My career evolved from a love of contradictory disciplines. I was a physics major my first year of college but emerged with a Fine Arts degree. I have always been drawn to the visual arts, and equally so, more analytical disciplines like engineering. Design planning is a platform for my creative and investigative curiosities.

2) What is design research, how can a person be trained for it and what makes a good design researcher?
Design research is a way of understanding how people engage with products and brands so that we can design experiences that are more relevant, rewarding and successful. For businesses, design research and strategy can create a more tuned-in view of one’s customers, a new way to see or use customer insights, and grounded ideas for improving the brand, product, service or retail experience delivered.

A good design researcher knows how to apply many different research methods (quantitative, qualitative, ethnographic) towards understanding an industry, category or consumer. But, also tends to emphasize ethnography (digital and traditional) to explore what is culturally, socially and emotionally influencing people’s perceptions, connections and relationships.

Today, there are several educational programs offering design research and strategy training. My alma mater, Institute of Design at Illinois Institute of Technology, offers graduate programs that fuse the disciplines of design and business through intense study in design planning, user-centered design research, communications, product design, marketing, accounting, organizational behavior and strategy.

3) There has been a debate out there about the sustainability of user-centered design practice and how it could actually be stifling creativity and innovation. What is your take on that?
I simply believe it’s beneficial to consider what people care about and how they experience their world before you produce something different, better, or wildly new for them (within the context of other approaches to insight and evaluation, of course). Naturally, I feel the debate over the sustainability of user-centered design is more about how it is applied than whether it is valuable.

To move the debate forward, I’d like to see us first clarify what influences the success of user-centered design, as it’s not just a collection of tools, rather, a set of values. Similarly, it’s not just about investing more dollars into user research, but valuing human needs and aspirations in the context of meaningful design.

Some leading questions that would help clarify what these influencers are for any organization: Is the culture art or science driven (or, brand or product driven)? Do the organization’s processes make room for creativity as well as evaluation? When is proof required for innovation?

As someone who’s been hired to figure out how user-centered design is valued within organizations and create new processes and teams to support it, I know that it requires much commitment, rigor and investment to support. To see its evolution over the last decade has been so rewarding and I hope the debates and critical thinking only continue to advance, diversify and create new standards for the field.

4) Did you have any mentors? If you did, who were they? What were their advices to you?
Larry Keeley (Doblin Group) gave me the foundation I needed to pursue a career in design planning and the skills and confidence to bring strategic design thinking to any problem or industry.

Vishwa Marwah (Tattoo) taught me that inspiration comes in all forms, and that understanding the context for design is as important as the design itself.

Christopher Ireland and Davis Masten (Cheskin) taught me that brilliance didn’t need to be backbreaking, but a good idea was nothing if it wasn’t embraced or acted on.

5) Name top 3 entrepreneurs/leaders/designers that you admire the most and why.
That’s a tough question. I try to look for the best, most inspired things about everyone I meet. I don’t have idols. Instead, just try to focus on keeping an open mind, seeing things differently, and acknowledging the successes in everyone and every situation.

6) Can you suggest your favorite books?
My reading tastes are varied. I rarely read business books.
A classic I love:
- I turn to Christopher Alexander’s “Pattern Language” for inspiration about design, planning and systems thinking.
Titles on my bookshelf right now:
- “The Nightlife of Trees” is a brilliantly illustrated children’s book from Tara Publishing (India) by Durga Bai, Bhajju Shyam and Ram Singh Urveti.
- “Golden Gate Gardening” by Pam Peirce is helping me design and build an urban garden in our very small San Francisco.
- “Ad Hoc at Home” is my current bible for cooking, peace and harmony within the home. A great foundational cookbook.

7) What is the difference between good and great design?
Good design dramatically improves the experience for the user. Great design does this while inspiring others to be better designers.

8) How do you define a good leader?
A good leader inspires, motivates and sets the tone for success while clearly defining it, then relies on her team to translate those aspirations into brilliance and deliver on them in ways she couldn’t have anticipated.

9) What makes you happy?
Learning about random subjects, working with my hands, feeling a true sense of accomplishment, making the people in my life happy and spending good time with my family.

10) Can you tell us, what you are working on next?
I am slowly but surely committing more of my time to a fun new fashion business venture, but for the foreseeable future I’m happy continuing to help my clients with their design and innovation goals.

