Mellow Entrepreneur » Uncategorized

Spiderman Style Empowerment

naomi — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 05:06:40 +0000

This was The Quote from Spiderman (movie 1)

“with great power comes great responsibility”

Turns out Spiderman (and Peter Parker) took that pretty seriously, and I think you should too.

If you don’t feel like you have great power, here’s the secret sauce – the flip side is true too. The more responsibility you have, the more power you have.

Every day it’s tempting to shirk responsibility. To leave things up to your boss, (if you have one) the government, the big corporations, your neighbour’s cat, whatever.

I’m not saying you have to be responsible for Every Thing in your live. You can’t. But when it really counts, taking responsibility for something empowers you.

Not happy to leave your responsibility for your income up to your boss? Start your own business on the side. Not happy to give responsibility for your education up to mass media? Crack a book, read some blogs by intelligent people, educate yourself. Not ok with leaving responsibility for your power supply up to a big corporation? Stick some solar panels on your roof and install a wind turbine.

Just remember – with great responsibility comes great power.

The 3 Things Money Won’t Buy (they’re pretty important too)

naomi — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 09:07:00 +0000

This was for me a revalation of the obvious.

It goes like this: having a huge pile of money won’t solve all your problems. You can’t have anything you want, even if you’re obscenely rich.

Even Bill Gates and Warren Buffet have problems they can’t solve with money.

And so we get to the three big massive things that money can’t buy:

health
time
love

And if you ain’t got these, life just ain’t working for you. So yes, while money provides some stability, more choice, freedom and can be fun, there’s some major places where money doesn’t count.

A good thing to remember in your quest for financial freedom.

The End of Happily Ever After

naomi — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 03:32:34 +0000

There is no For Once and For All.

Happily Ever After just doesn’t exist.

When you finally get to where you thought you wanted to be, things have moved on from where they were, and now you need something else ‘to be happy.’

The answer? Enjoy the journey. There is no happily ever after.

All the Good Spaces are Taken…Not!

naomi — Fri, 08 May 2009 10:09:15 +0000

“The world is moving so fast now-a-days that the man who says it can’t be done is generally interrupted by someone doing it.” ~ Elbert Hubbard

This is the fun thing about action. Once stop analysing and start acting, you often find that there is in fact a way into what you want. Consistent action by itself creates a space for you.

From the outside, it can seem like a field is crowded. Like all the good spaces are taken. But when you actually start moving towards your goal, gaps in the crowd appear. This is the power of action.

For example: the wine critic space is really crowded. There are hundreds if not thousands of wine experts with credentials, experience and backing. But Gary Vaynerchuk took action anyway. He created Wine Library TV, which is now massive. So, once he took action, an entirely new space opened up for him.

Now he owns the good space of insanely enthusiastic wine experts who are also into tech stuff and social media. Here’s Gary and Tim Ferris doing some serious wine tastage.

So, action + enthusiasm = good spaces to emerge for you.

It’s never too late to start something, and all the good spaces are never taken, because you can always create your own good space. (Hey, that’s probably even more fun.)

The Barrier

naomi — Wed, 06 May 2009 11:49:33 +0000

Believe it or not, there is a barrier between theory and action. It’s a barrier that pops up every time you learn something new and then don’t practise it. It’s in those books that inspired you when you read them, then gathered dust on your shelves.

Breaking through this barrier is what turns people from dreamers into the real deal. And, like a lot of things, it’s not so bad once you’ve broken through.

In fact, it’s kind of fun.

Being Discovered

naomi — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 22:13:30 +0000

I remember spending an evening jamming with some musician friends. And I still remember the one guy saying

‘In my twenties, I used to dream about being discovered as a musician. I kept waiting to be discovered. Then I realised it wasn’t going to happen. So I set out to discover myself.’

I reckon that’s how a lot of life happens. The fairytale discovery never occurs until you get out there and begin it yourself. This is both empowering and scary. Empowering because you realise that you can change your world. And scary because it’s up to you.

Even Socrates Didn’t Know

naomi — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 11:32:17 +0000

All I know is that I know Nothing

Socrates

Perhaps the title of the post should have been: Especially Socrates Didn’t Know. In fact, he’s famous for being the guy that didn’t know, and was brave enough to own up to the fact.

Socrates even made it his life’s mission to go around advertising his ignorance. He used to annoy the hell out of knowledgeable people of the day by proving to them that, actually, they didn’t really know anything either.

