My challenge for 2015
Today I read that a tweet that stated “Goals that are not written down are simply dreams”. So taking this to heart and with inspiration from how Mark Zuckerberg who takes up a single new challenge every year I thought it would make good sense for find my challenge for 2015.
A good thing about Mark Zuckerberg’s approach is that it has a single focus rather than being a long list of resolutions for the year. His approach has allowed him to accomplish pretty cool things while still managing to run a significant business in this world (like it or not).
What is important?
There are loads of things that I’d like to achieve and skills that I’d like to develop. So like with almost anything in life it comes down to priority. Thus the first question should be - what is important in my life?
For my life it is:
- To be a good and happy person
- To create something of lasting value
What does that mean. In the following I’ll try to break it down more concretely.
Be a good and happy person
For me being a good and happy person entails among other things to be a great farther and husband as well as being a positive contribution to the people I meet in life. For me happiness is also about spending time on things that brings joy and recognize it in the present.
Create something of lasting value
This takes many shapes and forms. Both personally and professionally. For me personally it includes among other things starting a family and professionally it means to participate in creating a company, product or service that brings value that stands sustainably on it’s own feet. As well as having a good time doing it.
Status in 2014
It was a very good year for me. We had a son, Adam, who is a healthy and happy little guy. It was also the year where I co-founded my second company, Shipbeat, together with an old colleague. We managed to raise a seed round and launch our product. Today we are five people chasing the vision that Joachim and I originally set out to accomplish. My only regret in 2014 is that I should have celebrated more.
Challenge for 2015
What I got more mindful about in 2014 is that I have to be very careful with my time. Spend it well and be present. Alan Lakein said that “Failing to plan is planning to fail”. In 2015 my challenge is not to make that mistake.
Thus my challenge for 2015 is to implement a weekly and daily planning habit. To get more control of my day and accomplish what is important to me.
How?
1. Each sunday before 11am identify the three very important goals that I want to accomplish in the coming week.
2. Make a today list each day before checking mail. Essentially group the backlog list into four groups:
The top left-corner will constitute my today list. The today list must reflect the goals for the week and include no more than three bigger tasks. If todays project is too complex, break it down further into specific action steps (E.g. Create Investor presentation could be broken down into 1) create storyboard 2) collect market figures etc)
3. Set aside 2 hours from friday 2pm to 4pm to handle top right box (important, not urgent).
My challenge for 2015 is loosely Inspired by these articles and books:
https://hbr.org/2014/06/how-to-spend-the-first-10-minutes-of-your-day
http://uk.businessinsider.com/strategy-from-dwight-eisenhower-2014-12
http://www.feld.com/archives/2011/02/managing-priorities.html
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Winning-Without-Losing-strategies-succeeding/dp/1781251509
http://www.amazon.com/The-Habits-Highly-Effective-People/dp/1455892823
Travel sites - Buying traveling experiences is still crap
My wife and I bought plane tickets to Sicily and found a nice hotel tonight.
I don’t know if it just us, but I find that this process of buying the cheapest flights and the affordable (but great) hotel, to be messy and even stressful. This process should essentially be exciting and fairly straightforward. You are planning your next holiday.
We have the tools online to find the right hotel and cheapest flights, but holy crap the experience stinks. You have to use a lot of different sites to find the right price for the same thing. The UX on all the sites are naturally different. But none of them offer a great experience. At best you can checkout without being terribly annoyed.
An example - Flybillet.dk
This is where we bought plane tickets. The UX was so terrible that my wife unintentionally emptied cart, when she was trying to checkout. The button was placed in the top right corner with the call to action color.
When you had successfully re-added your ticket and moved forward - you encounter next road block. Please confirm that you don’t want to buy these extra services. They in fact require that you to click on EVERY service to confirm that “I don’t want this product” - just in order to complete purchase.
Oh are you entirely sure that you don’t want some random insurance?
At the end we succeeded buying the tickets at flybillet.dk - it required an unusual amount of effort. But the alternative was to go into an almost equally crappy site to complete a similar process.
Reflection
Unfortunately it is not only the travel industry that suffers from poor product management and too little attention to the customer. In fact many internet products or e-commerce experiences are quite poor. Not in terms of functionality. But in terms of great experiences.
We need more of this
And less of this
We owe it to ourselves and our customers to deliver a good experience. Not simply sell stuff online in exchange for money - why should that in itself warrant loyalty from our customers?
