face-to-Face Relationships More Important Than Ever

Image Courtesy of IABC: https://www.iabc.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/iabc-articles-november-2010.jpg

It's so easy today to jump onto the Internet and get in touch with your friends and family through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or even the humble Email. Right now you're reading this blog, which allows me to communicate and express opinions, which are accessible almost anywhere in the world. The power that we have today at our fingertips is truly breathtaking but raises a few issues. Having the ability to communicate via a screen or microphone negates the need, for many people, to meet in person. This is particularly detrimental in a business, where communication and customer relations are so paramount to success.

I think that Forbes contributor Alan Hall sums it up quite eloquently by saying that "Award-winning business builders know their customers as well as they know their own families". How are you going to get to know your customer, and more importantly, make a great impression, via pixels and speakers? Today its becoming more and more overlooked just how crucial it is to meet someone, shake their hand and sit down for a conversation. Making the time and effort to see your customers, even if its every now and then and even if its representative, gives a far stronger impression of care and concern for the customers needs than a Skype call ever could.

We as a species are a social group. We have senses refined for taking in our surroundings and languages designed to communicate with those around us. There is an intangible difference to meeting someone compared to speaking on the phone or the computer. Achieve Solutions have a brilliant article on this. Here's just a small excerpt:

When we laugh together, smile at one another, shake hands, or share a meal, we bond on a primal level that cannot be replaced by electronic communication. We literally take in many cues from our various senses—sight, sound, feel, taste and smell—when we interact face-to-face. There’s even scientific evidence that we react to and process the scent of others on a subconscious or unconscious chemical level.

In the past it used to be a given that if you wanted to have a meeting you'd sit down at a large table and talk face to face. Today however, with the advent of modern technology it may appear that this is a thing of the past. But I can't stress on stronger terms how important, and this goes out more to my generation than anyone else, meeting people in real life is to the success of your business. Don't be tempted by the speed of online communication. Yes, it will get things done potentially earlier but in the big picture long-lasting relationships melded by personal contact will always outweigh time savings.

For another great article on what I'm on about have a look at IABC's piece 'What’s So Great About Face-to-Face?'

3 Ways to Help Improve Your Chances of Developing a Successful Enterprise

1. Start off by thinking about what the customer you want to target may need, not what you think they need. These days it's quite common for entrepreneurs to come up with brilliant ideas to address problems that simply don't exist. To give an example, I’m currently in the process of developing an NFC product that I want to sell to schools. In developing the business model, we started off by thinking about what’s wrong with schools in our subjective opinion. While this generated some innovative solutions, once we spoke to actual schools, our actual customers, we realised that the issues which they needed solving were worlds away from what we had identified. This lead to us changing the purpose of the product that we initially envisioned, into something the customer would actually buy based on real feedback.
   
2. Customer focus is key and never loose sight of this. The customer is the single most important part of a functional and successful business. If you are not building, designing or offering a service that pleases and fulfils the needs of a customer, your business is unlikely to thrive. Remember it’s the cash coming out of their wallet that allows you expand and maintain your business.
   
3. ‘Be 10 times better now to be 4 times better when you come to market’. This is a saying that I have shamelessly copied from Dr Buzz Palmer, CEO of STC  and an individual fluent in entrepreneurial development. I feel that it’s the best way of expressing how important it is that what you want to create is not just better, its clearly better than anything available today. This ties in with fulfilling the demands of the customer. What you offer has to be so good that it overwhelmingly offsets the investment or ongoing costs to acquire whatever it is that you plan to sell.

For more tips on creating a successful product and business here are some useful articles from Forbes and Inc.

The Synergy of Art and Science Part 2

I want to start this post with a question. How has scientific progression influenced the way we design the things around us? I think that a clear answer to this lies in a personal passion of mine, aviation. I'll use 3 notable aircraft since the first flight in 1903 to generally compare how much things have changed and how the balance between art and science has shifted.

Image Source

Humble Beginnings

Its December 17th 1903 and the Wright Brothers have just taken the machine you see on the right into the sky for 120 glorious feet. This aircraft lies at the bottom end of the scale where science and engineering dominate and artistic merit is irrelevant. Just getting the thing to fly was 100% of the challenge and so 100% of the plane was function and not form.Wood, Canvas and pulleys were the materials used during this time and this further limited the shapes and forms an aircraft could take to small and boxy designs.

Art Claws Back Some Ground

Before I go on I want you took look at the two images below. The first image is of a Spitfire from WW2, the second is a faithful scale model, one of which now sits on my desk.

Image taken from the Daily Mail

Image taken from Tailwinds

To many aviation enthusiasts this is one of the most evocative and beautiful machines ever constructed by man. Here is what I thinks is the quintessential example of art fighting back against functional design. Not a single component of this aircraft looks like the 1903 Wright Flyer above apart from that it has wings. The incorporation of lightweight and strong metals allowed for single wings to be built, engines went from modified car motors to powerful generators of horsepower and overall size increased. Aircraft designers could finally experiment and produce planes (that were essentially aerial gun platforms) that pleased not just the engineers' eye but the eye of the general public. The Spitfire shows how changes in materiel sciences changed the path of aviation, and don't forget, only 33 years separate these two aircraft.


Artistic Freedom Arrives

While the final aircraft in this lineup does not yet exists, it hints towards the potential future of aeronautical design. The AWWA Sky Whale Concept (yep you read that correctly) incorporates both current and future materials such as carbon nantubes, advanced ceramics and alloys to create shapes never seen before. While Beauty truly is in the eye of the beholder, there's no doubt that the blending of sharp angles and curvaceous undulations and sweeps makes for an catching aesthetic. None of the looks of this future concept would be possible without the aforementioned mediums providing strength gains and weight reductions improving efficiency - the ongoing golden term of current and future aeronautical development.



We are now looking at a future where if it can be drawn, it probably can be built and flown. This is a world away from those flimsy wooden aircraft that first took to the sky 112 years ago and only time will tell where plane design goes next.

This marks the end of a 2 part blog series on the blending of science and art but don't worry, more content on many other topics will be coming soon.

Thanks for reading!