Dominique has accrued all the experience to run the business successfully with a background in running her own Family Medicine Clinic and then working under well-respected Halifax dermatologist Dr. Rob Miller, performing botox, lip fillers, coolsculpting, other laser and skin treatments.

Myself on the other hand, not so much. This is a brick and mortar business that sells time as their product. The opposite of working for Shopify, running an online business, or any business I’ve previously invested in. There isn’t a dashboard, a funnel, no stand ups – employees don’t even have email addresses.

It’s an opportunity to see if modern tech start up strategies and techniques can be applied to a local, service based small business without souring the ingredients that made the clinic flourish over the last eighteen years.

I’m excited to see what the next few years look like (and the results from my first botox treatment).

This is one of my favourite ways of explaining how the fundamentals of motivation work and how to maintain a constant stream of it.

As you read the below analogy keep in mind a recent challenge you’ve undertook (diet, business, personal goal).

If you’ve surfed before you know what a challenge your first time on the ocean can be.

First it seems like you’re making large strides of progress as you strut across the cool sand with your board, letting the shallows swallow you up.

Now comes the hardest part: you have to dip a hand into the water, quickly followed by the other hand as you start to paddle against the breaks on your surfboard.

At first it doesn’t seem like your paddling is making any progress. The scenery passes by slowly, the water doesn’t seem to get any deeper, and your arms begin to ache. The only thing you can do is repeat the same systematic motion over and over – blindly hoping that all this effort is somehow worth it.

After what seems like an eternity, and with a little luck, you catch your first wave. What follows is a feeling like no other, you’re on top of the world, the scenery rushes by, adrenaline shoots through your body, and you fight to enjoy every last second.

Then you crash.

And you’re back exactly where you started. You put one hand in the water, and then the other, and start the journey all over again. But this time you know how much fun it’s going to be – you know it’s worth it.

This is what every major achievement feels like to me. Whether it’s graduating high school, earning my black belt, or getting my first sale on my online store.

First I’d feel like I was taking large steps towards my goal – attending the first class, getting my white belt, or registering a domain.

Then you have to paddle: homework every night, brutal sparring sessions, line after line of html/css.

Then you ride that first wave: getting your first A+, graduate to yellow belt, getting that first sale. Suddenly you’re unstoppable.

Motivation doesn’t appear out of thin air. Motivation is a byproduct of a methodical work ethic against the current. Culminating into an amazing reward that you’ll want to repeat over and over.

So the next time you feel like plowing through a box of chocolates watching Oprah reruns try to get some small task related to your goal completed, then do the next small thing, eventually you’ll find yourself surrounded with opportunities crashing down on you and you’ll love every second of it.

(photos are from a trip to Manu Bay, New Zealand where I learned how to surf)

Every screen in your life is high resolution, your “retina” phone, your tablet, even your e-reader rocks pixels you can’t see. Except your monitor. The thing you probably stare at most is low res compared to the mobile gadgets of today.

What is 4k? In most cases 4k, retina, UHD, all mean a specific resolution (usually 3840 x 2160) meaning your eye can’t easily discern between the pixels (the little dots that make up the LCD screen), so your screen renders text smoothly and photos have more depth than the girl you met at the bar last weekend.

It might be easier to think of it in megapixels. Most monitors today is around 2 megapixels, 4k is 8 megapixels, and 5k is 14 megapixels. For reference your iPhone takes 8 megapixels photos, a Nikon SLR takes 24 megapretzals.

Why 4k

The 4k is like the visual jump from VHS to DVD, it’s revolutionary and your eyes won’t want to go back.

The biggest difference is text. You can no longer see the jagged edges around the letters on your screen. The image below shows a 13″ Macbook Pro  (220dpi), vs a 27″ 4k (160 ppi -blurry photo), vs a 27″ 2560×1440 (109 dpi)

Can you actually run 4k

If you bought your computer before 2014, probably not. Late 2013 15” Macbook Pro , new 2014 mac mini, late 2013 iMac can all run 4k and if you bought a newer graphics card with display port you probably can as well.