7. Predictions for e-commerce in 2014 & implications for your store
Ready to make 2014 really interesting with my new company http://shipbeat.com - we make shipping simple e-commerce companies with our API.
Getting started…
After more than a years delay this evening I have made tiny progress in learning to code… Signed up for Treehouse getting a large discount for the year and initiated the Ruby course.
- Download railsinstaller (check)
- Created a github account (check)
All major challenges start with a small step. The challenge is to keep going…
Learning is free - Only your effort is required
I think 2012 is going to be a very good year for learning. We live in a global world with amazing technologies that will help shape future of education and upgrade our skills. We will see that learning will be cheaper and even free. Your skills is affected by your own efforts and talents rather than your wallet. One of the most exciting news is that M.I.T will start to offer free interactive courses from spring 2012. That is a game changer: http://is.gd/freeeducation
- Get inspired see: TED
- Learn to code: www.codeacademy.com or www.codeschool.com
- Learn a language: verbling.com or use www.rosettastone.com
- Want a M.I.T. course? Find M.I.T.x and get a certificate (spring 2012)
- Need an education in whatever? Check: http://www.khanacademy.org/ or http://academicearth.org/ or iTunes U
- Need statistics? Check: http://www.google.dk/publicdata/directory and http://www.gapminder.org/
- Got a question? Go to Quora.com or Wolfram Alpha
- Need information: www.wikipedia.com or google it
- More into the traditional classroom setup? Check: http://www.skillshare.com/
- More into reading scientific papers: scholar.google.com
- Test prep for GMAT, SAT etc.: www.grockit.com
All of this obviously requires an internet enabled device. Good news: In India they have developed an Android powered tablet focused on students for education purposes. The killer trick is that it costs only 35 USD(!). Less than the average printed textbook used on Danish universities. For more information on the Aakash tablet see: http://is.gd/launchedforstudents and http://is.gd/handson. The Kindle Fire with a price tag of 199 USD also has some serious potential for students.
All of this is great news for the world. If we all learn to make an effort ourselves and value skills higher than the reputation of the college degree. What will you learn in 2012?
Starting full-time vs. part-time
I am still summing up on the learnings from my first startup project. One of my challenges was the question: To jump on the startup full-time or part-time?
According to the Startup Genome project data suggests going in full-time increases likelihood of success with the startup. That seems obvious and reasonable.
In a team everybody should be equally committed. It is like the morning breakfast with ham and eggs. The pig is committed and the chicken is only involved. My experience is that this type of imbalance is not effective. So the team members should probably go full-time roughly the same time or maybe quit. I was the chicken.
If you want to be successful with your startup you should make a commitment strategy with milestones: Set a date for starting full-time to ensure effective progress while working part-time. This means the question should be: When should you go full-time with your startup or quit?
Committing full-time to a startup is high-risk and will jeopardize your financial situation - if you have family this will be a tough call. Consider following when making the decision.
- How can you reduce your fixed cost-base? It is tough to quit the addiction to a fixed income
- Start testing! This doesn’t necessarily require a full-time effort. There are many great ways of testing your business potential. Tine Thygesen (@tahitahi) from www.everplaces.com blogged about those here http://daredo.tumblr.com/post/11312954063/how-to-test-your-product-for-market-fit-fast-and-easy
- To reach product / market fit iterate quickly before coding with full-time resources. Get involved with potential customers and users to confirm direction
- Build subject matter - if you are serious with your startup you need to have done your industry home-work before taking the plunge. See http://www.davidblerner.com/david_b_lerner/2011/10/what-every-student-entrepreneur-needs-to-know-to-succeed-3-know-something.html
- Are you passionate about the startup to see it through?
- Does your business have a reasonable road to revenue or other forms of funding?
If you haven’t been through these considerations with a positive outcome. I wouldn’t recommend going full-time.
Learnings from my first real Startup Project
I’m not an experienced entrepreneur. For my own sake and for others (if you are reading this) I’d like to recap some of the learnings from my first real startup project. These are learnings that apply to myself and not necessarily hold true for you.
1. Team matters and so does team location
It is common knowledge you need a great team with complimentary rock-star skills and where the team members know one another really well. The only thing I’d like to add to this is - that core team members should be able to work in the same location and time-zone almost from the get go. It makes things so much easier. Launching a startup is difficult enough.
