Wow... I haven't posted here in a while. Had a few ideas about what to write - some short, some long - but just didn't get around to it. Funny thing is: I keep telling myself and others that working on something every day, no matter how little time you give it, is important to keep the momentum going.

Seems I still need to work on following my own advice. One of the hardest lessons to learn... It's probably a life-long lesson to be honest. If you say something, you better mean it and should be prepared to prove that you embrace it.

Anyway, this area hasn't been forgotten. New blog posts are on the way!

(Picture from Flickr: Arbre Evolution)

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We often get lost in the details of what we're working on. We concentrate so much on this particular thing and then that particular thing. Before we know it, we're forgetting the bigger picture; we're ignoring the stuff that really matters.

So take a step back. Forget about the details for some time. Do something else, something completely unrelated. Go to people completely ignorant about what you're working on and ask them questions. Listen to them and remember: you've become used to this thing. To you it's the most natural thing in the world and most people understand it. To you it's important, imminently popular and... right.

You might be in for a surprise... and that's a good thing! Zoom out and refresh the overall impression.

(Picture from Flickr: MSVG)

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We have a strategic plan. It's called doing things.

- Herb Kelleher, Southwest Airlines

A friend of mine recently gave me a short article to read concerning corporate strategy and bad strategy in particular. The basic premise is that a lot of bad strategic decisions boil down to lack of clear direction, interpreting tasks as strategy and engaging in pointless word-play. One bank's quoted mission statement was especially amusing (paraphrased): focus on effective customer financial intermediation. In other words, the bank's mission is to be a bank... The article encouraged me to write a bit about this issue, but instead of playing with words I want to give them a bit more structure.

While the term 'tactics' isn't typically used in a business context, the other three terms in this post's title are. The problem is that they are used interchangeably or entirely misused. Here's how I define these four terms:

1. Vision: a particular view of the world as it would be if the product or service is in use. How does a person's life change? How does society change? What new opportunities are created?
2. Goals: a set of events that help the vision become a reality. This could be a product launch, an efficiency improvement or a boost in user numbers. Still abstract, but showing some direction.
3. Strategy: a thought-out plan of possible actions and distinct results that will accomplish the goals. How will you get 10,000 more users within 3 month? When will the new 3rd party system need to be integrated into your current infrastructure? Here is where it gets a lot less abstract. Numbers, diagrams, expectations, orders.
4. Tactics: moment-to-moment adjustment of action based on changing circumstances. The nitty-gritty. The doing, the daily operations. This isn't long-term: this is now, intuitive, based on experience and what feels right given the situation. 

Although the numerical hierarchy between 1 and 4 corresponds to the level of abstraction, I don't see this list as necessarily top-down or bottom-up when it comes to execution. When it comes to it, each 'stage' is reliant on the rest: no point having a vision if you don't have a way to bring it to life; no point just doing stuff without a bigger picture in mind.

However, what's important isn't talking about the definitions and writing stuff down, but - as Herb Kelleher put it - "doing things." At the end of the day, these are just a bunch of words. Where's the action? I think we can all benefit from less talking (both physically and in our minds) and more wilful acting. Not impulsively or doing for the sake of doing, mind you... That's just as destructive!

(Picture from Flickr: john.schultz)

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A friend, business partner and mentor asked me about my view on the current trend of encouraging every co-founder to learn how to code. One might think that because I'm a coder, I would be all for it. However, I look at this in a slightly different way. It's not about whether you - as a co-founder - are able to code and thus craft the app directly. It's about what personal skills and experiences you can put to good use to make everyone's life easier in the project that you're working on.

So instead of figuring out what programming language you need to learn, how to apply what you've learned to the system that's being built, consulting with the already established technical co-founder(s) and spending time tinkering and bug-fixing (trust me, it's tedious), why not figure out what else you can bring to the table. To paraphrase my friend's personal slogan: "how can you help?"

Obviously, if there's no techie on the team you're probably going to have a hard time - no way around that. What I'm talking about are situations where a team gets together and there is at least one technical co-founder. The question there is: should the rest of the team also acquire a degree of technical knowledge? Short answer: no. Don't undervalue skills like quickly finding links and resources online, getting in touch and following up on conversations, putting together a presentation, testing and giving constructive feedback. Given the right context, these are just as important as the ability to code.

