9 Mar 10
When you have fresh business ideas, the only test you should do with other people is to see if they get what it is you want to do quickly. Can you explain it on short terms?
Beyond that, assuming you are not dealing with a balanced and very creative person, you should not care too much whether they think it’s a good idea or a bad one, you should also take any “advise” with scoopfuls of salt.
There are a few very good reasons why you should listen less to other people when you have new ideas and instead let them gestate in your own mind rather than the minds of others:
Firstly, the more people you use for input on an idea, the more plain and non-unique it will become. The more people you want to satisfy and bring into the frame around your idea, the more bland it becomes. There is a good reason why Apple never ask for user feedback before they launch a product - they know an excellent designer is better than feedback from an army of grey faces. If you have ever sat through the pain of massive approval committees and endless meetings to get something done in a large organization, you’ll know exactly what I am talking about. Large crowds of decision makers make for lousy, average ideas, if they ever get to the execution part at all.
The truth is, people often have a lot of opinions on what they think they want, but they rarely if ever know what they actually want.
The second and third reasons are almost as important: when you present people with an idea, most people will fall into one of two categories - they will either say it is the best thing since sliced bread (as they would will most ideas presented to them), because they are cheerleaders of everything people come up with, however hare-brained it is.
Or they will belong to the category that immediately will try to poke holes in your idea, even though it is to be expected from a fresh idea that there are holes and that it needs further thought and development.
So what am I suggesting instead? When it comes to business ideas, it’s simple: get to market fast. The market place will provide the best feedback you can get - either people will be prepared to use and buy what you have made, or they won’t. Little tweaks or major changes may change peoples willingness to use and buy what you provide, and this will be a better teacher than any boardroom or friend advise that you could ever get.
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3 Mar 10
Buenos Aires is a city that at times seems to be in terminal economical and moral decline: the economy is a mess, there is no shortage of scammers, robbers, crooks and not least dodgy and corrupt politicians and bureaucrats. At the edges, the city seems to be falling apart in slow motion.
Yet inevitably the city gets under the skin of most people that visit it.
The locals have a rare gift for putting their everyday worries aside and living, really living. There is a rhythm and passion to the city that is hard to describe to someone who hasn’t been there, yet everyone who has been there knows what I am talking about.
Buenos Aires is the only place in the world where I have been out partying until 8am, to then go and have a meal at a filled restaurant with other party-goers before finally retiring “for the night”.
Maybe the city’s fall from grace and all the financial crises are part of the reason why the locals have chosen to embrace life like it’s their last day on this world and it requires a celebration. Maybe it’s a latin thing that a person from a culture that has no discernible body language will never be able to fully understand.
Whatever it is, Buenos Aires is a city to fall in love with, and a city in which to fall in love. The best comparison I can think of is a Paris in decline with added melancholy situated in a warmer climate.
Buenos Aires is the only place I have ever visited where I have made so many friends, become familiar with neighbours and locals in such a short time. I’ve gone to parties where almost everyone greeted me with a warm smile, knowing my name the moment I stepped through the door.
I’ve eaten at corner restaurants and had my neighbours and new friends walk by and stop to talk to me or even join me randomly.
I’ve probably built a social circle in Buenos Aires in 2 months that is bigger than what I managed to build in my first 2 years living in London. That speaks a lot about the people living there, and those who go there to visit.
The city, despite it’s warts and faults, is a city I have fallen irrationally in love with. This was my first visit, but it will definitely not be my last.
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1 Mar 10
In case you missed it (and I forgot to mention it here), I wrote a guest post on Ophelia’s Webb, in Elisa Doucette’s “All You Need..” February blog series. You can find my entry here.
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22 Feb 10
Irrational fears plague a lot of us. We know they are irrational, when we are not faced with them, we try to rationalise them away, count the ways in which they are completely irrational. Intellectually we get: we’re being completely irrational, the fear itself shouldn’t be there, because it is stupid in the first place.
In a situation where we know we might face our fear, we might again try to rationalise it away, or pump ourselves up so that we are prepared to deal with the fear and overcome it.
But once we are in that situation, the fear is there again, as strong as it ever was.
There is a good reason for this: you can’t pump yourself up out of an irrational fear. And most of all, you can’t rationalise it away, because it is irrational. Rationality and intellectual responses to emotional, irrational reactions are ineffectual.