It isn’t a question of how powerful your graphics card is, it’s a question whether you not have a display port (version 1.2). HDMI does not support 4k properly rendering it at an unacceptable 30Hz instead of 60Hz.

That top of the line 2014 13” Macbook Pro you bought for $2k? Nope can’t run an external 4k.

So you can run 4k, now which LCD to buy

Personally, I wanted a monitor that had VESA mounting so I could put it on a monitor arm, along with an IPS display (great viewing angles and color reproduction), light AG coating (no sparkles), 100% sRGB coverage and keep it under $1k, because in a few years these things will cost less than $300.

Unfortunately they’re not a lot of options on the market in January 2015.

27” 5k iMac – The most bang for your buck. A 4k display will cost around $1000 and you’re getting a great computer for a premium price.

30”-32” 4k displays – You’re not getting a sharp display in this case. Since you’ll get around 137ppi at 4k resolution with 32” and that’s not enough to be “retina” depending on how close you sit to your screen. Plus they all seem to suffer from visual faults like backlight leaking and color shifting especially the BenQ BL3201 PT. I’d wait for 5k displays to start rolling out before going 30”+.

27”-28” 4k displays – Majority of them are TN panels, which suck for graphic design, movies, and pretty much anything else with color. There are slew of 4k 27” IPS displays coming in 2015 like the BenQ BL2711U,HP Z27s, Asus PG27AQ and PB279Q.

There is onyl one monitor that ticks all the boxes and is available for order today, the Dell P2715Q a 27” IPS. It fits all the criteria and the only draw back is that it’s ugly. Dell ugly. Its regular price is $750 CAD – and that’s a bargain compared to the competition.

Dell P2715Q Review

So far I’ve returned all of my Dell displays, Dell 2407WFP had dead pixels, the U2711 with its disco ball anti-glare coating. I ordered the P2715Q with the intention that it’s probably going back to a lonely, cold warehouse in Etobicoke.

To set my expectations even lower the P2715Q is not even their high end “graphic design quality” line of displays, they are usually emblazoned with an “ultrasharp” emblem and have a “U” in their product line ups.

Opening up the box and you’ll find a test sheet from the factory of your new monitor. It also shows you the delta values and backlight uniformity. You’ll also notice this thing is pleasantly light, especially compared to the Apple Cinema Display which is heavier than Kanye’s ego.

I plugged it into my Mac Pro’s GeForce 750 TI’s display port and the setup went smoothly. First thought: this thing is sharp. I’ve seen the 5k iMac at the Apple  store and this thing is damn close. You can no longer see the pixels that comprise a font and editing photos is spectacular. It’s like paper.

More first impressions:

• No dead or stuck pixels.
• IPS glow is noticeable, but the Apple Cinema Display is slightly worse.
• Uniform display. No bright patches or light leakage.
• Anti-glare isn’t bad at all. There is some (as with any matte panel), but it doesn’t bother me. It’s not sparkly like the u2711.
• Good viewing angles. Exactly what you’d expect from previous gen IPS tech, pretty much the same as the ACD.
• Display is slightly on the warmer side. Makes my Apple Cinema display look cold.
• Build quality is terrible. Plastics flex when you tilt the monitor.
• Design is ugly with a poor finish. My 2005 17” Dell’s are exactly the same style as this 2015 model.

If you’re coming from an Apple Cinema Display then you’re going to miss a lot of the nice to haves like auto dim, webcam, brightness controls from your keyboard. You do get a power button with the Dell which the Apple left out.

Verdict: I’m keeping it,at least until the 8k 32″ curved displays roll out.

*Note for hardcore gamers: If you game on your monitor you’ll have to wait after Q2 2015 to get a display that runs above 60hz and you’ll have to buy a display port 1.3 compatible GPU.

