"Finding my Niche"

It has been an exciting few weeks. I have explored many avenues that are freely available to anyone interested in starting a business and can only say that I am blown away with the charity people show, which continues to surprise me. It is also amusing to note the definite correlation of some ones success and their ability, nay their cheer enthusiasm for helping people.

Niche, unless anyone was confused.

I have had many adventures recently. I have attended several business networking events where I had talked about the viability of an online community based business which attempts to help people with their career choices by example through an extended knowledge network (I.e. Imnotasheep.com!). The benefits of this concept have always seemed clear to me and I hope to be able to apply growing business knowledge to make it into a scalable project. The fundamental of this concept is that it involves growth of a network, which requires an investment of time, which requires a return to fund the time. So the real question becomes “How can I make this project scalable”.  The main problem with this is that that shouldn’t be a matter of money, but it is. This is not to say that the mission statement for the project changes or that I indeed sell my soul to the devil for a quick buck, only that the timeline of the project/business is scalable in a way that makes it best meet it mission statement.

Of course all of this bollocks has already been explained to me before by people that have pretty much done it but as per usual when experienced people explain something like this the overriding point is missed, not on purpose might I add!

The best way to make something scalable is to find a community of people that require your business because no-one has bothered/attempted/realised/known that they may require said goods/services. For the purpose of this conversation I will refer to this as a Niche.

The possibilities are endless and as with most cases of choice if there is too much it’s very hard to pick something. Many ideas had been suggested to me to what I should concentrate my efforts on before but from the small experiences I have had with business networking a clear front runner has become obvious and further research only seems to back it up. So I shall heed my own words and create a plan!

sdfsdf

Journal Ramblings - No 1

You could consider this the first milestone. I certainly wish I hadn't set such far away targets when considering what my milestones should be. But I think you should make milestones and try to stick to them, only creating new ones in-between if they seem too far off, as is the case now!

I need to read this!

My original plan was that I would create the site as a simple blog. My first milestone was to have 20 articles which included 3 videos. I had plenty of young successful people in mind for all of the interviews,  in fact I think I wrote around 20 names down when writing them in my logbook. The articles are a little harder, for me at least.

I presume its due to the nature of my life and experience so far and that only until recently have I been put in a position where my writings are read by anyone. But now, as all things seem to occur, they have gone from non-existent to detailed technical reports for my current job and these articles for my website. Certainly I have friends who are proficient in the art of writing and may (and will) point out the many grave mistakes in spelling and grammar that I am sure I am making with every key stroke. I even managed to self prove that point by misspelling "spelling" which is impressive!

So I shall endeavour to create these short journal entries in order for me to remember where I am and where I want to be. It will help me review my and my websites development as well as serve as stark reminder how bad I could possibly have been when I started. THIS BAD!

So how has it gone so far?

Well  good and bad, swings and roundabouts. I don't feel I really have met my quote so far for the production quality or quantity but its a work in progress as are all things. That's one generic answer right there!

Writing articles is harder then previously indicated. I suppose its one of those thing that looks easy but is actually very difficult like  sculpture or chess. I mean how hard could it be to chip a bit of stone out to look like something. The answer is fucking hard. But its not about the winning its about the taking part. Anyone can sit on the sideline or at home shouting at the TV like a demented chimpanzee as if if they were there they would have made a different move, or made a better tackle, or handled something better in some of the many ways that I always find people shouting at the TV for. Merely the act of taking part, of having a go will help me to get better and at some point reach my goal.

I recorded the first video ( first of three) with my friend and peer Mitu Khandaker, founder of one woman games development company "The Tiniest Shark" (if having an awesome sounding business doesn't make you want to start your own business I don't know what will!). The chat went very well and really bolstered my enthusiasm for the project. We covered some great topics and I was really happy with this as a starting point for IMNOTASHEEP.com. I will write a full review of the interview when the video is realised talking about some of the points which were covered and some which were missed.

Editing however was not the smooth sailing experience that I thought it would be. I'm using adobe premiere which is a beautiful piece of art as far as I am concerned. It to me truly feels like the pallet of a master, unfortunately I'm painting with my hands at this point!

But I love it and shall continue to add the hours of fiddling, attempting one thing, failing, attempting another thing, failing and just having some fun until its what I want it to be. Im sure in year or two I will not understand how I could have ever been so cack-handed with it all!

In case there is any confusion at this point which is definitely possible my end goal is to create a site that can help people of all ages to better understand what they want to do with their careers. I want to do this by creating relationships with people in different careers and hosting videos that delve into the murky underbelly of what its like to be an engineer or a programmer or an astronaut (on the to do list!). That way you can find out the best way to get to the career you want and if you have any questions you can just subscribe and ask them?

At this point I think I could write a small book about how I got to thinking about this subject but I will leave that for the next time.

Much love. 

Desire and vision

Vision Boards

My first Vision-Board

When I have talked to my friends about vision boards  a lot of the time the response is essentially "what a load of rubbish, why would you want to do that? But why not? Most of us spend our teenage years with posters on our walls of fast cars, sexy men or women or pictures of our friends.