The only way to deal with and eventually destroy irrational fears is to face them, repeatedly. If you have a mortal fear of heights, go sky diving, jump from every high trampoline at every swimming pool you can find, learn wall- or mountain climbing. If you have anxiety about talking to strangers, go out and say hi to everyone you see, strike up conversations in every elevator and make situational observations to others in every store/bank queue you stand in.
Irrational fears are as their name implies, irrational. You can only crush them by repeatedly demonstrating to yourself that no actual bodily harm will come to you when you are exposed to your fear. To destroy your fear, you must face it, feel it and expose yourself to it so frequently that the feeling of fear numbs away.
There really is no shortcut, no rationalising, no pumping yourself up - the only solution is to face your fears head on until you have conquered them.
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17 Feb 10
A perfect “Muse” business should be automatable, either through technology or outsourcing, it should have a clearly defined niche market and be relatively easy and cheap to market test and reach.
But given these, and other criteria, how do you come up with an idea that is actually feasible for YOU to implement and execute in a way so that you have a good chance of success?
I have worked out that there are at least four primary criteria that need to be fulfilled if you want a somewhat sustainable “Muse” that is not just based on temporary market arbitrage. The thing with market arbitrage is that there are always opportunities, but they quickly go away as markets adapt and competition realise the same opportunities and when the arbitrage opportunity is gone, your back to square zero, having to start all over again.
So what are my criteria?
Market and business model clearly defined
A clearly defined market and a clear business model is a must, of course. Who are you selling to? How are you getting paid? The problem a lot of Web 2.0 “businesses” have is that they don’t know who they are selling something to, and they’re not actually charging anything for the thing they’re trying to sell. That might be all fine and well if you have $5 million in VC funding. But if you want to start something for at most a few $1000 and your own sweat, you’ll need to be more specific and be able to make revenue from day 1.
Ability to execute
Are you looking at just random ideas? Or are you looking at ideas where you actually have specific knowledge and expertise that will help you execute on the idea? If you don’t have, or at least don’t have access through others to expertise, it’s quite likely you’ll find yourself out of depth and get run over by better equipped and prepared competitors. Chose a market where you actually have something to offer customers apart from just pure opportunism.
Passion
Despite all the talk of automation and outsourcing, if you want to make more than just a few hundred dollars here and there, you will probably need passion for your product or service, and passion for the market that you’re in. This is important both to be able to execute and sustain your effort, as well as for purposes of my next point..
Ability to create compelling Content
In this day and age of information overload and social media, traditional marketing, or even just relying on Google Ads is going to be way too expensive unless you have substantial funding to back you up.
The best way to draw traffic is by having compelling, unique content. By that I don’t mean advertising material or constant sales pitches, but knowledgeable and useful information relating to your market. Say if you want to sell gym equipment, maybe having a blog with workout- and nutritional advise would be a good idea.
By having good content people will naturally find your website through search engines, referrals and social media. If it’s good enough to keep them coming back, you will build trust and a dialogue with people. This all works out to higher traffic, better market insight, more trust and eventually more sales.
The Intersection spells Opportunity
In summary, if you find ideas that have a large enough intersection between a viable market, your passions and expertise, and finally something that people will want to read about and that you can write about, you might have an opportunity on your hands that is worth pursuing. If you’re missing any of these aspects, you will probably struggle to make anything more than coffee money.
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16 Feb 10
Serendipity is the effect by which one accidentally stumbles upon something fortunate, especially while looking for something entirely unrelated.
A few days ago, I wrote about how to make friends with anyone, anywhere. If you apply the principles I mentioned and do it without agendas or ulterior motives with the sole purpose to befriend people and lighten up their day/evening, there is a beautiful side-effect: I like to call it serendipity.
I’ve made a very conscious effort while in Argentina to just talk to random people at every opportunity. I’m here alone, so I might as well try to get to know new people.
After a while of just being a happy, friendly social animal that tries to break the ice, bring joy and fun to situations, and bring people together, strange, wonderful things start to happen..
People start to remember you, new people approach you because they have seen you to be an approachable, friendly guy. People start buying you drinks, invite you to parties, introduce you to new people. A whole new world of strange, wonderful opportunities opens up, simply because you said “hi”, gave someone a smile, saw that someone looked lonely and brought them into a conversation, any conversation.
