Last night, on a whim I was invited to run Melbourne’s inaugural ‘City2Sea’ 14km run by a friend. Until then, my goal had been to spend the next few months working up to 10km. I hadn’t considered 14km as even a remote possibility. My friend assured me it would be fun, and I dig fun, so what the hell.

Because registrations had closed, it required some covert shenanigans to get me a starting number, but after some white lies and tall tales, I was in.

1hour 30minutes 16seconds and 14km later, my friend and I crossed the finish line in St Kilda. I was pretty stoked with myself (just quietly). I came damn close to tripling my previous personal best, which until then I had considered my max.

Plus, I only averaged 30 seconds slower per km than my normal jog speed (av. 6.16/km vs av. 5.30/km), so the distance boost wasn’t the result of a drastically reduced speed.

How was this possible? Had I just massively underestimated my current capability, or was there something more?

I am convinced it’s because I was with 13,000 other people who all had the exact same goal: Finish the damn race. Caught up in the flow of intention, it was like being in one big shared slipstream.

The notion that who you surround yourself with is who you become is not a new concept, but I feel like I got it at a deeper level today. Hanging with a group of people who were generally interested in fitness, but perhaps each pursuing different paths to get there probably wouldn’t have cut it. I think the fact that we all had the exact same objective contributed massively to the resulting boost in my personal performance. (My friend also cracked her PB by 30%).

I see similar productivity leaps within the groups of entrepreneurs I work with. I run a 30 week business incubator where it’s not just a fuzzy focus of ‘build a better business’, but rather we walk people through developing 5 very specific areas of their enterprise. Because the whole group is on the same path with the same clear objectives, my team and I witness leaps in productivity that we dont’ find anywhere else. I had never considered just how large a role the group ‘slipstream’ had contributed to their breakaway results until today.

What about you? Ever experienced something similar? Do you have a team of people running with you towards the exact same goal or are you kinda flying solo? Have you ever experienced a quantum leap in isolation, or has every time it’s happened been when you’re part of a group?

Thinking back, for me it’s always been a result of group momentum where everyone goes up a notch or two.

Food for thought.

Time for a nanna nap.

Your words changed my life when I watched your commencement address at Stanford. The way you summoned the courage to do what you loved, despite the pain and discrace of having apple stripped from you inspired me to ‘connect my own dots’ and chart a new course in life. A course that I am now very grateful for.

How you could rise from the ashes as you did to redefine not just one, but 3 global industries is humbling, inspiring and puts my everyday challenges into perspective. For that, I cannot thank you enough.

Now, when I remember you, I remember two things:

The first, of course, is your challenge for the world and I to ‘Think Different‘.

The second, is your creed that ‘Real Artists Ship‘.

For me, the combination of those five words sum up everything I aspire to. I believe they blend magnificently to define the true spirit of entrepreneurship.

In life, you offered me gifts of magic and wonder that continue to make my life better.

Even in death, you help me see clearer.

There is no greater gift one can offer.

With love and thanks,

Glen Carlson.

Melbourne, Australia
Macbook Pro

I asked her what an ‘entrepreneur’ was.

She replied ‘someone creative who has new ideas all the time and is always creating something new’.

I said ‘Oh…’

I asked ‘Do you think Warren Buffet is entrepreneurial?’

‘Yes’, she said.

What about Donald Trump?

‘Yes.’

George Sorros?

‘Well, yes’.

‘When was the last time any of them created anything new?’ I asked. ‘Don’t they just buy, sell and do deals on stuff that other people have already created?’

‘I never thought of it like that’. she said.

Innovative entrepreneurs like Branson, Jobs, Gates et al have a high profile and arguably sit at the apex of the ‘uber entrepreneur’ pyramid because innovation is particularly sexy. Everyone likes things that are new and shiny. But it’s not their creativity or flair for innovation that makes them an entrepreneur.

From where I sit, an entrepreneur is someone who brings resources together to solve a problem for the world that would not have been solved without them.

Ideas are a resource. Just like money, time, knowledge or skills are.

Don’t have any zany ideas? Maybe you should start looking for the problem you want to solve first – then find someone who has an idea of how to solve it… and give them a job.

Bring it on.

(if you like it, share it!)

Cheers,

Here they are:

1. My Dad. My dad joined the RAN when he was 15 as an apprentice shipwright and after retiring at 35, he, my Mum, and I embarked on a 7 year expedition to circumnavigate the world. I was 14 when we returned to Australia and I had visited 46 countries. I could not imagine life without him, or that experience.