It's about the synergy. If two of us get together to start a new project and only one of us is technically-minded, that's not a bad thing. Quite the opposite: I think that's an advantage. There's a lot to be said about the benefits of having multiple points of view. The differences in expertise, background and skills means that not only can each person offer something unique, but they can look at each other's work with unbiased (or at least less biased) eyes. The synergy coming out of such a mix has an emergent quality to it. This is the perspective that doesn't seem to be evangelised.

Now... The short answer is no. The long answer is it depends, because...

There are of course situations where a lack of additional technical knowledge becomes a disadvantage. For example, I spent most of last year working on a project that was roughly 85% built on my effort alone, even though I was working on it with an equal-share co-founder (who is a very good friend of mine). I programmed, he designed. I also brainstormed a lot, did more research and handled most of the legal and financial aspects related to the project (and the company built around it). It's of course down to experience, but we agreed toward the end of the year that we won't carry on this way. Effort and skills need to be distributed a lot more evenly among the co-founders, not only for more efficiency in the overall process but also for mutual satisfaction and respect.

Similarly, a level of understanding regarding a co-founder's job and what his tasks actually involve is a huge bonus. This applies just as much to technical co-founders as non-techies. What I mean by this is that even though you might not know how to create a login script in PHP and hook it up to the database, you know roughly what's involved: the server, the php script which gets data from a form, an html/css page, possibly some javascript and a database which may or may not be MySQL. It is such a plus when this sort of understanding - or even a smaller subset of it - is present among the team members with respect to each other's work. Fewer stupid questions are asked, fewer dangerous assumptions are made and more courtesy is shown.

So, although there's no clear-cut answer, my advice is: discuss and figure out how your co-founders can make life easier for each other. If it involves someone learning some HTML, CSS and maybe Javascript and that is clearly a valuable use of your time - so be it. If not, just make sure the effort from each member is more or less equal and keep asking: "how can I help?"

(Picture from Flickr: Riebart)

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The other day I posted a link on Facebook, sharing the new website that had just gone up for an app that I'm working on (http://goddessalert.com, by the way). After an initial comment from a university buddy of mine wondering how I'd gone from psychology to iPhone app development (I zigzag), the thread turned into a trip down memory lane with another very good friend from the same university. It ended with us arranging to meet in about a month.

What just happened?

How do you go from sharing a website link for an in-development iPhone app to arranging a meeting with a close friend in another country, all in the same comment thread on Facebook? Oh and I forgot to mention: at the time he was available to chat both on Facebook's live chat system and on Skype... This isn't banal. If you think about it, this is akin to planning your birthday party on a display on your microwave while your calendar (paper or digital) is in your pocket.

Something's changed, so gradually and subtly that you can't pinpoint the moment of the irrevocable shift. We're no longer talking about mediums. This is about micro-mediums and ubiquity. Cloud and mobile are the industry buzzwords these days, but (or indeed, because of that) it is easy to overlook the implications of introducing technologies which fundamentally alter the way we are able to do certain things.

(Picture from Flickr: Johan Larsson)

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I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

- Robert Frost

Adventure isn't under the safe glow of house lights and familiar sights.

Treasure isn't on the busy, central city streets.

Don't follow in countless others' footsteps.

Fight the urge to be settle for mediocrity.

Attempt the unimaginable.

Think what others won't.

Be the odd one out.

Ask for the unusual.

Take the road less traveled.

It's worth it.

(Photo from Flickr: dawnhops)

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A toilet is meant to be a place of relief and cleansing. It's even known as a restroom. While plenty of work has been done on decoration, ambience and feature placement, one fundamental flaw exists in pretty much all toilets: you have to pull a handle to exit.

Is it really so complex a thought? You've (hopefully) just washed your hands. You're clean and ready to face the wild world again. What stands in your way? A door. Not a door that you can push with your foot, elbow, hip or shoulder. No: a door that you must pull and for that you need a handle. A handle that you need to grasp. A handle that has been touched by several people before you. A handle that has potentially been (mis)used by individuals who choose not to wash their hands after taking care of business.

Why? Why must I use a tissue or my sleeve as a weapon against the tyrany of user experience oversight? Someone, please, solve this once and for all. Make the world a better place.

(Photo from Flickr: craigmdennis)

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Every passing moment is a new opportunity to learn something new about yourself. Yet another chance to challenge yourself. To improve. While life keeps going, do we? How often do we stop paying attention to the possibilities embedded in every second of our lives?