2) What makes your company unique and different in your industry and your country?
To succeed as an integrated shop you have to have a common starting point, and for us it’s the One Thing people need to experience in order to get them to do, think or feel what we want them to. Once you have that insight, developing ideas and creating impact with integrated solutions is much easier, because it helps you get to, and stay focused on, useful simplicity.

3) Did you have any mentors? If you did, who were they? What were their advices to you?
I can name two mentors in the business. The first is Mark Pigott, a local ad legend with whom I worked at Ogilvy, who taught me to pick the top five things I really don’t want to do and do them first. My current mentor is Chris Bedford, our CEO, who taught me the value of applying design thinking to any strategic challenge.

4) Name top 3 entrepreneurs/leaders/designers that you admire the most and why.
I admire Roger Martin for how he is infusing design thinking at the Rotman School of Business. I am a huge fan of Bose sound systems for their continual innovation, and I love pretty much everything Porsche designs.

5) Can you suggest your favorite books?
“The Design of Business” by Roger Martin for creating a workable framework for applying design thinking in the real world. “Truth, Lies and Advertising” by Jon Steele for driving home the power usable customer insights have in getting to useful simplicity.

6) What is the difference between good and great design?
Good design makes you say, “Wow that is gorgeous.” Great design makes you say, “How did I live without this before?”

7) How do you define a good leader?
A good leader is nothing more, or less, than someone who has followers. That has nothing to do with position or title. It has to do with an emotional connection, which is why some organizations are not actually lead by the top of the org chart.

8) What is the design scene like in Canada?
It’s great. This is a pretty artsy country and there is a fair bit of public support for the arts community. Not to mention the fact that most of our metropolitan centers are near some sort of nature, so it’s a great draw for designy types.

9) What makes you happy?
Seeing young talented staff grow professionally, making my kids laugh, and laying down a low, deep bass groove.

10) If you were not a designer (or in the design business), what would you want to be?
A professor.

I love the fact that all these fun people were so friendly! You could just walk up to them and ask to take photos and they smile happily with excitement!

I discovered origami as a child, but rediscovered it in college while I was at UC Davis, getting my bachelors in Business Economics. In between completing my courses, I had a desire to develop a unique skill set. Reading a 500-page book wasn’t attractive since I was already reading a lot during college, painting was an expensive art, and by sifting through the self imposed constraints, I discovered origami all over again.

I first practiced from an origami book, and then I realized that origami had certain constraints, which I addressed when I created my line of origami kits and in Girligami.

Cindy Ng, author of Girligami

2) What is Origami design? What are the key distinctive features/ elements that define “origami” design?
Origami is taking a pliable material (paper, plastic, fabric, stainless steel), following a series of folds, and transforming it into a 3 dimensional model. Definitions of what qualifies as an origami design is subjective as it is relatively new field even though it has a rich history dating back to second century ad. The definition of origami will differ from designer to artist to scientist. I would call myself a liberal origami designer, as I believe that one should be allowed to create a few cuts or glue for a more dramatic effect. As long as you are folding 95% of the time, I would say it is origami.

3) Where do you see Origami design heading? What is its future?
If you’ve had the opportunity to watch Vanessa Gould’s award winning film, Between the Folds, you’ll realize origami’s limitless possibilities and it is only just the beginning. There are scientists working on algorithms in constructing origami models for cars and space exploration. In today’s fashion, you’ll see many origami-inspired tops, dresses and even shoes. I try to log all the different applications on origamiblog.com whenever I see origami applied as a source of inspiration or scientific exploration.

Cindy's Origami Bijou Collection

4) Name top 3 entrepreneurs/leaders/designers that you admire the most and why.
Entrepreneur: Stewart Levine. I met Stewart in masters swimming while I was living in California. He is a trained attorney who is a master at assisting individuals reach resolution when conflict arises. I admire him because he approaches anything he does with passion and is great at what he does. He taught me the phrase: “Don’t Throw The Baby Out With the Bath Water”

Leader: Igor Dyachenko. Igor is my Karate Sensei, a highly accomplished visionary who encourages everyone around him to reach his or her full potential. I admire him because he best exemplifies the phrase, “Lead by example”

Origami Designer and Scientist: Erik Demaine. I don’t know him personally, but I admire his brilliance and dedication to the world of paper folding.