Serendipity isn’t just a social phenomena, though the anecdote above serves a good example in a social context.
If you create a hundred opportunities both for yourself and for others, bring people together, good things you never expected will start to happen. Random things will start to fall into your lap by what will seem like chance, but in fact it’s more akin to playing the lottery where you hold about 80% of the availably lottery tickets.
In a sense, Serendipity is the practical expression of Karma - not in a mystical sense, but in a real, causal sense: if you make enough good things happen to those around you, eventually you will get something back from somewhere that you never expected, something that far exceeds any investment that you initially made.
It is not mystical or magical, just a result of man’s innate nature for reciprocity: giving back out of gratitude and generosity to those who have shown similar generosity in the past.
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14 Feb 10
I though Valentine’s day would be a good day to debunk a concept that I find utterly unromantic and unspiritual: the traditional concept of “Soulmates”, in the shape of finding “The One”, or a “twin soul”.
There are a couple of reasons why I find the concept of soulmates to be unromantic:
It’s all about the ego
So someone else exists for the sole purpose of being your mate and make you happy? Is it just me that finds that idea completely egotistical and narcissistic? It is effectively demoting someones existence to be little more than a validator of your own ego. Is that really love, or is it an expression of narcissism combined with a deep-seated insecurity? I would say definitely the latter.
If you’re broken, no one else is going to fix you
An other common theme is finding someone to “make you whole”. Let me put it bluntly: if you feel that something is missing in your existence, that you are unhappy with yourself and think someone else can come along and fix it, you’re going to be disappointed.
People who are insecure and unhappy with themselves make lousy partners, and if they are looking for someone else to fix them, they are downright poisonous - they will need constant validation that will still never be quite enough to make them feel happy. They will either be overly clingy, or move from partner to partner, trying to find something, someone to fix something for them that only they themselves can fix.
If you’re broken, no one else is going to fix you, change has to come from within. To be able to love, you need to first love yourself.
Pre-destination rather than control of your own destiny
The idea that you are pre-destined to be with someone is giving a quasi-religious explanation for something that is little more than a hormone induced drunkenness.
It robs you of control of your own life and makes you a slave to your own hormones. Do you really want to be a slave to the short-termism and fickleness of your hormones and be little more than an instinct driven mammal? Or do you want to be in control of your own life?
Besides, the “love hormones” can only last for about 18 months, and there is a very good evolutionary reason for this: it is just enough time to go through a full pregnancy and keep the man around to protect and provide for the woman and infant during the most vulnerable post-pregnancy time.
What ACTUALLY is spiritual and romantic
In summary, I find the traditional concept of pre-destined “soulmates” to be unromantic and unspiritual because it is an expression of egotism, narcissism and insecurity while at the same time robbing you of control of your own life.
Personally, I believe that emotionally mature people can mutually build deep, lasting spiritual and intellectual connections with people that they chose and are compatible with. Connections that are built on the reality of what the other person is, rather than the unrealistic fantasy of the personal angel you want someone else to be for you. Connections that are built on mutual respect and understanding rather than the need for your own ego to be validated.
That is something that makes us rise above being simple, instinctive animals, something that is a lot closer to true love and something that is a lot more spiritual and romantic than the alternative.
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13 Feb 10
I’ve been on the road for the better part of two months at the moment, and I have learned a lot about both myself and how to deal with long-term travel. Overall I don’t have any regrets and I have enjoyed my time.
But as with anything, I’ve made a few mistakes, most of them minor, but some of them rather annoying..
Buying one-way tickets
One-way airline tickets are most of the time a waste of money, they cost as much if not often more than return tickets, but with none of the flexibility. Even if you’re only going one-way, it is often a good idea to get a return ticket anyway, and just not use the return flight. Getting a return ticket, provided it is as cheap or cheaper than a one-way ticket at least gets you the flexibility of returning at a given date, should your plans change.
Planning too far in advance
I bought my plane tickets as far back as in October for a trip that started early this year. It turns out that it wasn’t the itinerary I took in the end. If you’re staying long (say more than 4-5 weeks), you don’t have to stress about the rest of your itinerary, usually if you get tickets 3 weeks or so in advance, the price won’t be much different from what it would have been 3 months in advance.