2. You need to scratch your own itch
This is also a common “truth” often shared by 37signals. I learned that this is true for a couple of reasons. It makes you personally more qualified to solve the problem. Secondly it gives meaning to the problem you are trying to solve which is important in order to follow through from startup to a great business.
3. The problem you are trying to solve must be “Real”
In order to have a real business with revenue you must solve a problem that you yourself and people (your target group) will recognize as valuable. A lot of things can be valuable. For some people virtual goods in a Facebook game is valuable - for me personally it is not. So I would never personally be able to launch a successful Facebook game company. Don’t create something that you yourself wouldn’t love to buy and use. Google management could learn a thing or two about this: http://theunderstatement.com/post/11018308302/googles-management-doesnt-use-google?e7829e70
4. Be compelled to solve the problem
If entreprenuers felt compelled to solve a real problem - we would probably see fewer mindless photo sharing social apps and more businesses that changed the world to the better. If you feel compelled to solve a problem, because you personally recognize it as valuable - I’d give you and myself better odds to follow through. Podio (www.podio.com) is a great example of a team trying to solve a problem that is real. The team sincerely feel compelled to make it easier for people to get work done in a smarter way. This might in particular be important for first time entrepreneurs: http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2011/05/first-time-vs-serial-entrepreneurs.html
Problems are plentiful which means opportunities are everywhere. Go solve some problems
Good online ressources and apps for traveling
Was thinking about how to get the most out of your travel spend, so I just wanted to jot down the best links and apps to services that can help you do just that
Accommodation
- Destly.com
- Butikk.nu
- hotwire.com
- Airbnb.com
- hipmunk.com
- Redappleapartments.com
- Booking.com
- Hotels.com
- Priceline.com (good for US visits)
- Onefinestay.com (London)
- Vilondo.com (if you’re in Bali)
Car rental
- hotwire.com
- Holidayautos.com
- FDM-travel.dk (Cheap car rental through Hertz)
- Getaround.com (like Airbnb for cars in US)
- Zipcar
Plane tickets
- Viviro.com
- Momondo.com
iPhone Apps
- CPH Airport
- Tripit
- Tripadvisor
- TomTom or Navigon Apps instead of renting a GPS at the car rental
- Skype
- Wikihood (Location based wikipedia)
- Foodspotting (Find good places to eat)
- Foursquare
- Booking.com (find a hotel fast)
- Momondo (flight tickets)
- Everplaces (Discover and remember cool places - launching soon)
- Evertale (Automatically generates a scrapbook - launching soon)
Search for Apps about your destination like Metro, Airport & Cityguide
You can find daily deals from e.g. Groupon at the location through Bownty.com
I found it posted on http://www.bonkersworld.net/
HOLSTEE MANIFESTO, 2009
Lifehacking
In the following I try sum up a few easy and hard hacks to get more out of life.
First the easy ones:
1. Avoid boring stuff, if financially possible
- Get a cleaning lady - the best way to spend money. Ever.
- Get your groceries delivered. Not expensive and stops impulse buying. Check out www.nemlig.com if based in CPH
- Consider getting a virtual personal assistent. If you have standardized tasks that could be solved in english - check out: www.asksunday.com, www.brickworkindia.com or www.bpovia.com
2. Always have backup and “anywhere” access to important files
- I use dropbox.com for automatically syncing and backing up files across computers. Files are accesible from everywhere (iphone, web, computers) Dropbox is free (up to 2GB) and if you signup here: http://db.tt/7NGXUNZ - I get more free space:-)
- You can get up to 640 mb of additional free space on Dropbox here www.dropbox.com/free
3. Use Apps to help organize your life
- Wunderlist.com- a simple cross-platform todo list
- Fix your inbox: Use Gmail Priority Inbox + cloudmagic.com extension for search + sanebox.com. Disable email counter and notification. Tip for getting through email backlog: http://is.gd/pileofmail
- Tripit.com - automatically create an itinerary for your travels with ticket-info
- Doodle.com - easy tool to organize meetups for people with different calendars
- Podio.com and their iPhone App- a flexible platform for teamwork and communication. You can build just the App you need
4. Remove clutter from your life
- Use Adblock Plus browser extension for Chrome or Firefox to remove all ads from your browser (http://bit.ly/ffoxad and http://bit.ly/chadblock)
- Get a “Reklamer Nej Tak” badge on your door if you live in DK (http://bit.ly/nejreklame)
- Unsubscribe from newsletters cluttering up your inbox
5. Make it easy to order online
- Signup for Døgnposten - then you can have packages sent to Døgnposten and you can pick it up at your convenience http://bit.ly/dposten
Hopefully this is just the beginning of a longer easy-list that will make my life and your life efficiently hacked
Then the hard ones:
1. Just get things done. Important Stuff First
- Do the stuff that has been nagging you - don’t write it in your todo
- Meet early and make of habit of stop working after 18:00
- Focus only on things that you can influence - don’t worry about the rest
- Don’t overanalyse - you can adjust later as you learn more
- Don’t be a perfectionist. Done is better than perfect. Focus on the 20% that creates 80% of the impact
2. Exercise
- 1-hour every other day. I hear crossfit and running should be good.