Origami design by Erik Demaine

5) Can you suggest your favorite books?
on conflict management: “Getting to Resolution”by Stewart Levine
on leading a meaningful life: “A Guide to the Good Life” by William Irvine
on technology and business: “The Innovator’s Dilemma” by Clayton Christensen

6) What is the difference between good and great design?
Good design shouldn’t exist. Why would you create something good, when you can create something great? Great design is designing with purpose, meaning, sustainability, and beauty in mind. Great design should also intrigue and inspire.

7) How do you define a good leader?
There are many things that define a good leader, but consistent qualities I see in a successful leader is one who has great professional and personal relationships, flexible, strategic, self sacrificing, ethical, and inspiring.

8) Can you tell us, what you are working on next?
I finished my second book proposal earlier this year and getting the details sorted out. Right now I’m working on a kite design competition.

9) What makes you happy?
Many things: being self aware, having solid/open/supportive relationships, sharing meaningful/fun/new experiences with individuals I adore, eating good food, practicing karate, enjoying nature, and working on my life goals.

10) If you weren’t doing Origami design, what would you be doing?
We’re in a really exciting period of time where we can create anything we envision. But if I can go back in time, I would have majored in exercise science so that I could dedicate my life to the sports and health field because right now I have an obsession with health. Then at night, I would teach and/or practice karate.

Elite Handball Players. Carina on the very right.

I’ve always wanted to specialize, so when I was a teenager, I chose to be an athlete. I came into my present profession quite late, so you can say I am a beginner within this field (10 years experience).

2) What is Swedish design? What are the key distinctive features/ elements that define “Swedish” or “Scandinavian” design? Any difference between the two?
I like the question even though it is hard for myself to tell you what makes Swedish design special. Scandinavian design (Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway) is what you can say “Less is More”. Very clean and functional if you compare to American design, which I think is more emotional and sometimes a bit romantic. There are differences between the Scandinavian countries: Sweden is very functional, Denmark has subtle nuances and is more vivid, Finland is comparable with Sweden. Norway suffers from too many knitted pullovers, but they still have a lot to offer. The common thing between all countries is that Scandinavian design is clean and crisp.

Swedish Design

3) Name top 3 entrepreneurs/leaders/designers that you admire the most and why.

Steve Jobs for his intuition, Ingvar Kamprad for his human touch and economical approach. I don’t have a designer in mind, but I choose an artist instead; Salvador Dalí for his madness and aesthetic qualities.

4) Can you suggest your favorite books?
“Ways of Seeing” by John Berger and “Design as Art” by Bruno Munari. For personal reading, “Kafka on The Shore” by Haruki Murakami.

5) What do you think of “American” design?
It is hard to tell because I haven’t gotten the whole picture yet. If I think about America spontaneously, I think about the 50′s style, which is really boring. It feels like going backwards instead of looking into the future. But I think we have the same problem in Sweden with nostalgia.
 The design in America is not so modern. It’s more about the value of brand which makes it difficult to talk about the surface. But if you get into details, you can figure out some differences when comparing us. For example; Americans use more serifs in doing signage and in Scandinavia (Europe) we have a preference for sans serifs. This is the US romantic style where Scandinavia is more functional. We are more connected to humanity and nature, and in America you are more connected to business.

6) What is the difference between good and great design?
Good design is when it works and great design is when it creates something more. Something memorable.

7) How do you define a good leader?
An empathic confident person who is open-minded and has the courage to listen to other people, a person who gives you the feeling of being safe even though she/he don’t have all the answers. Nobody has all the answers. I hate leaders who become teachers and make use of his/her position to exercise control. We are all grown ups so we should all be on the same level no matter what kind of role we have.

8) What is the design scene like in Sweden? (You can talk about the trends. or if there are many young talents, any great design agencies there? Or do most migrate to the US, or UK. What are the trends…and what’s the future of design in Sweden?)
I begin with the last question; the future in Sweden looks great. We have everything to succeed though Sweden is a society which today is built upon the engineering knowledge. It is a great foundation to build on. And we have a lot of really talented designers. All are talented because of their own interest and their own effort. In the past, we designers had to go to private schools to get our education and it was expensive. Not everyone could afford it and not everyone had the talent to get through the exams.

In the last couple of years, our design education changed. It is now more competitive. You can’t be just a designer/ artist, you have to be more than that. The next step is to know business, and how to use design to differentiate the outcome. In Sweden everything looks alike today. We are a bit surface-oriented, and good ideas are copied between companies and brands just because it looks good. Many business leaders want to copy instead of choosing something that is unique for his/her business. And designers haven’t figured out yet how to make the customer feel secure in trying something new. I think many designers are fed up with that so some go to other countries. When they come back they are highly sought after by design agencies.