2. Paul Dunn. The first man to teach me the power of a clear pitch. After years of asking me to refine what I was up to in the world, I finally nailed it. His contact list opened and things took off. Paul is a passionate and inspiring social entrepreneur. @pauldunn

3. Daniel Priestley. One of my best friends and business partners. In 2001 Dan inspired me to join his startup Triumphant Events. He is one of the most creative and insightful entrepreneurs I know. @danielpriestley

4. Mike Harris. The second man to teach me how to pitch. As the creator of 3 billion pound brands, he is a genius at helping others craft their perfect pitch.

5. Vac Ubl. Long time friend and no BS business coach. He introduced me to some of the most powerful mental models that help me make faster, clearer decisions.

6. Ian Elliot. Ian Elliot was the past chairman and ceo of George Patterson, Australias largest Ad Agency. What he doesn’t know about influencing decision makers isn’t worth knowing.

7. Cathy Burke. Cathy is a tour de flow, and the CEO of the hunger project Australia. Her ability to inspire and connect people to their own bigger picture, while helping create powerful partnerships that transform under developed communities around the world is inspiring.

8. Dr. John Demartini. The most intelligent practical philosophers I have ever met. His model for understanding the true nature of ‘things’ is exquisite and a daily reference point in my life.

9. S.N Goenka. He is a household teacher for Vipassana meditation and he introduced me to the science of meditation and the true nature of life, without which my life would be decidedly less fulfilling.

10. My Mum. After finding her passion at 55 as a Kinesiologist, I have seen her come alive with a vigor and enthusiasm that would make a teenager feel inadequate. She is a testament to never giving up on the search for the thing that lights you up. Love you mum.

Below are just some of the books that have shaped the way I think about business, life, and playing a bigger game. I highly recommend reading them all. Enjoy!

Cheers,

To her credit, she walked away from it all because something in her heart was telling her it wasn’t right.
It wasn’t her.
She couldn’t shake the notion that she was called to something bigger.  Something more important than just ticking the boxes.

Of course, everyone was shocked.

Against popular opinion she pursued her dream and had a solid, vindicating and public success quite quickly.  It was a battle hard won, but without question it appeared she had made the right choice, and had silenced the critics.

Life was good.  Destiny had revealed itself to her.  Each step of her life had become clear.  She would complete her current exciting project, then the next one she had lined up, and so on.  She had built a beautiful cathedral in her mind of how life was going to be.  But then, she made the fatal mistake.  She got attached to it.

The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men gang aft agley, an’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain, for promis’d joy.

 - Burns.

As the world tends to do when we get attached to things, it sent her a curve ball that saw her project begin to crack and crumble.  Anyone who knows her would recognise it was only a short term glitch.  

The girl, after all is a freekin’ genius (a term I don’t use lightly).  However, because she had externalised so much of her value and self worth into it, it was no longer just a project that was unravelling, it was her.  Logically she knew she should be all shanti about it, but emotionally, her cathedral was in ruins.

It’s a theme as old as time, and I think it’s relevant because I actively strive for my business, and life to be an expression of who I am.  It’s easier said than done, I know.

There is, I realise, a fundamental danger in this idea.  If my business or project (or whatever) becomes an expression of who I am, and it doesn’t work out as planned – what does that make me?  [insert stream of self flagellating adjectives here]

The trick it seems, is to create an authentic impact in the world without externalising ones self worth into the momentary form it may take.

Could you imagine if Edison was personally attached to every bulb that didn’t work?  Heavy vibes man.
At his core, he was clearly attached to the outcome, but not to the the simplicity of the task.

Branson has over 300 companies.  Some are successful, some are not.  His brand however, the light at the centre pushing power to them all, remains strong.  The unmoving mover.

You are not your expressions.
You are the centre of the wheel.  
The more you identify with your centre rather than the moving parts, the more influential your expressions will become.
And most importantly it makes it easier to remember that it’s all just a bit of craic.

Steve probably sums it up better than I can.  He shares, among other gems, the weight of being publicly removed from Apple – and what it taught him. http://bit.ly/l4QMAC

ps.  Please forward me a link to this post the next time I am coming apart at the seams.  thx.

(if you like it, share it!)

Cheers,

In the Industrial age, those who owned factories prospered. They adapted to new technological advances (like steam) to harness an even greater means of production.

Wealth, it seems, flows from those who didn’t control their own means of production, to those who did. In the past, there were two options, you either owned the factory, or worked in it.

In the information age, the barriers put in place by ‘big corporate’ for so long, are crumbling. Today, owning your own ‘means of production’ requires nothing more than owning a laptop and a soft seat at Starbucks.

The media is decentralising. Global production and distribution channels are accessible to anyone with an internet connection. Communication and collaboration tools give savvy go-getters the ability to co-ordinate highly skilled multi-time-zone teams cheaply and efficiently. Global payment gateways have allowed real time peer to peer trade to explode logarithmically.