Getting tickets for onwards destinations too early
This is really related to the previous point: I got tickets originally to go to Panama at the turn of Jan-Feb. Turned out I wanted to stay in Argentina longer and skip Panama altogether this time around. That’s about £1000/$1600 on airline tickets I didn’t use. Money I’ll never see again.
Not bringing an unlocked mobile phone
Getting by without a local phone has been good in a way, I haven’t had to stress about missed calls etc for a while, because I haven’t cared. But in terms of building a social life, it has been slightly crippling: getting a local pay-as-you-go number and putting the SIM into an unlocked phone is recommended. I’ll definitely do that the next time I go traveling for longer.
Packing too many books
I love reading. Having books on the road is great, but they also weigh a hell of a lot. I could have fit a lot more useful stuff into my packing without the books, and in this day and age, getting a Kindle or equivalent e-reader would have been worth it. Next time I’ll now, get a Kindle and skip the heavy paper books.
Not bringing enough contacts/medicines
I’m nearsighted and an asthmatic (mild, but still). I only brought contacts and medicines to get me through until the end of this month. That means that my trip has an enforced end-date, whereas I could possibly have gone elsewhere before coming back under other circumstances. Contacts are probably easy to get locally, prescription medicines a bit harder. Next time: bring medicines that will cover twice the length of the trip, just in case I want to stay longer.
Not bringing enough(!) clothes
I realise most people will probably do the opposite to me, pack too much. I’m a big believer in light packing though, but in truth, I packed a bit too light this time. I’ve gotten by, cleaning clothes a couple of times a week, but I could definitely have put in 2-3 more t-shirts and one more regular shirt so I wouldn’t have worn all the same clothes in all my pictures.
Lacking discipline to work on the road
I’ve done a little bit of work on the road, and this trip was originally planned to reboot and recharge my batteries, so work was never that important. But I feel if I had been more disciplined about scheduling say “10-15 everyday is work time”, I would have gotten more things done than I have. Not a big deal given the purpose of the trip, but I certainly would have preferred getting more done.
In summary, I don’t think any of my mistakes have been fatal, spending money on airline tickets I never used has been the most annoying mistake by far - it’s money I could have used to stay an extra month instead of going home, big, big waste. But hey, you live and you learn. Next time I’ll know a lot of things better.
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10 Feb 10
Being a solo-traveler can be lonely unless you do something about it. Personally during these last two months I’ve made a conscious effort to get out of my comfort zone and get to know new people, some of them have been interesting conversations for part of an evening, others might become friends for life, it remains to be seen.
However, a post at Untemplater got me thinking about what it is that actually makes people feel comfortable and familiar around each other, even if they have never met before. It is a subject that has been written about for decades, in everything from classics like Dale Carnegie’s “How to win friends and influence people”, to academic psychology literature and all the way down to more crude and simplistic “howto pick-up chicks” courses flogged to lonely men.
How to make anyone feel comfortable and familiar around you, and make yourself feel the same way is actually quite simple, all it requires is being perceptive to others, paying attention and getting out of your own head..
Don’t interview
The mistake most people will do when getting to know anyone is that they go into “interview mode”: they start asking for facts, like “What do you do?”, “How old are you?”, “What do you do in your spare time?”. It’s like asking for numbers from a phone catalogue, and it’s about as interesting for both parties as reading one. Besides, specific simple facts about a person actually say very little about an individual, what you do in an office cubicle rarely defines the persona and personality of someone.
Elicit what a person is about
Instead of “interviewing” a person, get a person to talk about the things in life that they are really passionate about, and WHY they are passionate about them. Get them talking about what they love and really pay attention and listen. The favourite subject of most people are, no surprise, themselves, if you show an interest in actually getting to know them on a deeper level, probing into what they really like and why, what they really are about and what their values are, people will find it really hard to dislike you.
And, if they go on talking, let them! If you get someone to really start talking passionately, all you have to do is pay attention. At most, you can steer the conversation at times in the direction of the things that you are more interested in knowing about the other person.
The principle of elicitation works for a very simple reason: psychologically, whenever we think of something, we have to associate with it and the states that it brings up in us. If you get someone to talk passionately about something they really like, they will most likely at some point start to indirectly associate you with the positive feelings that it brings up.
Relate and tell stories
If you want to get to know someone and make a new friend, the focus should be on the previous point, so let the other person talk. But to keep things going, relate and sum up what they are saying, tell them about similar things that you can relate with in the form of short “stories”. If you can do this, you’re probably already in a very good, deep conversation that is engaging both you and them.
Keep it fun, lighthearted and positive
There is nothing worse than people who complain all the time. By the same token that people will indirectly associate you with positive feelings you might elicit, they will associate you with negative ones if you bring up negative subjects. Keep things positive, lighthearted and fun. It goes without saying that we all love laughing, humour is the biggest ice breaker in the world, bar none.
Not everyone has to like you, you don’t have to like everyone
When you start eliciting a what a person is about, some people might be worried and think: “What if they like things I hate? What if I can’t relate?”. Well, the truth of the matter is, if you fail to find any common ground with someone, there is no one forcing you to like someone, or them to like you. It’s life, different people like different things. If your objective is to be universally liked, your bound to fail, and you have the wrong thing in mind. To me, getting to know new people is about finding people you have common ground with, that you can enjoy spending time with. If you don’t think it’s a possibility, be courteous and move on.
I can’t stress this enough: though it is nice to be liked, you can’t like everyone, and everyone can’t like you. Personally, I prefer to focus on making a few, really good acquaintances rather than getting to know large swathes of people that I will have very little in common with. When it comes to what people you are going to spend time with, you are more than allowed to discriminate heavily in favour of people you actually like or think you could come to like.
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8 Feb 10
Europeans will often mock Americans for their limited knowledge of the world outside the US, taking simpletons thinking Paris is the capital of “Europe” as the prime example. Well, I’m afraid I’ve been humbled by my time in Argentina, meeting people who know a great deal more than me about the continent and the ins and outs of it.
There are a lot of little things, misconceptions and prejudice that us europeans hold about South America. To point out a few things I’ve learned from people who are either from around here or have been around the continent:
Colombia - mostly safe these days
Most westerners will believe that Colombia is a drugrunners paradise, where you will be abducted by militias if you step outside the security controls at Bogota airport. Not so, both Colombians and people who have traveled there have told me otherwise.
Yes, there are still dodgy areas, steer clear of the jungles and rural areas. But if you stay in places like Bogota, Medellin or any of the major cities along the Caribbean coast, you’ll be safe. Apparently Medellin and Cartagena in particular are worth seeing. Also, the fact that living is cheap, and Colombians are some of the most beautiful people on the planet won’t detract from your stay.
Peru and Cusco
All things from both travelers and Peruvians alike point to the fact that the capital of Peru, Lima, is a dirty shithole where you’ll easily get robbed by locals and taxi drivers alike.
Cusco, the launchpad for the Inca-trail and Machu Picchu is a different matter though: this is supposedly party-central in Peru, and well worth staying in for at least a couple of weeks. I had no idea about this until I heard about it. The other observation is that the best time to visit the area is during their winter (northern hemisphere summer), the summer is wet and easily gets washed out. Also, bring your sunscreen, the area has the strongest UV exposure in the world.
Buenos Aires - corrupt, dangerous, but oh so lovely
Finally, the city where I have spent most of my time in, and that I can speak from experience about (everything else is hearsay). I’ve been told that Buenos Aires is more dangerous than Bogota these days, street crime is rife and I’ve met a good portion of tourists who have been robbed.
Living in southeast London, I’m not sure it’s any worse than my own neighbourhood, but I think caution and common sense are two good companions to bring: avoid dark side streets, walk confidently, don’t stop for people hassling you, and avoid looking like a lost tourist even if you are.
The politics of Argentina in general are corrupt from what I hear. Buenos Aires itself is much like a subtropical Paris in decline - it is unavoidable to see the marks of subsequent economical crises in the city and the resulting decline, but the “Porteno’s” (locals) are proud and seem to be in denial about the state of affairs.
Despite all its downsides, it is a city that is easy to fall in love with, it has soul and is easily my favourite city in the world right now. The food is the best I’ve had, the people are beautiful and friendly and the city literally never sleeps, except for siesta between 5-8pm.
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