I needed a serious break from this daily grind to refresh myself and reconnect with the elements. Ok I must admit I did have some technology with me, but only so I could remember this memorable trip and show others some of the sights we enjoyed.

I highly recommend getting away now and then to refocus and put things into perspective

He passed on a really great online business idea

It was Something really simple and with potential to make some good dosh online, which got me thinking about the way I have been approaching my career. I’m not about to share his idea with the world to run off and make it irrelevant to me, but after coming across the following post written by Bud Caddell on whatconsumesme.com, I also re-thought whether just any good business idea would do for me.

This Venn diagram gave me some serious food for thought in terms of how to go about sticking to what I do well, what I love doing and still making a decent living out of it. The post is entitled “How to be Happy in Business“. Apart from being a really well designed piece of informaton design, the concepts really hit me hard and also made me think back to my business ideas convo with @naeem. Would it do to get into just any type of business just to make money?

Budd lists the 3 problems highlighted by the diagram:

• We can’t determine how to make enough money from the things we want to do, and do really well.
• We’ve found things we want to do, and can be paid for, but we’re not the best game in town.
• We’ve come across things people want us to do, that we do well (or at least better than the competition) that we really don’t want to do.

I’m the type of person that generally comes up with business ideas connected to a direct need I have, and also most times relating to something which I’m really interested in, which helps me get my head fully inside the whole development process. Ok so I haven’t really succeeded with any of my crazy business ideas yet, LOL, nor have I even progressed to prototyping phase with some of the more serious ones, but this means that something disconnected to what I love doesn’t stand a snowball’s chance of even featuring. Then comes the problem of monetizing what I’m really truely passionate about.

Me gots lots to think about regarding this diagram!

On the same little stroll around the interwebs, I also found a really great way of identifying my own special business model, and applying my efforts in that direction. Gina Trapini, “software and self improvement junkie” wrote a piece on Freelance Switch where she says,

“While I do plan to make money as a freelancer, my ultimate goal is to generate satisfaction.”

(While money is a part of that, so is learning, service, and creativity, so we’ll just use the umbrella term “satisfaction.”)

She shares her personal “business model” in plain & simple terms, What’s important to her is more than just paying the bills while doing what she specializes in.

This particular concept highlights the importance of consantly tracking your activities based on what’s most important to you. Of course knowing what’s most important is step 1, having a plan to engage more in those areas comes next. I found in the last 2 months, tracking my activities in detail has given me huge insight in where the problem areas are. I’ve started taking a few steps in a new direction and these 2 posts/diagrams has helped wrap my head around the way forward.

Design Thinking Process

Define | Research | Ideate | Prototype | Choose | Implement | Learn

Within these seven steps, problems can be framed, the right questions can be asked, more ideas can be created, and the best answers can be chosen. The steps aren’t linear; they can occur simultaneously or be repeated.

Web Design Process

The latest web design proposal I’ve just written, included an explanation of exactly how the ideal process should play itself out, in order to successfully reach the desired result. This was to to help my client clearly visualize or conceptualize how I would go about developing the solution, and at what stage I would need their input in order to progress to the next phase successfully.

The link below is to a document I developed a few months ago to formalize our web design process. The purpose of the doc was to give us a loose format ,which could steer our activities in a more orderly and organised fashion, preventing scope creep from disrupting projects by ensuring that all issues were dealt with in their particular Phase.

web project process

These links below offer good insight into the the web design process and have played a major role in shaping the way I would ideally go about designing a website from scratch.

Redesigning the Expressions Engine Website

The complete no none-sense guide to designing websites

The Website Development Process – Lego Style

Brainstorming Process

I’ve also spent quite a significant amount of time focusing on various brainstorming processes or techniques and developed a few of my own based on some research and reading. One of the best approaches I came across is “The Six Hat Technique” developed by Eduardo de Bono, which breaks up your thinking in thinking types each assigned a specific hat colour. I first learnt about this fantastic technique while attending a Brand Development Training Programme with the Ogilvy Africa Group. This is how the De Bono Group describes the 6 Hat Technique:

• The White Hat calls for information known or needed. “The facts, just the facts.”
• The Yellow Hat symbolizes brightness and optimism. Under this hat you explore the positives and probe for value and benefit
• The Black Hat is judgment – the devil’s advocate or why something may not work. Spot the difficulties and dangers; where things might go wrong. Probably the most powerful and useful of the Hats but a problem if overused.
• The Red Hat signifies feelings, hunches and intuition. When using this hat you can express emotions and feelings and share fears, likes, dislikes, loves, and hates.
• The Green Hat focuses on creativity; the possibilities, alternatives, and new ideas. It’s an opportunity to express new concepts and new perceptions.
• The Blue Hat is used to manage the thinking process. It’s the control mechanism that ensures the Six Thinking Hats® guidelines are observed.

It comes down to everything having a science to it, a set of steps which if followed, are more likely to produce a successful result. This brings me to the whole point of this article, something which I am trying to figure out for myself at the moment. Having recently become an independent consultant who no longer works within the confines of a specific company, I need to completely change: the way I approach my work, spend my time, manage my tasks and how I prioritize things. Basically I’ve realized I need some science in my life to manage all the many aspects of it.

Spiritual Processes

I can appreciate this concept on many levels including the spiritual level having adopted a new religion(Islam) a few years ago, which introduced me to spiritual sciences, and the activities necessary to solve certain spiritual ailments. One such prescription is that of fasting. If you’ve been following any of the many life coaches out there you’ll notice many have spoken about some kind of 20 – 30 day programme where one has to engage in a habit changing activity consistently in order to break a bad habit or inculcate a new good habit. Having recently come out of one such 30 day spiritual programme and have done so 5 years in a row now, so I have experienced first hand the value of such an effective process. Once a year “at least” I fast for 30 days staying away from many things which would normally be ok for me to indulge in, while refocussing my activities more so than usual on spiritual matters for the purpose of strengthening my God consciousness. I tell myself now if I can do this once a year what’s stopping me from doing the same thing for my business organisation and personal productivity which leads me to the next process I need to focus my attention much more closely on.

Productivity Process

Getting back to the point, I bought the Getting Things Done book by David Allen not too long ago, the personal productivity guide which has reached somewhat of a cult status. I’ve been trying to implement some of the principles I’ve learnt in it along the way. For example, the 2 minute rule, which states anything on your to do list which takes less than 2 minutes should be done immediately. The rule of contexts which states that you when you are in a certain place where a specific task applies you should do it then. I’ve just set up my own “hipster PDA” which is a paper based organiser using some GTD principles to help organise tasks, projects, take notes etc. The concept of the hipster PDA was popularized by Merlin Mann, Author of a popular productivity blog 43 Folders. Another brilliant idea I recently came across while on my hunt for the productivity tools I’m in such great need of is the Pocket Mod. Following similar principles to the hipster PDA the Pocket Mod is a simple sheet of paper with a few templates printed onto both sides which can be folded into a small enough size to fit neatly into ones Pocket. The www.pocketmod.com website allows you to customize your very own tailor made Pocket mod and print it right there. GTD’s process in its simplest fom goes as follows:

1. Collect
2. Process
3. Organize
4. Review
5. Do

One can only function properly on a mental level if all the random to dos, someday maybes and admin type thoughts get dumped into a system outside of ones head – Collect. The next step is then to give each thought a status and decide what to do with them, for example specify a time to be done, delete it as a useless bit of mind trash or delegate it to the person that needs to “get it done” – Process. I Recommend getting your hands on this book if you’re into streamlining how you go about organising yourself and your work. Check out the basics by doing a quick google search or read about it on Wikipedias GTD page. Be warned, this system/method is only for those who are prepared to inject a little bit of discipline into their lives(I’m still grappling with that problem) as it needs consistency to really be successful.

Tackling Procrastination & Distraction

At an entrepreneurs seminar recently I learnt the eating the frog first rule, which forces one to tackle the things we least want to do first. This should be done first thing in the morning in the same manner one would get out of bed and eat a frog from a Jar placed beside one’s bed – Just Do It no matter what. Horrible thought yes, I know, but it frees our thinking and prevents procrastination from killing our to do list. The speaker explained those items on the to do list which we least want to do were like frogs in a jar next to our beds. When we wake up in the morning and realize we have to eat them in order to progress, we invent all manner of excuses why we shouldn’t get these done first. This creates mental baggage which affects our productivity. Eat the frog now, go do it. I can see the value of this from a mile off as I have a few frogs on my to do list that keep jumping from one to do list to another and never getting done. In fact writing this post at the moment is a distraction from the croaking sound which visits me at random moments throughout the day.

One of the “frogs” which it seems many people struggle with when it comes to problem solving is actually defining the problem. Many times we need to achieve something but we’re not willing to break it down and analyse it as this seems to us to be too much of a mission.

Problem Solving the Einstein way – The Questioning Process

Every problem has within it the keys to its solution. The MD of the advertising agency I worked at a few months back in Cairo repeated over and over, “a problem well defined is 80% solved.” Part of any problem solving process then, should be defining the problem. I found this short but powerful comparison of different approaches to problem solving. Apparently Einstein said:

“If I had 1 hour to save the world, I would spend the first 55 minutes defining the problem.“

This is an approach many people tend to steer away from especially so when it comes to visual design. Many of my clients ask to see something visual before they have given much thought to what they are trying to achieve. Graphic design is very much a problem solving art form. The solution should be based on the desired outcome. This little snippet from wikipedia’s definition for design puts it into perspective nicely -

In philosophy, the abstract noun “design” refers to a pattern with a purpose. Design is thus contrasted with purposelessness, randomness, or lack of complexity.

So when designing something it’s absolutely crucial to analyse the purpose, the why, the who, the what. To gather enough information and perspective so that the steps taken to developing the solution are perfectly suited to the problem. A good designer should be an expert at asking questions, asking the right questions and asking them in a way which would reveal the right type of information. This ties in very nicely with most of the processes which I’ve just spoken about and the 6 Hat technique is an excellent way of arriving at and answering the questions which need to be asked.

So, if you have any problems you think design could solve, and in the broader sense those are the majority of problems, then be prepared to answer many questions.

First things first lets go to the numbers. Using the wp-stats plugin has been so much fun for me being able to see where all my visitors are coming from and what they’re up to when they visit my site. I went from a personal blog with not much direction and little idea of what I was trying to achieve to 1000 visitors in one month.

Celebrating Small Achievements

You might be laughing your socks off right now and saying 1000 visitors is nothing, but to me it is the very beginning of a journey which I’ve enjoyed starting and one which I look forward to traveling with much more meaning and purpose. Like I said in a recent post about the South African new media scene is hotting up the opportunities available to network, collaborate, interact, learn, innovate, be heard and generally convey what what and who you are are so many as compared to just a few years or even months ago.

Action, Learn, Tweak, Repeat

I’ve been learning loads about entrepreneurship, about building relationships, and marketing and selling services and about getting your word out. having recently attended a seminar called the “The Real Entrepreneur” hosted by Brian Walsh, I was reminded of the power of actions over mere thought. An extremely valuable lesson to all those trying to achieve anything in life or business is taking action. We spend so much time trying to perfect our offering, our websites, our products our approaches and our theories expecting at some stage to have every single detail as it should be without a flaw or fault that we never seem to reach the point where we actually put it out there.

This is a lesson I have tried to teach others recently and one I have been taught over and over. My comment on a post on the web addicts site about ideas takes the concept further. If you want to achieve something you need to take action. I started doing something realising that I was too stuck on dreaming about what I wanted to achieve and where I should be going. I realize now that even though my site is not perfect, my writing is not what I think it should be, I’m missing quite a few crucial points, doing something and putting myself out there has brought me closer to where I want to be, it has helped me form valuable connections and relationships and has given me insight into what steps I need to take going forward.

Human Relationships Are Crucial

One example is the series of interviews I have started on my site. It’s not an original idea by a longshot and though I’m no expert at interviewing and getting the most out of people I have learn so much by just asking a few questions and have made some great new connections. This small step as opened my mind up to many new ideas which I plan to get going on this site very soon, though i don’t want to let you in on my new strategy for my site just yet.

Conversation is crucial when it comes to development, learning, marketing, innovation, invention. We are still humans and though the means we use to reach each other have changed somewhat, many underlying principles remain. If you want to speak to someone you have to learn something about them and speak to them in a way they can understand you. You have to speak to them about what interests them and you most definitely need to add value to their lives through your interaction with them. This is an important principle when trying to build a community and earn the respect and admiration of your community.

This is what I love about commenting as it has turned online publishing into a real meaningful conversation and not just the pushing of information in one direction. The commenters cloud created by webaddicts

We Need each other to Succeed

A recent rivalry between 2 prominent bloggers I have come to know has highlighted a few very important lessons. They started out working together and supporting each other, but rivalry has driven a wedge between them and in a bid to out do the other both have suffered a loss and have had to take proactive action to fix the problem. I mailed both these bloggers telling them that I was one of their visitors, I was becoming concerned about the bad blood being boiled and gave some advice. Each responded in their own way and I watched from a distance how their respective communities responded to the saga.

Just as I wrote this article they are both taking more positive steps to reconnect with their audiences in a more meaningful manner and to rectify some things which could have gotten them side-tracked. Criticism comes in many forms, but the best kind is sincere advice spoken out of the public limelight.Words are powerful and can have far reaching effects in the positive or negative direction, so though we are human and we speak with our own voices, we should choose our words very carefully, and assess each moment thoroughly before we say things which could have negative effects.

Reputation is a major Asset

I have learnt quite a few lessons from this and have resolved to try to keep rivalry at a distance even though criticising certain competitors and showing them up in their faults might give me a short terms edge over them. I’ve learnt that if you add real value and keep doing so people will forgive your mistakes, but if you put yourself above others and arrogance steps in once a certain amount of success is achieved, it takes alot to fix a damaged reputation.

I know I am not the best out there, I will always be outdone by someone in some way, but I am an individual with special qualities unique to me and this is one of my most important assets.

I have real value to Add

The last lesson I’d like to share in this little reflection is that I have something valuable to add. Knowing where your value lies and how to convey that value is a very important skill each of us needs to nurture. Whether it is our business, our personal relationships or whatever level we have something valuable to offer others and giving value is never left without its reward, be it long term or immediate rewards. Sometimes just a smile, a good word, simple advice given at the right moment and open up a world of opportunities because of the relationships giving builds.

My journey has just begun and the lessons are being learnt one by one, join me, interact with me and lets help each other achieve something together.