**Note to Mac Pro users: You’ll have no trouble running 4k, 5k or 8k because nvidia makes drivers for the 2008-2012 mac pro towers so you can throw any video card in there. Mac Pro 2013 guys, you’re good for 4k at 60hz, but you can’t go beyond 4k.

***A special note to Macbook pro 13”
I tried hooking this up to a late 2013 macbook pro and it didn’t work. It just used 2560×1440 which is not 4k. 15” macbook pro users can drive 4k however.

I’ve tried every to do app and this is the only method that has stuck.

First grab a good multi-device notetaking app (Evernote, Simple Note, or IAWriter)

Make new note and call it “Today”

Write down the current date, and separate tasks into categories, something like:

• Office
• Personal
• Side Hustle

Create a new heading for the date and copy the 3 categories. Then write down each task you need to complete today.

As you go through your day cross each one off and feel the stream of dopamine trickle through your synapses. Tomorrow, create a new heading for the date and copy the 3 categories along with anything you didn’t get crossed off.

This is my favourite system because:
1) Since it’s just one big document you can easily see what you’ve done 3 weeks ago
2) Your tasks aren’t in a proprietary app
3) Since previous days tasks are carried over you’ll realize that some tasks aren’t very important and eventually be removed (natural selection)

Tips

1. Don’t put an impossible to complete amount of tasks for each day – you just won’t want to look at your list
2. Use a calendar if the task has a specific time/date. Ex: Pick up groceries for friday, put winter tyres on saturday.
3. Every morning/the previous night run through your list, if there is too much put a future date and time in your calendar to tackle it.

Enjoy!

In early September Shopify kicked out all of it’s employees out of it’s Ottawa office. This forced 400 chefs, office managers, and c-levels to work remotely until the new office was ready.

When Tobi announced the challenge it was met with a wave of excitement. For many this was an opportunity to test their geography as Shopifians worked from remote towns tucked away in the Icelandic fjords to shipping code while dipping toes in the sun soaked Canary Islands.

Working remotely sounds like a great on paper with no interruptions, sleeping in as long as possible, and working at your leisure. After all, Shopify was born “working remotely” in a tiny coffee shop with no lease to its name.

You’ll learn a lot remotely, but these were my biggest annoyances with the remote challenge.

 You need your setup.

Designing without a mouse and large lcd is less productive than typing with two fingers. The Bose noise cancelling headphones (QC25) were the star of the show, enabling you to hammer out code while my landlord played with his new table saw outside my front door.

Personal life and work was blurred

Some days you’ll work 10 hours, some days you’ll work 5. The concept of “work being over” is something that doesn’t really happen when you’re remote.

 No spontaneous conversations.

Large companies like Shopify thrive on spontaneous interactions within the office. Bumping into a person at lunch, while grabbing coffee, or in the hallway, are opportunities to understand what problems other people are solving. At home you’re working in your own personal bubble.

The majority of who I asked about their remote experience didn’t enjoy it, especially those on a manager’s schedule. People on the maker’s schedule (designers, devs, etc) thrived with their uninterrupted runways of time, but without a concrete feedback loop the benefits began to crumble.

But the remote test was still totally worth it.

I discovered the most valuable thing at Shopify is working with amazing people around you in an office. Working remotely severs the energy between me and my team – all the laughter, the frustrations, and the high-fives, all dissipates when you’re at home with no pants on.

–

btw the new office is amazing (photos by Annette)

Transportation

You need to rent a car. There is one main road going right around the country, the ring road (route 1), and it only takes about 14 hours to get around the whole thing.

Rental car and fuel costs about twice it does in North America. I paid 57$ a day for my 2wd Nissan, which had the turning circle of a beached whale and the power of an aesthmatic ant.

You’re going to spend a ton of time in your car so don’t skimp out and end up with a Ford Ka. Most of Iceland roads require you to have a 4×4 and the locals will tell you off for driving on them with 2wd. As a solo travel I couldn’t afford to pay for an SUV and the gas prices to go with it.

Only other driving tips are watch out for any big balled sheep, speed camera fines for 30km over are like $300, and gravel roads are deathly for compacts (feels like you’re driving on butter at 100km/h – the speed limit is 80km/hr).

Where to take pictures in Iceland

Landscape photography is the hardest genres of photos. You’re at the mercy of crowds, golden light, and mother nature. Getting a photo in Iceland really just boils down to you pointed the camera in the right direction at the right time and mastering the clone tool to blot out any brightly colored tourist.

Majority of the postcard sights are just off the Ring Road so it makes drive by shooting really easy. I made a rough map with all the places I wanted to see in the 7 days.

Top 5 favourite places to take photos were:

– Iceberg lake but a photographer like yourself will have more fun at the beach than the actual lagoon.
– Kafla Lava fields are amazing if you get overcast clouds with texture or go at golden hour.
– Vestrahorn, spend your time hunting the perfect compsure in the black sand dunes.
– Don’t stick to the major attractions. One of the best feeling was being out all by yourself exploring unchartered trails.
– Make northern lights your focal point, they’ll make 3/10 photos 9/10.

It’s really easy to miss some of these gems, so pay attention to the little celtic knot sign post on the side of the road that mark major sights. Knowing the GPS coordinates is also a great idea, because trip advisor and google maps are less relevant than a Facebooks privacy policy and who wants to type out Svalbarðsstrandarhreppur with your thumbs anyway.

Northern lights are easy to take photos of, what’s hard is
getting the focus right. Here are the top tips for taking photos of space waves:

– Bring a high powered flash light (if it doesn’t come with a warning label on it then it’s not powerful enough enough). This lets you autofocus in pitch black.
– If you don’t have a flash light just shoot and adjusting your focus manually until you nail it
– Star trails are your enememy! Remember the 500/focal length = # of seconds you can do without star trails. 24mm ~ 20s of exposure.
– Bring a telephoto along for the ride as well
– Get ready to be fast, northern lights can disappear in seconds
– Don’t chase Northern lights, research during the day, sit and wait and reflect on your life’s regrets.

Weather

Weather is king in Iceland. Go where the nice weather is if you’re travelling in the autumn. Sure the clouds provide a moody backdrop, but when it rains it makes any long exposures difficult when you’re wiping your front element every 10 seconds. Plan your trip spontaneiously or risk participating in a wet t-shirt contest every single day.

Late September weather can be especially wet and wild, 80% of the time it was overcast for me. Bring a decent coat, gloves that you can work your camera in, something to cover your camera with (ball cap) and pick up a few icelandic swear words.

The good news is the Northern lights are in town. Use this website to get the cloud cover and a forecast http://en.vedur.is/weather/forecasts/aurora/. The problem isn’t seeing the northern lights in late september, it’s getting a clear sky. They pop out of no where and are one of the most spectacular things you’ll see in your life (and I’ve see a baby penguin get dropped 40ft from the sky).

Equipment

Nikon D600 with 3 lenses.

[ photo of equipment ]

D600 – You don’t need a great camera body. The only important part is the ISO level, dynamic range, and how many megapretzels it has (remember that a 27” Retina display is 14 megapixels).

16-35mm VR f/4 – I hate this lens. It isn’t sharp, it’s heavy, and it’s only good around 22-26mm. Don’t even think of using it at 35mm. Bokeh is balls. That being said you don’t have much choice from Nikon, it’s sharper than the 28mm 1.8, less sharper than the 14-24mm, better than the 24-70mm 2.8 in the 24mm area (esp. the corners). If the new 20mm 1.8 is kosher then I’ll be replacing that with this. Used the 16-35mm begrudgingly for 90% of my shots.

35mm f/1.8 FX – Great lens. Sharp, light, but you’ll never use it in Iceland because it’s not wide enough and you’ll rarely shoot at 1.8. Maybe for Northern Lights, but you can just bump up your ISO.

70-200mm f/2.8 VR2 – Completely uncessary in Iceland, I brought it to take puffins, but they fly away in the late summer. Wish I brought my 85mm f/1.8 instead and saved my back.

B+W 10x ND MLC filter – Loved this – It makes your waterfalls creamy even in broad daylight. Can’t believe I haven’t picked one up before this trip.

Essential accessories: A camera remote (for beyond 30s exposure), a great tripod with a bit of heft (windy), a really great hiking camera bag (Mindshift Panarama), infrared remote for northern lights, at least 5 microfibre cloths.

Things I never used: 1.7x teleconverter, black rapid rs-sport strap, 35mm 1.8 ED, kenko tubes, 77mm polarizer.

Things I wished I had done before I left
– Turn on highlights on image review so you know if something got blown out (histograms are hard to read)
– I shoot raw, but Iceland is one of those places you might want to give HDR or bracketing a go because it’s so tough to get the entire landsacpe in expsure
– If you have a 10x or 9x ND filter don’t forget to cover your view finder or else this will happen

People

People in Iceland are friendly, but appreciate how you would feel if your country was overrun by tourists most of the year. They speak English better than I can, but still took the time to learn a few small icelandic words.

With a population only 200,000 people outside of the capital you probably won’t get a chance to meet too many genuine icelanders except if you do Airbnb.

Where to stay

Stay away from hostels. They’re a dump (esp. Skógar and Hofn) and charge $10 for linens on top of $30 for the stay. For $20 more you can get a room on AirBnb and stay with a cool icelander even if they have 19 cats.

I booked all my AirBnbs the day of, worse comes to worse you sleep in your car and catch a northern lights show.

Consider camping, if you’re one with nature and don’t mind a little wet.

Food

Restaurants are hard to come across, especially in late September in the small towns. If you do find one they are quite expensive. There are little gas stations with gruely food, but you’re best off grocery shopping and making sandwhiches. Nuts, cheese, and lego are particularly expensive in Iceland.

All in All

Iceland is one of the few places I’d like to visit again. Itrivals the beautify of New Zealand with a hint of isolation of Antarctica. Plus Icelandair has got some pretty sweet deals (I paid around 1k to go to Heathrow w/ 7 day stop over to Iceland). The sparse population combined with the seemlingly untouched beauty will leave an impression even on your big city concrete heart.

A balloon ride during the festival goes for around $250, which is a little pricey considering you can fly to Turkey for around $700 and the view is slightly more spectacular.

What is good process?

Tobi (CEO of Shopify) sat down with the Toronto office today dropped one of those nuggets. When asked “What is good process”, he defined it simply as:

Good process is turning something that wasn’t possible into something possible.
Good process is turning something that was possible into something easier.

Most companies will throw all sorts of process at problems, including the infamous “weekly meetings”. You’ve also probably heard of other more trendy processes like retrospectives, weekly syncs with team leads, 1 on 1s, performance reviews, demos, kickoffs, peer reviews, sprints, etc. Not all processes are inherently bad – even weekly meetings can be a useful tool if done right, but it’s important to constantly question the value of the process.

If you’re responsible for a team of people in the company you’ll perpetually tweak your process to fit your team and the problem you are trying to solve. This is why I liked Tobi’s advice; it’s a solid benchmark for an abstract mechanism like process.

Let’s do an example together:

The initial 10 people at Shopify got lots of Tobi time. We could ask him to pair program, feedback on a mock up, or to describe his perfect Sunday afternoon. When we hit 20 people he couldn’t spend time with everyone as much.

So there is our problem that a process could solve: Shopify was too big for the CEO to meet with everyone and answer all their questions whilst bestowing morsels of pansophism among the troops.