There has never been a better time to be an entrepreneur.

So, you have a great idea huh?

Prove it.
The transparency of social media, combined with tools like polldaddy.com and facebook ads have made it easy to find and survey your fans, wherever they are in the world.

Google adwords lets you to advertise only to the enthusiasts who are actively searching for the things you’re offering. No mess, no fuss, no waste.

10 years ago, it would have been impossible to find enough people in your local area who were interested enough in your widgits to allow your passion to be anything more than a hobby. Times have changed. The world is your marketplace.

Got a niche? It might be bigger than you think.

It’s never been easier to design, create & source a product.
Gone are the days when if you wanted to make something that didn’t exist, you needed to build a factory. Now, reliable, highly customised short (or large) run factory production capacity is available to anyone.

Alibaba.com
Inventables.com
Globalsources.com

Henry Ford, I’ll have mine in pink.

Are you an expert in your field?
In the ideas economy, your thought leadership is more valuable than ever. You may not need to create a physical product, and your refined expertise may only be relevant for 1000 people… but that’s enough to start. Who knows, they may have friends.

lulu.com
kajabi.com

Your global shop front… no explanation necessary other than if you’re taking this for granted, you’re missing something important.
Amazon.com
volusion.com
bigcommerce.com
venda.com

Integrate (and automate) global distribution that is fast, efficient, reliable and trackable by your client in real time.
If someone in northern Peru finds you on facebook and wants to buy your tshirt or DVD, how on earth are you going to get it to them?
UPS.com
DHL.com
Ebay.com
Amazon.com

It’s easy to recruit a highly skilled expert (or team of experts) that are happy to get paid for results (while their work is guaranteed by a 3rd party).
Odesk.com
Elance.com
Taskcity.com

Communication and collaboration tools make it easy to manage non-local teams.
Skype.com
basecamphq.com
huddle.com

It takes seconds to set up an online payment gateway that will allow you to accept money from anyone, anywhere in the world.
Paypal.com
Amazon.com
Ebay.com

Cut through the noise and make sure your at the leading edge of the most important news and trends in your industry.
google.com/reader
feedly.com
readitlaterlist.com

Access 1750+ of the most important legal and business document templates and save a fortune in legal fees.
simply-docs.co.uk

Crowd funding.
If you have a vision that is compelling, there are people who have the resources to help make it happen. Now, you can pitch to investors from anywhere in the world. (this, just quietly, is cool)
kickstarter.com
rockethub.com
quirky.com
undbreak.com.au
more…

Brand Building.
buildabrand.com

Design.
99designs.com

Media.
Twitter is one of the leading sources for breaking news. Youtube, facebook, Digg et al position you as the media mogul. Venture capitalists have invested billions of dollars so you can use these tools for free.

All you need to bring it all together is a bit of hustle and an apple.com

Have I missed anything? Let me know.

(if you like it, share it!)

Cheers,

My rationale was that celebrating lots of little successes regularly was way better than holding out to celebrate one big one, rarely. I have a short attention span and need to feel like I am getting somewhere or I loose interest. Plus, we would all celebrate the big win anyway, so why not pack in a few extra?

For me, it was kind of like hitting a bunch of single runs in baseball (no, I have never played baseball, but if I did, it’s what it would be like).

With little wins, at least if you don’t knock it out of the park (risky), you still get a cheer from the crowd and get to be out on the field, which, after all, is where most games are won.

Now, Teresa and Steve from Harvard have been kind enough to do a bunch of studies and research (not my strong suit) to back it up. Check it out.
Turns out little wins are actually pretty big. It also turns out I am a prophet, so I am off to celebrate.

Nice.

(if you like it, share it!)

Rock on.

I told him he was wasting his time, and that financial freedom was a total myth.

The look on his face was hilarious, I wish you could have been there.

I said ‘look, you’re a smart guy, so I will go to the other end of the spectrum to make my point.’

I continued, ‘Take Bill Gates. Lot’s of cash yeah? Do you think he has freedom from his money? Do you think that having a mountain of cash comes without great responsibility? Could you possibly fathom the daily challenges and issues he has to deal with, simply because he has money? Ergo, do you think he has more or less financial freedom than say, someone with no money?’

Of course, I didn’t really say ‘ergo’, but he got the point. He realised he was chasing an idea that wasn’t real.
I suggested he outgrow the juvenile concept of sitting on a beach sipping mojitos as the cash rolled in and start thinking about how he can add real value to the world. Value that he would be committed to giving regardless of the degree of support of challenge (financial or otherwise) he faced on the journey.

I mentioned some iconic entrepreneurs and reminded him how they all faced massive obstacles that would have overwhelmed them enough to quit had they only been in it for the money.

He said ‘… so chasing the fantasy of financial freedom actually binds people to financial servitude’.

I asked him what he was going to do with this new perspective.

He said ‘I have to go tell my dad…’

Food for thought. And be careful what you wish for.

(if you like it, share it!)

Cheers,

While he usually starts the brand building process by raising a cheeky £100M, he also has some tips for the rest of us.

With more than a pinch of poetic license, the following is bit of what I have gleaned from Mike about how to think iconic, and how to apply that thinking to small business.

1. Be a symbol for our time.

Iconic brands ride at the forefront of the most influential trends that effect us all.

In the 1800′s, Carnegie Steel, Standard Oil, General Electric, Ford and JP Morgan were the icons of their day, symbols of the converging trends that drove the Industrial Revolution.

Today, a radically different set of trends bring brand like Apple, Facebook, Google, Coke and Virgin to the top of the pops.

So, what trends are powering your business or idea? What waves are you riding? Why is NOW the perfect time to be doing what you’re doing? And most importantly, how can you communicate that better to the world?

2. Be remarkable.

Iconic brands get talked about at dinner parties because they are doing things that are interesting to everyone, not just their customers. While the next iPad release or Wikileak may be hot fodder for global chatter, what can you be doing at a local level that is unique and remarkable?

(ps. Irked that you’re not a global icon yet? I keep reminding myself that when Jobs started there were only a handful of people who believed what he was doing at Apple was important. It takes a spark to light a fire.)

3. Be up to something beyond just making money.

If you have a vision for your life that is bigger than lining your own pockets, the resources needed to make that vision a reality tend to show up faster. Why? Because the folks with the resources and influence to support you are typically less inspired by the idea of making more money than they are by the idea of changing the world.

Whole Foods is a great example. If you think they are just a chain of supermarkets, you have already missed the point.

What is the worthy cause that lights you up? How is it infused into your business or idea, and why should the world care?

4. Deliver a consistent and irresistible brand experience.

A great example that I love is moo.com. They are an online business card printer that have a way about them that makes me smile, every time. I genuinely want to read all their marketing blurb and explore their packaging because they are fun, authentic and make me feel excited to be connected to what they are about.

When I order a box of cards from moo.com, I am enthralled by their love of printing, and and I know you will be too.

Do you think the guys and gals at moo even realise that people like me talk about their company the way I do? You bet they do.

They work hard to deliver a consistent brand experience that is irresistible for people to talk about.

What are your fans saying to their friends about their involvement with you and your company? Are your values showing up in visceral ways throughout your customers entire experience?

The bottom line is, if you’re up to something, bring it on.

(& If you dig it, share it!)

Cheers,

Ironically the problem is, that in today’s marketplace, we can do ANYTHING.

Using the tools that are forging the entrepreneur revolution, smart, motivated people can leverage their skills, in all sorts of unique and creative ways to make money.

But, doing what it is that you can do misses the mark. The world does not need (nor will it reward) more opportunists doing what they can do. What the world needs (and will reward) is more entrepreneurs doing what it is they LOVE to do.

Opportunist: a person who exploits circumstances to gain immediate advantage rather than being guided by consistent principles or plans.

Despite having the best of intentions, opportunists who jump onto the first (or easiest) way of making money often find themselves frustrated, bored and burnt out. The big financial wins they expected to make, never materialised, and they’re back to square one.

Entrepreneurs who plan their businesses around their own authentic principles and passions find themselves building a tribe and niche in the market that is not only financially rewarding, but personally fulfilling.

To break the ‘opportunist cycle’, I recommend 3 things:

Define your perfect tribe
If I was to wave a magic wand and make you a key player in your niche, who only spends time with the sort of people you love spending time with; what types of people would they be? Keep in mind, each of these people would know you, like you, trust you, buy from you and recommend you. What kinds of conversations would you have with them? What topics (your favourite!) would you talk about?

Get a PHD in your tribe’s problems
Once you’re clear on your perfect tribe, go meet with people like them. Talk to them. Understand them.

The most valuable members of the tribe solve the biggest problems for the tribe.

Discover what your tribes frustrations are, what problems they have and what challenges they most want to overcome. If you can work out how to solve their troubles, you will discover your new mission in life.

When you discover your mission, you will feel its demand. It will fill you with enthusiasm and a burning desire to get to work on it. – W. Clement Stone

Hustle
Now you know how to solve your tribe’s problems, go sell them the perfect solution. SELL THE $HIT OUT OF IT, ask for the business, get the cash in your bank before delivery and use that money to develop and deliver your solution.

Hustle; don’t wait, just start. Follow these 3 steps and pretty soon you will find yourself bang in the middle of doing exactly what it is that you love.