We take so many things at face value: a simple argument, a coincidental meeting, a habit, a cold, an annoyance, a smile... They're just that, right? No. Every occurrence, however small, has something to say to those involved - if they would only listen.

The unknown frightens and repels us. It is probably something very primal: it is harder to survive in unfamiliar circumstances, thus we should avoid them. That is why routines and habits are so ingrained in human life: they make the world seem more predictable. This, paradoxically, becomes the preferred mode of living even if the routines and habits make life seem unbearably boring. We get stuck and complain about wanting something better. We forget that it is the unknown that teaches us and makes us better, but after a while (a lot sooner than we realise) we stop pushing ourselves into the unknown. 

When we were just starting life as squirming, crying infants wasn't everything unknown and new? As we learned to walk and speak, the world became our playground and lab for experimentation. We laughed and cried freely, ran all over the place, ran some more, wanted to touch and try everything and generally caused our parents to constantly worry and watch over us. Where did this spirit and energy go as we grew up into the people we are today? Surely with more strength, wisdom and experience we would be more capable of looking after ourselves. Doesn't this imply that we should now be more free to play, try and experiment? Yes, we live within large systems and constraints but we also lived within systems and constraints when we were young: playpens, parents' arms, strollers, threats of punishment, refusal of toy and candy purchases and so on. "That can't compare," you might say. Why not? It's all relative. Those were some pretty big restrictions for you back then. When you grew up so did your restrictions, but they're still quite proportional. Don't make excuses.

It's really not hard to kickstart your self-discovery process, but the onus is on you:

1. Embrace the unknown
2. Go outside your comfort zone
3. Pay attention
4. Act with intent
5. Take responsibility

A bit abstract, but the principles really are that simple. We tend to overthink and overcomplicate things because we somehow get it into our heads that complexity is associated with correctness (it could be related to the authority / reputation principle of persuasion). You don't need a school, guru or some "life organisation app" to help you with this. Anyone can do it, right now!

Here are some ideas:

• Start on Monday and for an entire week write down (yes, physically write) every single thing that you do during each day. Be completely honest with yourself - you're not showing this to anyone so include the most embarrassing things as well. Apart from the insights that will be specific to you alone, you may notice a couple of general things: you have some fairly obvious patterns in your life and you have more time than you think if you don't spend as much time on so-called "pass times" and "boredom cures."
• Question the things that you do in life - big and small. I don't mean simply question for the sake of questioning, because that can become a dangerous habit. I mean question things to understand why you're living through them. What causes these situations, what are the goals, what you can do better, etc.
• Next time someone does or says something that annoys or angers you: stop. Stop and think. Why are these feelings swelling up in you? What does being annoyed or angry actually accomplish? More importantly - which part of you disagrees with this? Is it a conscious and deliberate part or a taught and automatic part that is a result of your upbringing and social circles? If it is really the conscious and deliberate part, so be it. If not, maybe there's no reason to get upset after all... There is a saying that everyone is a mirror for ourselves. Don't reinterpret that as an excuse to judge others; use that person and that event as a chance for self-discovery.
• If something goes wrong and you feel compelled to blame someone or something: stop. Were you late because of the traffic jam or because you chose to leave at that specific time and not 10 minutes earlier (regardless of whether or not you knew about the traffic jam)? Like it or not, you made that choice. If you were 'forced' into that choice, figure out which choices led to it.
• As you read this, what's your posture like? Were you even paying attention to it until now? If someone doesn't even pay attention to their own bodily circumstances and sensations, how can they even begin to pay attention to the world around them? More generally: how can you know others before knowing yourself?

Life's lessons are everywhere, all the time. When you start searching for them a whole new world opens up to you.

If you have thoughts on self-discovery and experiences with the unknown, go ahead and leave a comment for others to be inspired.

(Photo from Flickr: nedrichards)

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Like I mentioned in my first post, a week ago I attended the Startup Weekend event in Amsterdam. In brief, it is a 54 hour event where people pitch ideas for new startups on Friday evening, groups are formed around the most popular ideas and then it's (almost) non-stop work to have something to show for the final pitches on Sunday evening. Exactly like it says on the website: "no talk, all action." After participating and loving every moment of it, I'd like to share some thoughts and insights about that experience.

