Keep With the Times or Your Business Will Die Trying

Today we live in a world where the products of today are likely to be outdated in just a few months time. We see this with things like the hard drive in your computer. Only a few short years ago the thought of having a relatively cheap computer with multi-terabyte storage was insane, and being able to have a laptop that ran all day was impossible. Now it's common practice. Back in the early 2000's we used to take pictures with dinky little plastic cameras like the one below. Now though, your camera is on your phone. Along with your music player, games, contact book, email, internet and a million other functions. The world moved on quickly from pictures on film to pictures in cyberspace.

Image from Amazon

This was not something which Kodak took action on. They stubbornly decided not to move with the trend and believed that their product was superior to that which was being developed. Rather than see the future, which was digital photography, they chose to invest and pursue other ways of making their films better. Lets not forget that digital photography was something that Kodak themselves invented and yet chose to ignore.

It wouldn't probably be surprising then to say that because Kodak chose not to pursue the new digital form of picture taking, they ended up going broke. While everyone else was moving forward with the new, Kodak stuck with the old and the results of doing so are clear to be seen. Kodak is now no more.

So what can we learn from this? Well its important that any company can not only develop and build new technology, but also adapt to it if they can see a shift in the market. A business should also always be open minded to the idea of changing their flagship product, or tossing it out in favour of the new and the 'better'. Any company should also encourage firm testing and analytics of not just its products, but those being developed for implementation in the future. This is so as to accurately gauge their market worth and potential to drive sales.

In short then don't be like Kodak. Embrace new technology and embrace change because in the fluid world that we now live in, keeping up with the pack is life or death for any business.

As always thanks for reading and if you have any thoughts on this, please post in the comments section below.

3 Ways To Be A Better Learner And Prepare For The Future

Thinking back to the year I was born, 1995, I can't imagine that half of the things we take for granted every day were even beginning to be thought of. Mobile phones with a million different functions, touch screens controlling the functions of your car, tablets, 4G mobile data, Bluetooth the list goes on. Every single one of these modern marvels requires a host of people to turn raw materials into the technological piece that they are.

If you had approached a electrical engineer at a major TV maker 20 years ago and told them that they would need to build a 4k screen, 3D imaging and Netflix into it they'd probably bend their head to the side and go 'huh'? What you can buy today is made using an entirely different rule book and instruction set to what was being built 20 years ago. can you imagine what the next 20 years will hold? To keep up with modern developments people have to re-skill and relearn to constantly stay up to date.

I can feel that some of you may be thinking 'well since we don't know whats coming how can we train for it?' and it' a fair point. But, and its a big fat juicy but, what if we could teach our children and ourselves to self educate, allowing us to be better poised to take on any new developments in the future and be better equipped to acquire the skills to take part in future industry. Here are 3 ways I think this can be done:

Image taken from Steli Efti of Quora.com

1. Instil a message that education does not end after you finish school or University. It's and ongoing process that never really ends. By doing this we can better inspire our kids to be life long learners and be open to new information later on in life.

2. Make sure that failure is seen as a positive thing because with new knowledge comes lots and lots of learning and forgetting and then relearning. Rarely do things go in the first time but need constant reinforcing and that's important to understand because it can be disheartening when you don't understand something the first few times

3. Be ready to be confused and challenge yourself. The whole reason that you learn new things is because you don't understand them. It can be quite uncomfortable feeling like you don't know something. But rather than it being a this to maybe be embarrassed about, turn it into a positive. You're going to learn something new today!

Hopefully this helps some of you in the future and I think that these 3 things are a good start towards better readying ourselves and those to come next for the future. As always comments and thoughts are always appreciated and thanks for reading!

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: