⭐ My Highlights

1️⃣ Is “Success” Really What We Think It Is?

“Now my definition of success is living to my full potential. I want it all. I know now from experience that it’s possible to have a growing, successful business and a passionate relationship, to be in the best shape of your life, to give back to your community, and to push your boundaries when it comes to new adventures. It took years of searching, but I think I might have figured it out. I know how to be happy.”

We should as ourselves:

• What is our definition of success?

• Why do we want to be successful?
  

“It’s cool to care and be excited about ideas, it’s cool to be proactive, it’s cool to mess up, it’s cool to work your ass off on something that is meaningful to you, and it’s cool to keep trying when the odds are stacked against you.”

2️⃣ Stray From The Group

If we really want to do something and need the support of our parents, friends, teachers, bosses, etc. then we need to treat it like it’s a business idea and put together a personalised pitch presentation, covering the following:

• What we want to do

• 3-5 reasons why we want to do it

• 3-5 ways it benefits us and them academically/professionally/personally

• Include pictures to present our idea better
  

Everything in life and business needs to be mutually beneficial:

• Is our current work/friend/romantic situation a mutually beneficial experience?

• If it’s not, don’t assume that our friend/romantic partner/teacher/boss is reading our mind. We must ask for things that would make it feel more mutually beneficial to us.

• If we have done everything we can but there is no change, it’s time for us to start creating a better situation for ourselves.
  

Trusting our gut, eliminating toxic situations, and surrounding ourselves with positive, hardworking, inspiring people will inevitably make us want to elevate ourselves too.

We can use a system BET (bullet, eliminate, take on) to help us stray from the group and get the results we want:

Step 1: Create a bulleted list of commitments, affiliations, relationships, and individuals - those who inspire us on one side and those who deplete us (make us feel bad about ourselves, guilty, insecure, unsuccessful, deflated, or who have a negative attitude) on the other.

The people who bring positivity into our lives are the ones we should choose to invest our energy in.

Step 2: Eliminate the bad relationships and nurture the good ones.

If we feel bad every time we spend our time with certain people, it’s time to step away.

Once we eliminate negative people from our lives, it will free us up to devote more time and energy to cultivate the great friendships and relationships we have or want.

Step 3: Take on new activities and relationships that are in line with what we want to be doing and that energise us. Go to places where people are doing the things we love and excel at or want to excel at. Another good way to meet new people is through offering our services for free as an intern.

3️⃣ How 9/11 Has Changed One's World

"I realised that so many people that day lost their lives and we unable to fulfil their dreams or find their true passions. I knew I didn’t want to squander this chance by continuing to work at a job I didn’t love. A new chapter in my life was about to begin."

We should ask ourselves:

1. What thing are we suppressing and/or looking for?

2. What type of excuses/fears/the unknown are holding us back?
   

Step 1: Share our goal/dream/passion with our closest friends/family. By sharing this, we are making an announcement to the people we care about the most who will support us through it and hold us accountable.

Step 2: Create a 3-W Plan (What? Who? When?)

• What are we trying to really accomplish?

• Who are we approaching to help us accomplish our thing?

• When is the deadline to finally make this happen?
  

Giving ourselves short deadlines will make it more likely we will complete them. We can create a basic schedule, set monthly and weekly goals and mark them on our calendar or planner to make ourselves believe that if we don’t meet our deadlines, we’re fired from life. Be disciplined.

4️⃣ Finding Our Calling

Answer ourselves these questions:

What am I really good at? - we should be able to articulate in words why we are great and show external proof that others have said the same thing about us.

• What are the biggest problems I have solved?

• Did I change an angry customer’s mind about my product?

• Did I solve a defect in my offering?

• Did I streamline a process to make things more efficient?

• How did I show resourcefulness to solve a problem?
  

What do I have to contribute to a team/workplace?

• Am I good at leading small groups?

• Am I generally a happy person, thus improving the work environment?

• Have I done anything to improve company culture?

• Did I organise a memorable team outing?

• Did I get the people in my office together for something fun?

• Am I a self-starter?

• Can I get people to follow what I started?

• What’s a time I managed exceptionally?
  

What are the tangible skills I have that others don't?

• Do I excel at special computer programs, computer languages, or other creative skills?

• Do I speak any languages fluently?

• Am I a great photographer?

• Am I exceptionally creative?

• What do I do best in the opinion of my peers?
  

When we are in interviews, we should always give the interviewer a vision of tomorrow, the notion that we can take the company to the next level.

What am I passionate about? What am I really good at?

• Do I like to build things for fun?

• Do I like to cook?

• Do I like to volunteer and work with kids?
  

By now we know that we can pick our passion project only within the realm of the things we are actually good at. We must pick a passion project utilising our talents, the things that our most trusted people around us say we’re exceptional at.

What’s the last thing I’ve done that I’m proud of?

• Have I helped someone else achieve something?

• Have I built something that is important for the community?

• Have I supported a group or community through a rough period?
  

Are there any communities, people, places, or issues that I care about supporting?

• Am I passionate about storytelling?

• Am I passionate about human rights?

• Am I passionate about women’s issues?
  

Once we know what we are good at and what we are passionate about - then we can start to apply it.

5️⃣ What Sucks In Our World

There are 3 ways to help us find an opportunity to engage our skills and passion: philanthropic, entrepreneurial, and entrepreneurial.

