Tim de Jardine -Entrepreneur

Its never a single person who creates an idea. Where did they get the thought from? What influenced them? What influenced the influencer?

An idea is an idea. An idea with actions is a plan. An idea in a system is even more powerful. An idea with execution is the winner.

Its execution that counts, not ideas. Worth repeating.

Its execution that counts

So don’t be so precious with your ideas. The reality is there are probably dozens of people with the same idea. Are they teaming up? Are they executing better? Have they just found a partner?

You will never know.

In the world of entrepreneurship Teams Win and the only way you will find out about that other entrepreneur is after they win.

Goalkeep Screenshot

Not to turn this blog into an IPhone only blog, I have to share the experience I have with a new application called GoalKeep.

Much like how Jerry Seinfeld kept his habit of stand-up comedy by marking off each day on a calender and seeing how long his chain of successful days are, Goalkeep is a habit builder in your pocket.  Very intuitive and even more effective this application will be a great addition to the mobile office on my IPhone as I move away from a desktop pc.

Get it here, absolute bargain

Do you read blogs, news, twitter, facebook or newspaper several times daily?

How does this add to your life?

More often than not the hour or so we spend “catching up” with the news in the morning is a wasted hour.

So what was that news/blog story you read today? What about the articles on Digg this morning? Do you even remember them??

We over stimulate ourselves with information, this lowers productivity and effectiveness; which in term decreases success.

After re-reading the 4 hour work week, I am proposing an information diet.

The task is:

5 days of no News, no TV, no blogs or magazines.

See how your feel after that? Is this clutter really that important?

Got a package couriered to me from Microsoft. Large box etc must be important?

It was a cd. Vista sp1 actually. Borderline ridiculous…

Imagine the impact of this 1 cd:

Freight
Assembly
Manufacturing
Time
Petrol

Finally, after literally months of seeking I have found the best GTD (getting things done) application on the Iphone & Ipod Touch: Todo by Appigo.

Why does this app beat all other Iphone GTD applications? One word:

Integration.

Todo integrates flawlessly with Remember the Milk (RTM) and Toodeldo (what I am currently using). These are two of the most popular GTD web-based applications.

A single system is extremely powerful. You have one place for data, backed-up and synced over the air with a local copy on your IPhone.

RTM and toodledo also offer many other ways to use this system with dashboard widgets for the mac and pc along with firefox extensions and igoogle plugins.

Other GTD applications have not achieved integration with already popular products and instead chosen to try to make themselves the central hub for web-based GTD rather than leverage off proven products like RTM and toodledo.

Download your copy here.

Do you charge what you are worth? Many people don’t and it bugs them every time.

Why don’t they charge what they are worth? Maybe its because they have that trap door/escape option during or after a project that keeps us from giving 100%. We can always say “I dont have to do my best as I’m not charging what I am worth”. As opposed to being fully immersed in work and giving our all. Here is the revelation:

Everytime you under-charge you waste energy.

Almost all people who undercharge spend time thinking about how they should have charged what they are worth. This wasted energy effects concentration, communication and work quality.

Just do it, charge what you are worth. You will be happier, your work will be of more quality and you will have less stress in your life.

Seth writes an insightful blog post on the limits of meta.

Organisations or individuals who try to use a medium to write about a medium are eventually limited.

I have always thought that these types of pursuits apart from rare exceptions are sometimes quiet acts of desperation to gain authority in a field that they did not quite succeed in.

Some examples include:

• writing about writing
• blogging about blogging
• songs about songwriting
• A online business about how to succeed in an online business

Can anyone think of any other examples?

When I was in school I often was told off by the teachers for day-dreaming. Whether I was using my imagination for school related purposes or something else didnt matter.

We were disciplined to not use our imaginations when we should have been encouraged to using them the most. Why?

Creative thought.

Creative thought is the most powerful form of thought. Turning the formless into the form is a skill that few have due this brainwashing. Those that have creative thought win.

So after the dust has settled lets have an analysis of how I saw the handling of the IPhone 3G build up.

One word to describe it: incompetence. Here we have a company that is going to be the first in the world to release a device that has never had so much hype associated with it and they screw New Zealanders out of a deal. Two days ago on Monday when Vodafone announced the plans would start from $199, they we were utterly dissapointing when the pricing was announced yesterday.

For a brief moment on monday there was this huge demographic of people who suddenly thought “you know what, im gonna get one of those”. This demographic dissapeared the moment plans were released yesterday which can be described as a bungling mess.

When the prices were announced yesterday, the Vodafone site was down for over an hour and I got the plan information off of geekzone.  Geekzone is more reliable than a multinational.

Who runs this company? Surely you would anticipate a spike in traffic? It seems that the pre-registering with Vodafone for the IPhone accounted for nothing as the media are hinting that the only way to get an iphone is to either order online (site will go down) or que in line in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. Another blunder.  A colleague of mine (heavy Telecom customer) went into a Vodafone store to pre-register.  He is heavily dissapointed.

Techcrunch covered the story helping to spread international attention at the hideous plans.

So here we are, first in the world to sell, first in the world to blow it. Welcome back to 3rd world status New Zealand.

There has been considerable backlash within New Zealand with an online petition(with over 1100 signatures in less than 24 hours) to boycott Vodafone and an interview with the Vodafone “marketing manager” as he was systematically crucified on live television.

So Vodafone, why go for a small market when you could have had a huge market?  You chose a big piece of a small pie, rather than a small piece of a big pie. Its the same old story and New Zealanders wont get over this one anytime soon:

Data pricing is expensive in New Zealand, dont use it.

Lets keep text messaging and fall further behind.

Any mobile applications I release wont be featured here if current market conditions prevail.

Will Vodafone listen? I doubt it, you don’t have to when you have a monopoly.

Telecom, your move.

Work mode is the state of being that you routinely slip into when you arrive at work.

The patterns of getting coffee, checking email and even thinking can influence your work mode. These patterns have developed your entire working career.  Have you ever had a clear thought about a problem at work after work has finished and wondered how you didn’t come up with the answer at work?  This is work-mode.

Take a moment and ask yourself; where you learnt your work-mode patterns from?

Was it that first poor boss or your old office buddy Gary? Was it your mentor or that slacker whos always late? We are all influenced.

The point is this: Work-mode can be disruptive because you may not be performing at your optimal rate. And if your not at that optimal level, you then you need to change your state.

The
two methods to do this are either by moving your body or drastically
changing your focus.

Here are some suggestions:

• Take a brisk walk
• Snooze for 15minutes
• Listen to some music
• Talk to a friend
• Watch a video that is non work related online
• Laugh a bit