This effect is peculiar because you can still be the same designer as you were before you went. The only difference is that you had the opportunity to practice what you already knew…in a foreign country. 

We have some agencies that I think are great*, but still I miss the ones you can find in America, where the knowledge of business and branding are important. In Sweden we say that we know branding, but we don’t.

CarrierCarrier Brand Identity by Ohlsonsmith

Ohlsonsmith – This agency has a lot to offer when it comes to the aesthetic part. Barbro, whom is the founder and creative director, is a real artist. The ground platform for this agency is emotional design, which is great if you are going to build brands.

9) What makes you happy?
When I am in the middle of something and forget about time.

10) If you were not a designer, what would you want to be?
There aren’t any other options.

Carina at Autodesk HQ in San Francisco

Some other cool Sweedish designers and agencies:
Hjartasmarta – These two girls were in my school. A year behind me and I envy them (in a good way). They have found a unique genetic code together. It is very special. Their collaboration is everything and for that I respect them a lot. Imagine to find a person that brings out the best of you……

Happy – An award-winning and big agency.

Essen – A brand + design agency

Kontrapunkt – A danish one..:)

1) Tell us what you do?
I originally graduated in Marketing and Branding but my background is quite complex. I started as a freelance interaction designer back in 1997, working in the interactive media industry before the dot com crash. After that I moved to project management, mainly in service oriented implementations. I had the opportunity to work in New York, managing implementations and customers in South America, and then I moved to Africa for 2 years.

In Africa I worked on huge third sector projects for the government of Angola. I had an amazing, once-of-a-lifetime experience in Africa. I will never forget all the crazy stuff I did with my friends, to keep ourselves busy in a country which at that time, had no retail stores or movie theaters to catch the latest releases.

Through my car window on a normal day, driving to the office.

My birthday in Africa…a surprise party.

When I returned from Africa, I got a project management role with Bayer, and worked there for two years before leaving to start my own company, which has recently become part of the Live|Work family.

2) Share with us what made you become a business owner/ entrepreneur. What makes your business unique and different in your industry and your country.

I think I carry business in my heart. I couldn’t envision myself working as just an employee for a company for my entire life.
It all started with a soccer ball…I used to live on a suburban neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro. Things were very simple at that time; if you have a soccer ball or if your friend has one, then you were guaranteed to be a FUN, cool guy to play with. One summer day, when I was thirteen, my friends and I were playing a soccer game called “the fool”. It’s a game where one person is running after the ball and two or more players are making this guy look like a fool by dodging him.

Somehow, during our fun “fool” game, our soccer ball landed in a house of a lady who sold “sacole”, a brazilian home-made ice cream, for a living. Let me tell you, this lady was NOT happy with our ball in her house. We weren’t surprised about what happened next. She came out, took the ball inside and punctured MY ball. I was furious! But something came over me. Instead of cursing and kicking, I concocted an “evil” plan.

THE “EVIL” PLAN
The plan was to put this sacolé lady out of business! We went to the grocery store and bought as many fruits and ingredients needed to make the best sacolé ever and to sell them at half the price. Of course, we didn’t have any money, so all the purchases were put on my grandma’s tab. Since my unknowing grandma was our VC, our little business began booming! Our “revenge-business” plan was a great success! We were taking over the neighborhood sacolé business!

Soon, the lady came knocking on my grandma’s door. She expressed regrets having damaged my soccer ball. She was genuinely concerned about her sacolé business and persuaded my grandma to put a stop to my sacolé business.

My grandma, whom is an amazingly generous person, came to me and asked me to stop. But I replied,” Grandma, I am working! Aren’t you supposed to encourage me to continue doing this and not quit?” But her next question made me fold my business…
The question was, “Hum… ok… but where are you getting all these materials to produce your wonderful sacolés?”
Oh yes. I had forgotten about grandma’s tab at the store! Well, at least she allowed me to buy a shiny new ball with the remaining profits.

It all happened here (yep… there’s more in Rio than Ipanema…)

Rio De Janeiro

3) Who are you clients? And how do you serve them?
We help our customers employ creativity and empathy in their internal and external processes so that they can produce more desirable, sustainable and profitable services. On a global level we are “service designing” for companies like Johnson & Johnson, Virgin, Nokia, Tesco and others. In Brazil, we did projects for the Government, a Wellness luxury chain and others.