Philanthropic approach: think about non-profits/organisations that don’t have access to the skills and knowledge that we have to offer.

Intrapreneurial approach: we could be an entrepreneur within an existing company. We could come up with ideas and help the company put our ideas in motion. Start offering our services to people who could help. Unleash our creativity by coming up with innovative ideas that help the organisation without the risk of jumping into a new business on our own.

Entrepreneurial approach: this is the riskier route to take. Think about what sucks in our life that we want to change - or what doesn't exist but should? What products or services can we improve or change?

6️⃣ We Got This

How do we go from idea to business concept?

Step 1: Research everything we can about the type of business and sector we want to create.

Step 2: Talk to all the smartest people we know in different industries about our business idea and ask for input

Step 3: Shadow someone who is successfully doing what we want to be doing.

Step 4: Conduct an unbiased survey to see if there is truly a demand for the service/product we plan to provide.

7️⃣ Business Plans Don’t Raise Dollars, People Do

An exciting new alternative to recruiting angel investors is crowdfunding - the collective effort of individuals who network and pool their money, usually via the internet, to support efforts initiated by other people or organisations (kickstarter.com, indiegogo.com, catapult.org) and we do not need to give any equity away. We will simply receive pre-orders or donations.

We can also apply for seed funding at places like goldenseeds.com and startups.co.

8️⃣ How To Get Press Without Knowing Anyone

Step 1: Print out a map and pinpoint every media outlet in our city and neighbourhood that we are targeting (if our business is local).

Collect as much information as we can on each place - company, address, phone, email, names of editors and writers, social media handles, etc.

Step 2: Reach out to as many media outlets as we can. If we can, always call instead of email. Have a pitch ready but ask what stories they are currently looking for and adapt our pitch accordingly (a personal piece, goodwill, entrepreneurship, political, etc.). If they are not interested, ask for advice - this is always useful.

Step 3: Create something original and/or weird and/or funny for writers to want to write about, using the knowledge we gained via the call/email.

Stay away from long pre-releases as no one really read them fully. However, we must know our audience and make sure our piece is appropriate for the audience we are writing for.

Bonus points if we create something unique and original that we can physically deliver and showcase.

Step 4: Personally hand deliver our press-release packages (if they are physical) and be as personable and friendly as we can.

Step 5: Get an email address/phone number to follow up - unless they tell us otherwise and continue to follow up until they get back to us.

If we don’t have money to hire a PR agency, we can do it ourselves. Just wake up every morning with a plan to get people to know about what we’re doing.

9️⃣ Disaster Launch

Try not to make our consumers be a part of our learning curve. They won’t be willing to let us catch up and fix mistakes - have a soft opening first and work out the kinks with friends and family over a couple of weeks. When we are ready to go live with customers, do it slowly, and once we feel like it’s flowing well, then we can have our grand opening.

Honesty is the best policy - admitting to our mistakes and offering honest and concrete ways in which we are fixing them will make our customers much more forgiving.

🔟 Partners in Crime

Hire slowly, fire fast. Always check references and ask them these 4 questions:

• Did the candidate ever do something extraordinary without being asked?

• How would you describe the way people react/interact with the candidate?

• Why aren’t you working together now?

• Would you hire him or her again?

If we feel that our partner does not share our values or vision, don’t be afraid to cut them loose. They will drag down our business, energy, and excitement.

Community Is Everything

Express happiness when we see our people: We will never regret showing too much love towards our friends and family and they will love receiving it.

Let everyone share stories and participate: Allow everyone to feel heard.

No Small Talk: Dig in instead - find out what our family and friends are excited about. Ask more interesting questions that are much more fun to answer.

Give credit as often as we can: People want to be recognised, so we should recognise our peers when they do cool shit. They will want to keep doing it.

Give confidence-it’s free: It’s free and it makes people feel good, more comfortable and safe. As soon as people feel confident, their authentic selves shine through and that’s when real, genuine bonding happens.

Challenge our people to push themselves: Make sure that our people are doing the best they can to be their best selves.

Be as honest as we can: People will respect us for it, and only with honesty can we really break through to people’s hearts and minds.

Take three long, deep breaths when faced with challenging circumstances: When faced with a tough situation with our friend or a family member, do our best to take three long, deep breaths and do everything in our power not to lose our cool.

Be as creative as we can with our friends: Be the initiator. Come up with fun things for people to do.

Adopt a “help first” mentality: We will get more from our community if we seek to help others before trying to get others to help us.

Connect people: Always be thinking about who we know who could help our community.

📌 Other Interesting Quotes & Ideas

“The world can be molded to anything you want it to be. Start creating the best version of your own story and life by taking the steps now and not later.”

“Doing cool shit means you have to stop doing the same shit every week. It means committing yourself to doing new things and putting intent into your plans. That’s all adventure is. New experiences. Different settings. Random encounters. “

“Create a double-bottom-line business around solving a societal and/or community problem in conjunction with being a financially profitable company. This will reap the most rewards overall.”

“Doing cool shit means thinking big. In fact, thinking bigger than you ever thought possible” - Elliott Bisnow

“It isn’t about making money or becoming successful, it is about challenging the status quo and striking out on your own in order to create something, do something that’s never been done before, make meaningful change, and leave your mark.” - Capt. Zachary Iscol