Why do we do that? It could be because we like to be surrounded by what we love and what drives our passions, whether that's Kerry King from slayer playing guitar or a great night you spent out with your friends. 

So what is the point of a vision board and how do you go about making one?

The most cynical of my friends would continue to argue that there is no benefit from completing this task -  "I know what I like and what I don't like what could possibly be the benefit of sticking pictures on a poster that represents it?

With that I retort a simple quote:

"Definiteness of purpose. The knowledge of what one wants and the burning desire to posses it" - Napoleon Hill

If you can quantify your desires, If you can lay them bear for all to see, then you have taken the first step to achieving what it is you desire. Knowing what you want and by definition what you don't want in your life is a great tool for moving towards the "want". It also allows your mind to visualise what your life might be like if you possess your greatest desires, whether tangible products or life changing experiences, dangling the proverbial carrot on a stick in front of you to take every step forwards towards them and not allowing yourself to become preoccupied with some of the chores of life.

I have done this several times now. My first experience completing my vision board is detailed in a book called Dream, plan, reduce rick and take action - a book about franchise recruitment marketing by Sarah Cook. One subject covered by the book is vision, here is a small extract from the book written by myself about my first vision board experience:

"I started thinking about KPI's  (Key Performance Indicators) and then made the board after that. The pictures  represented the house and car I wanted, my interest in photography, my health and charity. My girlfriend and I were the background as I wanted to achieve everything with her in my life.  Then there were various sayings that applied to me at the time. Within the year my girlfriend and I had the house and I had the car. I had worked for professional photographers, I was in remission, my health was on the way up and I was training for charity events. That's the power of vision!"

Its pretty simple, all you have to do is collect pictures of what you love, what you want to achieve or what you would like to experience and put them together into a collage in what ever way seems best. You can cut them out of magazines or print them from your computer. You can stick them down with PVA or use Photoshop to make a collage and get it printed out professionally. Its completely up to you.

Why would you not want to be surrounded by what you love and what drives you?

Chase the dream

Chase the Dream

Persistence is the key to achieving anything that is worthwhile. Chase and Tim talk about everything it takes from being a photographer to launching a book. This video is perfectly released post the massive success of The 4 Hour Work Week launched essentially from nowhere by Tim. 

If you have ever had an idea, discovered your passion or thought of a great business plan and not carried it through then you should chill out and watch this.  

Tim explains how he defined exact Goals and how this helped him achieve exactly what he wanted. They both talk about fear in its different forms and how they affect our actions or more often than not Inaction.

This video perfectly defines what can be achieved with persistence.

Enjoy!

Things of note:

Chase Jarvis:

The Best Camera Is The One Thats With You (2009)

Seattle 100 (2010)

http://www.chasejarvis.com/

Timothy Ferris:

The 4 Hour Work Week

The 4 Hour Body

http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/ 

Pretending you are someone who can do it:

Don't think you can succeed without going to university? Watch Neil Gaiman author of The Sandman, American gods and Stardust commencement 2012 speech to know how to do it!

                 

Neil Gaiman didn't go to university to learn how to write, he did something different, he wrote. He refers to the arts during his speech but what he says has truth in everything and everyone.

He talks of success and failure, of doing what you want to do and doing what you have to do, and of doing what only you can do.

"let go and enjoy the ride"

There are shining examples of successful people in all fields of life who did not go to university and and those that did. From Chase Jarvis (Photographer) to Richard Branson (Chairman of Virgin Group). If you have a passion then do it.

"What's it like to fly a Harrier"                                                   

Well this is the site, at least the beginning of the beginning of the thought of a site that I envisaged over a year ago.


My story isn't unlike an others particularly. I Spent almost the entirety of youth to young adulthood wondering what the hell I was supposed to be doing, who I was supposed to be and what the hell the whole point of it was anyway. 


Then there was a great happening. Something big. It changed everything. 


When I finally realised I had a plan, or that I should at least create a plan for my life it made be realise that that was exactly what had been missing. 


I, like everyone else I know spent their entire childhood being indoctrinated. We were told that if we worked hard,revised and got good marks that one day, everything would be good. We would become happy, highly respected members of a future society with no worries and a life of luxury. 


The main problem with this was that we were told this by two respected members of society, teachers and career advisers.


Now if I wanted to be a teacher I don't think I would be being particularly daring asking a teacher -"Hey Mr/Mrs/Miss teacher person thingy, what's it like being a teacher then?" and they may respond with "great, i love the hours" or "great, its long hours" or "great, kill me know" but the point is that they would know what its like to become a teacher.


I don't think it would come as a huge surprise though if I were to say that i among others received most insightful opinions on everything from working for the RAF to engineering apprenticeships from people who had spent the last 5 years of their life a career advisor. 

I'm pretty sure a chefs never flown a Harrier and a Pilots never earned a Michelin Star.

So here I endeavour to give real life accounts through interviews and videos with young people at the forefront of their chosen careers, to find out for the masses.

"What's it like to fly a Harrier"