Spend time on yourself. Make yourself bettter. Because it’s you… versus you.
Categories
Tag: Motivation
Categories
Monday Motivation…
Recently, I tweeted – I may hold a workshop, around idea generation… creating ideas… collaboration… and how you can succeed on those ideas.
The key thing here is… imagination.
Categories
Monday Motivation…
A lot of the times, I hear a lot of excuses – and 99% of the time, those excuses are limits. Limits that have been placed upon us. And it us up to us, to understand those limits. As you are your only limit.
Anything is Possible.
So I’ve decided to start throwing back to some good old times… on Thursday’s. Not every Thursday, I’ll throwback once a Thursday a month.
Last month, we had my good old days at Kodak… and this moth, I wanted to share with you a throwback, to a time when my good friend, Karun Chandhok and I met up at Silverstone for a little beverage and a conversation.
Now, Karun is an accomplished racing driver. He’s raced in Formula 1, he’s raced in Le Mans, he’s raced in many races around the world… I could keep going on about his races, but easier if I share a link to his bio –Â http://www.karunchandhok.com/KC/
But why I am sharing this information with you? – well, when we met up, he shared some real good insights into his daily life that are applicable to all of us…
For example,
Karun has, as I mentioned, raced a lot. He’s done speeds, which I can only dream about… but when we met up, he pulled up in a VW Passat. Now, no offence, they’re extremely good, solid, family cars… but for a Formula 1 Racing driver to pull up in a Passat, you’d ask the question… where’s the sports car?
Now his answer… “Well, Bal… you see, i’m doing 350km per hour, in some of the best racing circuits in the world… don’t need anything fancy on the roads where you’re limited”.
Damn! – that put me in my place!! – So true… when you’re following your passion, and you’re doing what you love – you’ll be near the top of your game, with that in mind… who cares what you do (or drive – in this case) when you’re limited with restrictions.
Karun never wanted to be a doctor or an accountant… he didn’t want a professional job like that… he knew, he wanted to be a racing driver. He followed his passion… he worked hard… even though he was limited to resources when in India, he moved to Northampton, out of his comfort zone (away from the hot weather) and kept on pushing himself to achieve his dreams.
That’s another lesson we can all learn. Move away from your comfort zone. We talk about it… but how many of you are willing to give up on home comforts?
The one thing, I really wanted to share about Karun is how humble he is.
Honestly, this guy… is so nice… for example, when we’d finished chatting at Silverstone, I asked him… is it the private jet to the next race venue? – his answer… no, it’s a normal flight. In fact… came over on Easyjet, because it was the quickest and easiest.
Easyjet?! – now… once again, nothing wrong with Easyjet, in fact, I use them a lot… but it goes down to the thinking. Yes, from time to time, the private jet or chartered planes are there to take him around the world, but for Karun, it’s the quickest and easiest method of transportation to get him from A to B. And you couldn’t get any more ‘Lean Thinking’ than that.
And there you have it… a couple of lessons from Karun. Who left the lovely hot weather of India, to come to Northampton to follow his dreams….
I feel I need to put a number of disclaimers in this blog post – The VW Passat, as mentioned, is a lovely car… Easyjet are a great low cost airline (Value for money indeed)… and Northampton does have hot weather (for a few days in August).
Categories
Tuesday Thoughts…
A thought… for today. What are you spending your time and energy on…
Categories
Just the first step…
Some Monday Motivation for you… Big Plans, Small Steps.
Categories
Bal’s Friday Thought…
Practise and Perform…
Categories
Start-ups can learn from Rak-Su…
Some of you, may have been viewing the X-Factor 2017 Final… I know I was… in fact, I do most years… it’s good entertainment for a cold Sunday evening.
And i’d like to take a moment to congratulate Rak-Su for winning the competition.
I’ll be honest. I’ve been watching it – from the moment they (Rak-Su) first walked into the audition room, to them performing when they’d won.
There’s been a few things I’ve picked up on… that I think, made them favourites quite early on… to win.
And these attributes, I thought, could be related to business… and especially start-ups. Because… start-ups are in a similar situation when they enter the market – or in X Factor words… ‘the audition room’.
There’s alot of competition. Everybody wants to win. Everyone is ‘new’.. and this is the start-up scene!
Everyone wants to be noticed. Everyone wants their product to stand out. Everyone wants investment.
So, there’s a lot of similarities between the X Factor Audition Room… and the Start-up scene. But what makes a small company, a start-up a success… well, let’s see what Rak-Su did, and if we can learn anything from them.
- Rak-Su sang their own song.Â
- Rarely done – especially in the previous years auditions, but in 2017 as a whole, many of the artists up’d their game, and sang their own songs.
- Points for originality and points for standing out and not singing another Ed Sheeran cover.
- What can we learn from this – Well, it’s simple… stand out by making sure you are original. You’ll have a higher probability of being remembered and noticed, if you are doing something new…
- Rak-Su had their own style
- When they performed, there was more rapping, subtle choreographed dance moves, each member had a unique offering, but the group performed very well together.
- I’ve mentioned before, let’s move away from the Minimum Viable Product… you should be working on the Minimum Loveable Product.
- What can we learn from this –Â Well it’s simple… don’t look around and copy.. .bring your own style and flavour to the game. Ensure you have the diversity and the subtle moves that will make you, a ‘MLP’.
- Rak-Su stood in a line.. and waited.
- You got to be in it… to win it!
- Just like all the other contestants, Rak-Su stood and queued in a line… got their numbers… and then auditioned. They followed the process… 6 chair challenge… live shows… etc… before being named as the winners.
- What can we learn from this –Â Well it’s simple… have some patience. Go network, stand in a line and meet some interesting people. Investment, success and customers may not come over night… keep working towards the goal… and importantly… keep growing… keep learning. (By the way, Rak-Su were quickly able to have their songs on iTunes and it was charting quite high up – early on – due to the publicity via the show).
So there you go, a couple of things to think about from Rak-Su… & their journey to winning the competition.
Now… at the start, I did say… some folk may have not watched it… and I know, many folk from around the world – who read this blog – may have not had the opportunity to see Rak-Su.
For you guys.. here’s one of their performances. Enjoy.
Categories
Bal’s Friday Thought…
Go do it… don’t talk about it.
Categories
Bal’s Friday Thought…
Today’s Thought is very much reflecting on life… as i’ve come to the end of my Sober October.
For those who don’t know, I was Sober for October, and raised some money for Macmillan Cancer Charity, becuase a friend of mine, Reinout… passed away recently.