4) Name top 3 entrepreneurs/leaders/designers that you admire the most and why.
First is Walt Disney, for being a dreamer in such an idea-killer world.
Second is Steve Jobs for his boldness. I don’t think he is a genius though, but he certainly has “balls”. Einstein was a genius.
Third, I honor designers who have the confidence to cut the “rockstar” bullshit, give up the credits, learn about business and blend with other people and professionals in order to produce great results for communities and companies.

5) Can you suggest your favorite books?
The Godfather hands down.

6) Who is your favorite football team?
My team used to be Flamengo. But now I’m not cheering for any, only the national team, which lost miserably to Netherlands 5 hours ago. I think I will drop my soccer preferences for good.

7) What is the difference between good and great design?
Good design produces beautiful and, sometimes, functional goods.
Great design adds meaning and helps people overcome difficult barriers to live and work better.

8) How do you define a good leader?
To me leadership is all about inspiration and transpiration. You cannot lead only by example, at the same time you cannot lead only by being a good storyteller. A good leader is someone who can balance these two.

9) What is the design scene like in Brazil?
Design in Brazil was always related to the publicity/ advertising agencies. Brazil has a strong reputation on good advertisement design and most schools today still direct their teachings to prepare students for this market. Also the word “design” in Portuguese always has an aesthetic connotation. That’s why strategic design is a difficult concept for Brazilians to grasp. But things are changing. Since I started my company in 2007, we’ve been working our asses-off to promote Design Thinking as a profitable way for companies to move forward in a cluttered commoditized world.

But I am happy to say, that our hard work is slowly paying off. Companies as of last year are starting to embrace the idea. We created the first Latin America Design Thinking course in a Business School at ESPM, a major school in executive education in Brazil. Plus, the public workshops we’ve been hosting are always packed. We’ve been busy visiting prospects and delivering projects here. So I can’t complain at all.

I do believe we are moving towards a Design Thinking mindset here faster than other countries. After all, Brazilians are known to have an appetite for new things!

10) What makes you happy?
It’s those silent moments of reminiscing, that I have kept my head up and my heart fully committed in delivering my best.
And of course, my lovely wife and my dog “Foca” which means Seal. (look at the face of this thing!). They bring joy to my soul.

Tennyson and Foca

Robert Verganti, Darrel Rhea and John Fly.

TOP 3 REASONS WHY I LOVE THIS CONFERENCE.
1) Phenomenal speakers.
Out of the 8 sessions, I enjoyed Katie Taylor’s talk the best. Katie is the President and COO of Four Seasons Hotel & Resorts. She is simply an amazing leader. Here are some bites from her.
“You have to accept that mistakes happen in business. It’s about treating them as opportunities and not disasters.”
“You cannot have high level of customer satisfaction without high level of employee satisfaction.”

Katie emphasized a lot on team and culture building, and how everyone at Four Seasons hotel is important. A senior manager’s role is equally as important as the dishwasher guy or the maid. Now THAT is rare to hear.

2) International audience
Apparently there were attendees from 16 countries! Design thinkers are global. It was great to hear the charismatic Roberto Verganti talked about Italian and design management. Here are some bites from Roberto Verganti.
“Italian designs are really not Italian designs, since 40%-60% of those great works are by foreign designers for Italian manufacturers.”
“What’s great about Italian design is its management.”
“Don’t just change, but do meaningful change.”

Insights from Kyun-Won Chung of Korea and Marco Steinberg from the Finnish Innovation Fund were great. Just that I think we need a medical professional up on stage whenever we discuss healthcare systems in the U.S.

3) Open discussions/ conversations
The best thing about DMI is the fact that you don’t have to always agree with the panels/speakers on stage. Maybe DMI and its moderators do this on purpose because the off-stage discussions were even more revealing, uncensored and far more “disruptive”. LOVE IT!

International Attendees at DMI. Photo courtesy of DMI.

John Fly's mix-matched shoes. And of course my favorite United Nude by Rem Koolhaas.

I am still debating if I will be attending DMI annual conference in Rhode Island. I am hoping some of these topics and issues will be addressed.

THINGS THAT I’D LIKE TO SEE MORE AT THE UPCOMING CONFERENCE
1) More diverse speakers
I would personally like to hear from design thinkers and leaders from the different generation of Boomers, Gen X and Gen Y (millennial). I feel that there were a lot of boomers in the audience that were more than happy to dis the younger Gen Xers and Yers and there were no representatives on the stage from those two gens. Quite unfair wouldn’t you say? Not all of us young designers are lazy, self-entitled, self-absorbed professionals.