Socrates worked hard to be ignorant. He worked even harder to never assume anything. To take nothing for granted. To question everything.

It’s not easy not knowing! (It’s much easier assuming that we know.) Though it’s hard work, I find that ignorance can be a real asset. When you approach things with a blank mind, ask the ‘dumb,’ obvious questions and test assumptions, things really get interesting.

And here’s the thing: the more you don’t know, the more you can find out…but testing it. Experimenting to find out what really happens.

Apparently that’s how Google, the world’s largest search engine, manage to stay on top. They act like they really don’t know, and test everything to find out the answer.

So: how much do you not know? Clearly laying out your areas of ignorance could be best research you can do.

PS. And as for time management, here’s another great Socrates quote: “Beware the barrenness of a busy life.”

More Socrates Quotes

Big Waves, the 80 20 Rule and Competition

naomi — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 10:27:24 +0000

Last weekend I went surfing at Raglan, a fine left hand surf break on the west coast of New Zealand. As I sat on my board out the back I watched the ‘pack.’ (The pack is the other surfers out there waiting for the next set of waves to roll up.)

As per the 80 20 rule, most of the surfers were waiting for the medium sized waves. Then there were a handful of surfers way out waiting for the bigger waves. So there were more medium waves, but the competition much fiercer.

Ironically, this meant the bigger waves were actually easier to get.

Here’s the catch though: the downside was definitely greater. Wiping out on a set wave is more memorable than being tumbled by one of the smaller waves.

But that’s the game of surfing. It’s not about being safe. You need to enjoy the challenge and the risk.

So how does this apply to business?

Well, where the rewards are bigger, the competition is often less. That’s why it’s a good idea to aim high. While it may seem easier to go for the mid range, actually it’s tougher, because everyone’s there.

Aim high, and you’ll bypass 80% of your competition.

And now, because there’s really so much in life that I’ve learnt from surfing, here’s a few quick points:

There is no use in getting angry or fustrated at waves.They do what they do. They are a force of nature and couldn’t care less about you.
If it’s really crowded you have two options – get amongst it. OR go find another break
When it comes to the moment when you have to make the drop into the wave – have total commitment. Half-trying to catch a wave is much more dangerous than going all out
Surf with people who are better than you. You’ll learn faster.
Always push your comfort zone. Surf in a waves that scare you.
If a wave is dumping, don’t catch it.
You have to get dumped a few times before you learn to recognize a dumping wave.
Localism (only letting locals surf at a particular break) is only practised by people who have never really traveled.
You can’t catch a wave before it’s about to break. You can’t catch it after it’s broken.
You have to be in exactly the right place at the right time, and be moving in the right direction.
And no two waves are the same.
Never trust a surfer who says they’re “just going for a half hour surf.”

Peaks and Dips

naomi — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 06:05:01 +0000

Here’s a story about Sir Edmund Hillaary: at the top of Mt Everest, he looked around the Himalayas for other peaks to climb.

Just finished re reading Seth Godin’s book ‘The Dip.’ Seth calls them dips, but you could also call them peaks. No one remembers the climbers who got half way up Everest, or three quarters way up. But being the first to the top, well, that’s one for the history books.

But here’s the thing: as soon as you’re at the top, there’s no where else to go but down. And for the smart people, the sooner they look around for other peaks to climb, the better.

And that’s why I liked that story about Sir Ed. He didn’t even wait for his climbing boots to get cold. He figured the best place to look for other peaks to climb was from the top of the highest mountain in the world.

Because, (in his own words) he’d already ‘knocked the bastard off.’

The Rule of Thirds

naomi — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 02:17:58 +0000

This is a rule that exists in photography and painting. It’s used to compose a picture so that it’s pleasing to the eye.

Fortunately (or unfortunately) this rule also exists in marketing.

It goes like this: compose your product or service so that one third of people will love it, be drawn to it. One third of people will have an immediate negative reaction. And the remaining third are more interested in what’s on TV. (Presuming your product isn’t on TV.)

The reason for this compositional rule, is that if you try to please everyone, no one will be interested in your product. You’ll be invisible. Better to go for making one third of people raving fans of your work. And to do this, you’ll end up aggravating some people. That is life.

Guess if this car was designed according to the rule of thirds…

As always, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.