Pitching

On 8th July, Startup Weekend Amsterdam set a record for the European series of events: 78 pitches on stage to get things started. Out of these, around 25 (!!) teams were formed and work began. The amount of creativity that was flowing around that Friday evening was incredible. It was awesome to see that no matter how crazy or simple the idea, people were prepared to get up there and try their luck at getting someone's attention. There were some similar pitches (and these typically joined forces) and at least one ridiculous pitch. I mean: "make the first object visible from space" will earn you some laughs but not serious consideration.

The 60 seconds that you are given to talk about your idea fly by quicker than you may think (ok, technically 61 thanks to James's generous 'Digby Second'). Although it may seem unfair to put such a restriction on what might actually be an incredible and highly innovative idea, consider what you're actually trying to do on stage. Get the idea across. If the idea itself - the very core of it - cannot be explained succinctly in less than 30 seconds, you probably don't know your own idea well enough. And this is why you don't actually need to practice the pitch. I saw (and heard) one guy repeat and tweak his pitch in the corner of the room for like 15 minutes straight. What did he do after that? He ran out of time on stage, didn't manage to form a group and ended up joining one instead. If you've got a great idea, figure out the core experience and what it's solving. The rest will come to you naturally. Unless you're horrible at presenting something to an audience...

Teamwork

When you only have about 10-15 minutes to form your team, it is of course hard to really analyse who will be a good fit and who won't. Whoever likes an idea will typically join the group. As was the case with several groups last week, this results in excess. Do you really need 8 or more people to get something done in a weekend? Highly unlikely. Ultimately, it is of course the responsibility of the group leader to decide who joins, but I think a group member limit (say no more than 6) set by the Startup Weekend crew might have helped to keep teams more efficient. 

Teams were spread out across 3-4 rooms and from what I could tell: group cohesion was as varied as the initial pitch ideas. Fortunately, our group just gelled. Communicative, no arguments, shared concept vision, constant smiles and laughter. A team at a nearby table, on the other hand, was having trouble. It didn't look like they were actually getting something working and they seemed to change concept direction 3 times! Another nearby table just slaved away quietly the entire weekend. Obviously this depends greatly on the group members and their personalities and work tendencies. However, I think that a couple of things can definitely help to make the process smoother: assigning a set of very specific deliverables (not just tasks) to every single person on the team and making sure that there are no obvious discrepancies when the group is being formed.

Development or The Art of Blagging

Funnily enough for an event that consisted primarily of online and mobile startups, many of the final pitches were showing demos that were at least partially faked. Some were mostly faked. What I mean by faked is that although an apparent working interface was being demonstrated and used, behind the scenes it was either a well-executed Powerpoint/Keynote presentation or a pre-scripted set of interactions. And that's not a bad thing at all! Making a prototype doesn't have to mean a low quality front end with a working backend. We're very visual creatures and the more interesting something looks the more likely we are to stay interested in it. Shallow, but hey... So a low quality backend with a high quality front end will definitely make you stand out more. Lesson learned: I wasted at least half a day programming a backend that in the end wasn't even used...

That's not to say you shouldn't program something substantial during those 54 hours. Some projects demand an actual working prototype in the pitch. SNTMT - the Twitter sentiment analysis for stock market predictions - is a clear example. No point pitching something like that with just a pretty UI and no working algorithm (they do have a working algorithm, by the way).

Atmosphere

The atmosphere at the event was amazing. There's something about being in a room with so many other creative, technical, marketing and business-minded startupers that gives me such a buzz. This new blog is partly due to that atmosphere - it inspires and motivates.

Another great aspect of an event like this is that you get to meet so many interesting and like-minded people. New business relationships and friendships can flourish after the event. New opportunities may come up due to the numerous introductions. Don't underestimate the networking factor in your attendance.

I'll end this post by saying that I highly recommend attending a Startup Weekend event if you get the chance. Yes, you'll spend a weekend "working." Yes, you'll probably not sleep very much. The potential benefits far outweigh these trivial downsides. Who knows - you might kickstart the next big thing; there have been plenty of success stories coming out of Startup Weekend. Go for it!

(Photo from Flickr: Eric Wahlforss)

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After several years of adamantly refusing to set up a personal blog, here's my personal blog. :) As often happens (with me at least), this was a pretty spontaneous decision. I recently attended Startup Weekend in Amsterdam - and I'll blog about that shortly - met some awesome people there, learned a lot in the space of 54 hours and got involved in several new ventures as a result. I'm riding high on the wave of ambition and motivation right now and I thought I'd start sharing my thoughts, ideas and experiences on entrepreneurship, life and my own philosophy.

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