2) More breakout sessions.
70% of the attendees at this conference were corporate peeps, 20% were consultancies and 10% from educators. We need breakout sessions to break up those corporate cliques! Hard to penetrate those guys when they love to hang out in their own group. I would love to have the opportunity to probe their minds more.

UNANSWERED QUESTIONS. LET’S DISCUSS MORE!
1) Is design process democratic or should it be when one person decides everything? Question is based on Roberto Veganti’s statement on Steve Jobs at Apple.

2) Understanding users may produce great designs, but does it stifle innovation? Based on Roberto Veganti’s remarks on user-centered design is not sustainable and may not always produce innovative products.

3) What is meaningful design?

4) 90% of CEO’s of FORTUNE 500 did not receive their degrees at Ivy League colleges. Is it because local universities offer them a more non-judgmental venue for experimentation and exploration vs. Ivy League students having to constantly prove to their peers that they are “smart” and not “stupid”. This is based on the heavy discussion of business and design education by Jeanne Liedtka, Joel Podolny, Randy Swearer and Roger Martin. I swear, the panels used the words “smart” and “stupid” over 20 times.

5) You often hear this, when a company downsizes, managers flip out because they don’t even know how to do the most basic stuff. Everything is always beneath their Ivy League education. With such emphasis on leadership, producing managers and “thinkers”, have we forgotten about “doers”? Shouldn’t the discussion be on how to produce managers that can think and do? Delegating does not necessarily mean doing.

6) Can this event be more “disruptive”? Isn’t design thinking about challenging the status quo?

7) So many people came up to me asking if I got the answer to my question on, how to use design thinking to “play” office politics and deal with “nasty, unhappy people”. Many were dissatisfied with the politically correct answer given by David Butler, Roger Martin and Charles Jones of Masco.
Well, I have actually received a couple of great book recommendations. One is called Authentic Happiness referred to me by Kieran Duck from 2nd Road and Survival Savvy referred to me by Jeff Muzzerall from Rotman School of Management. And don’t forget this great You Tube video of Alec Baldwin in Glengarry Glen Ross, referred to me by Dan Shedd, the CEO of Taylor Box. It became a viral video that was passed around at this conference. I enjoyed it tremendously. And yes, I am learning to grow some brass balls!

It was a refreshing scene, especially when most of tech/biotech events in SD are attended by Boomers. This time, we get to mingle with the Gen X’s and Y’s. We were glad to make connections with some local startups and entrepreneurs that are ready to conquer the world.

Many of the startups we met, were in the midst of seeking VC funding. Actually, all of them that we met were seeking some sort of funding. Which led me to think, do all startups NEED VC funding? Can startups survive without huge investments?

I understand that there are certain types of business that require outside funding, but I believe that a lot of companies really don’t need this large, expensive infrastructure especially if you are in the “service” business. That’s why Joe and I were trying to dig deeper, by asking these “service” type businesses (consultants, software companies) why they HAVE to get VC funding?

I almost feel that often times, these founders want VC money not for the sake of growing their companies, but rather to pay themselves huge salaries!! At the recent TechCrunch Disrupt NYC, panelists, advisors and investors from VC’s and angels, were giving startups blunt advice about seeking seed money. And the overall theme was, we simply wouldn’t just give you money for salary. You have to show us that you are committed to your business 200%, for the long haul and your business is not just another exit strategy.

Make sense right? Which means, you are not just sitting around for 4 years, waiting around for shit to happen, and then hoping to sell your company for millions, when you have merely just begun. Ideas are cheap. It’s about how well we execute them. So stop talking and start working!

So…what have our generation become? Are we proving to Boomers that our generation is nothing but self-absorbed, self-entitled peeps that have no sense of “work” value?

I started my business with only $2500. I am humbled everyday to be able to do what I love and work with other small business owners out there who are working their ass off making their business work for them.

Pick up a copy of Jason Fried’s of 37 Signals REWORK today. Trust me. It’s the best thing you can do for yourself. In there you will find 6 great reasons on why outside money is Plan Z.

And the best take away of the book for me is:
“Don’t be insecure about aiming to be a small business. Anyone who runs a business that’s sustainable and profitable, whether it’s big or small should be proud” – Jason Fried, author of Rework.