- Use your bike as primary transportation
3. Eat healthy
- Eat 5-6 times a day in a regular schedule and don’t forget breakfast
- What to eat: Vegetables, fish, lean meat, and moderate carb intake
- Snack: Fruits, unsalted and unroasted nuts, low fat yoghurt
- Reduce caffeine and sugar consumption. Will help you sleep (http://is.gd/koffein)
- Drink 2-3 liters of water a day
4. Sleep
- 7-8 hours in a regular sleeping pattern e.g. 23:00 to 06:30 - Consider using Sleep Cycle as alarm clock or Lark.com silent alarm (http://is.gd/getenoughsleep)
- Turn down the temperature in the bedroom
- Make sure the bedroom is only used for two things. No TV, working or storage of papers, laundry etc.
- Prepare to sleep well - Powerdown. Don’t watch TV or use your computer 30 min. before going to sleep - as it speeds up the mind. Tidy up your place instead. http://is.gd/sleepwell
- Eat a small handfull of almonds or a bit of yoghurt before going to sleep (http://bit.ly/hB1W9E )
5. Sell Your TV
- Selling your TV will free up your calendar and it will finance your cleaning lady
6. De-materialize and save money
- Throw stuff out you don’t need (sell it, recycle, waste) - like you do when you prepare to move
- Don’t buy stuff you don’t need. Write a list of the things you really need and want - save up and buy that instead
7. Minimize distractions
- Decline meetings that you don’t need to be a part of
- Finish meetings on time with a clear plan of action/decisions/actionable input
- Meetings don’t need to take the default hour - consider 15-30 minutes
- Check mail at two-three set times a day or on your mobile during transport
- Defrag calendar by organizing emails to-dos, calls, meetings in batches of homogene tasks. For tips on task batching http://is.gd/taskbatching
- You don’t need to check Facebook, Twitter and SMS every minute - trust me, you won’t miss much
8. Relax when you relax - don’t get caught in a limbo of relaxing and working (http://is.gd/Tim4hrweek and http://is.gd/slapaf)
9. Do what you love and love what you do. If you do your best - then what can stop you?
10. Decide to make it a great day and pass it on :-)
Further ressources:
- Tim Ferris Book: “The 4-hour work week”
- Tim Ferris blog: http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/
- Rework cheat sheet: http://bit.ly/reworkcheat
- If you don’t have a 9-17 gig check out: http://projectgetaway.net/
- See also http://www.slideshare.net/nomadznu/nomadznu4
Thoughts about naming a company - it’s tricky
Helping friends finding an excellent name for an online business is tricky.
I gathered some thoughts and useful links on this issue and would like to share it with others
Important criteria for an excellent online name
- Short, easy to spell (e.g. if heard over the phone)
- Set a direction, tell a story and be easy to remember OR made up word where you create the brand/story
- Be free and legal (on .com, FB, Twitter, not to be mistaken in Google)
- Be timeless - not too clever now - so yesterday tomorrow
How to get there?
- Be clear on what your business does! (or will do) - in one sentence?
- Be creative (group, alone, combine words, create words etc.)
- Pause and restart
- Test it! (Over the phone, visually, use a poll, do people remember it etc.)
Good Names
- dropbox.com
- facebook.com
- yelp.com
- youtube.com
- twitter.com
- google.com
- groupon.com
Tools
- http://domai.nr/
- http://namechk.com/
- http://www.dotcomroulette.com/
- http://www.dotomator.com/
- http://www.bustaname.com/
Great advice on domain names from others
Fred Wilson: http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2011/04/finding-and-buying-a-domain-name.html