Our first “process” was for Tobi to hold “office hours”. Tobi would leave his door open and you could stroll in and ask him about how the funding was going or discuss the finer points of currywurst.

Did it make something possible that was previously not possible? Yes, anyone at Shopify now had access to Tobi time.

But office hours wasn’t scalable after we hit 50 or so people. It took an entire afternoon of Tobi’s time during a very busy time in Shopify.

Our second “process” was to try an “all hands meeting”. Basically we would meet in the lobby and discuss things. Sometimes there was a presentation, sometimes a new VP/exec would introduce himself, and there was always time for questions.

Did this process turn something that was possible into something easier? Yes, it was easier to ask Tobi questions in this environment. With the added bonus of hearing other people’s questions and a more efficient time block (about an hour).

But when we hit 90 people we physically didn’t have room anymore.

So we tried our third process: AMAs (or ask my anythings). We would submit questions and vote them up/down reddit style. Suddenly everyone again could ask Tobi anything they wanted to. On the last friday of every month we’d get together and read the questions.

Did this process turn something that was possible into something easier? Yes, the quality of the questions were even better than the all hands discussions and with a new feature of being able to ask them anonymously (although rarely used).

However, AMAs still bears one significant flaw: the questions come from the bottom up. It relies on us to ask the right questions and doesn’t facilitate a two way conversation.

So next time you’re holding that weekly meetings ask your self 2 things:

Am I turning something that wasn’t possible into something possible?
Am I turning something that was possible into something easier?

So I decided to take some of the notes I wrote down from various books in 2013; things I wish I would always remember.

The media is obsessed with the destination and not the journey, which is exactly why Chris Hadfield’s 304 page “Astronauts Guide to Life On Earth”‎ was just a joy to read. It focuses on how Commander Hadfield made his way up from a farm in rural Canada to the stars.

Book notes:

The skill set for being an astronaut in space is actually quite simple. It’s nothing you couldn’t do like fixing toilets or packing. The challenge is becoming a jack of all trades in language, psychology, rocket science, piloting, mechanics and so much more.

Hadfield formula for success (revolves around the journey becoming more important the the destination)

• Learn all necessary skills for the challenge
• Pictures the most demanding challenge
• Visualize how to realize the challenge
• Practice that challenge until you become comfortable

Don’t go into work thinking you’re a good astronaut. Go into work thinking you’re good astronaut material. Embrace an “always learning” work ethic.

You’re always getting ahead if you are learning. Even if you stay on the same “rung” (title, salary range etc). Job titles are purely for administration purposes.

Fear is simply a synonym for “without knowledge”. If you understand the problem high-stress situations will evaporate. Look at how intimidating it was to open an online store for the first time, now it’s a piece of cake.

Early success is a bad teacher. You’re being rewarded for lack of prep. That’s why it’s so dangerous to think just because you’re an early Shopify employee you are somehow “special”.

Hadfield is a living legend. The guy did a spacewalk while blinded by detergent, passed out for 16 seconds while flying a jet fighter, and even had a live bee stuck in his visor when in formation with 3 other planes.

NASA evaluate an astronaut’s behaviour and social skills by asking people that don’t “work” with them. Relying on the opinions of facility staff like nurses. Shopify does this occasionally with guru interviews.

No question is stupid. He once poured liquid down a seemingly normal sink only to wreck havoc on the entire buildings plumbing system. Send Tobi, Adam, etc a quick email before you make a seemingly simple routine, but impactful decision.

Great framework for categorizing people. You’re either a -1, 0, or +1. People that are +1s don’t tell people they’re plus one. Aim to be a zero, until you naturally become a +1.

Don’t sail into a situation and make your presence known. Ingress without causing a ripple. Aim for a neutral impact. Aiming to be a zero is always an easy goal.

Seek to learn not to impress.

Rating 4/5 | ★★★★☆