Category: Life Lessons (Page 6 of 8)

Why choosing what to hate is so important

16 January 2014 / Andrew

Yesterday I was writing a note to some staff whose pay we were correcting for the second time. In the note I wrote “We hate getting your pay wrong”. Hate is a strong word, but we really do. We know people rely on us for their weekly income and few things bug me more than to stuff that up. As I wrote the words “we hate” I was reminded that hating the right things can be really important.

Hate is a dangerous and yet powerful word.

It’s outright dangerous to hate yourself. Or hate a person. Or hate good. Hating the wrong things will focus you on the negative and drain the life out of you. To hate something, either good or bad, is the extreme opposite of loving it. What you hate, says a lot about your character.

“I hate …” can be powerful and strong words and here are 3 examples.

“I hate being late”
A person who hates being late is different to a person who “try” to be on time. Because she hates it, you can bet that they will do everything they can to be on time. Her hatred for being late says heaps about the person’s character. And if they are late, you will see that they are gutted.

“I hate injustice”
There are a lot of people in the world, who see injustice and dislike it. A few even dislike it a lot. I have not met many people who hate injustice, because to hate it means they are compelled to do something about it. To hate positively changes a person from apathy to action.

“I hate dishonesty”
At Agoge one of our values is integrity, which means absolute impeccable honesty. If I had to choose between a guy who hates dishonesty and one that tries to be honest, I would choose the guy who hates it. If he hates dishonesty it drives him to be honest and demand honesty. It means he cares about honesty and that is powerful.

What you and I hate says more about us than we realise. It speaks of what we value, what we care about. And choosing the right things to hate, and letting go of the wrong things, will radically change how you live.

∴

I think sometimes we need to make a decision to hate something, not merely dislike it. It’s almost as though we need to build a hatred for it and by doing so that strong hatred will drive the actions.

I would love to be able to say that “I hate injustice” but as I wrote this post, I realise I just dislike it. It’s something I need to work on.

Maybe then I will take more action towards injustice when I see it.

13 December 2013 / Andrew

Change is constantly upon us, and the winds of change are always blowing in our lives.

So often we lean in against the change. Fight it. And burn a heap of energy trying to get back to where we came from.

Usually, in the end, the change forces us there anyway, and we arrive there beaten and bruised and worn out.

When we fight change hard, we actually miss the opportunity to share in the adventure and journey of the new direction.

∴

Next time change is upon you, you have a choice:

Lean in and fight,

go with it and head off on the adventure!

What’s the most important phrase for making things happen?

5 December 2013 / Andrew

So often our choice of words lets us down. We use strange phrases to express some action we may do in the future.

I think … I’ll start exercising.

I should … apologise.

I need … to lose weight.

I want … to read more.

When you hear someone (or even yourself) use ‘think’, ‘should’, ‘need’, ‘want’ maybe you could gently ask, “When are you going to?”

I’m going to … go for a run with my son.

I’m going to … track kilojoules to lose weight.

I’m going to …

I’m going to, means I’m serious. I’m going to, means I’ve made a decision, and while I may not make it everyday, I’m on the right track.

∴

We all know the words we choose are important. One of the most important things we can do, is question ourselves when we use the words like ‘should’, ‘think’, ‘want’ and ‘need’.

Are we just trying to make ourselves feel like something might happen sometime in the future, or is it that …

I’m going to … !

16 August 2013 / Andrew

It’s funny how shadows can be good and bad. A person standing in the right spot to shield the sun from our eyes, is a good shadow. Yet the clouds maneuvering themselves in front of the sun on a bitter winters day, creates cold and dark shadows.

As a leader I know I cast good and bad shadows.

As a leader, I have made some dreadful decisions that have caused the company and people significant hardship. In these times the shadow I cast has been lousy.

As a leader, there are even times I manage to cast a good, positive, warm shadow. By learning to care more. Or execute better. Or empower my team. When I do this I see the culture ripple down throughout the organisation in a beautiful way. I think Robert’s phrase says it all and I’m reminded again this week about the shadow I cast.

Still a long elongated way to go … but a work in progress.

∴

As a leader what shadow are you casting?

Why you should believe in failures like me.

28 March 2013 / Andrew

I failed at school.

The best mark I received was an internally assessed A1 in School Cert science. It belonged to another student called Andrew Nichol and was whisked away as quickly as it arrived.

I left school at 17 barely able to read, average at the more complex forms of maths, but strangely very good at accounting. Despite being a “failure”, I have discovered I am actually not as dumb as the school system lead me to believe. In my adult years I taught myself to read (by reading more and more books I actually enjoy).

I have also been given incredible opportunities to lead.

To learn.

To succeed.

Why?

Because throughout my life, many incredibly courageous people have believed in me despite my failures. They were courageous because I could have crashed, failed again and tarnished their good name.

I would not be who I am today without their generosity.

∴

All of us have people who’ve believed in us against the odds. Therefore the implication is simple.

Who are we investing our time into, who might just succeed if we just see past their failure?

Who are you believing in against the odds?

Maybe its time you found someone.

Finally a shout out to just a few of the names I have randomly thought of as I wrote this post. Mum & Dad, Craig Jamieson, Dale Henderson, Bob Addison, Matt Ruys , Neville Stevenson, Ian Hogan, Colin Shotter, Dave Medhurst, Geoff LeCren, Glyn Gray, Jeff Smith, Bruce Thomson, Mark Thompson, Iain Hill, Jim Quinn,, Rowland Forman, Ken Frost, Campbell Forlong, Jim Grafas and of course Karina Nicol. Thank you for believing in me at various stages in my life. I am more grateful than words can express.

2 ways to learn from experience.

21 March 2013 / Andrew

There is perhaps nothing more quintessentially New Zealand, than a day swimming and playing in the surf. As a child’s age and experience increases, so does their confidence. The waves they catch now are a far cry, from the waves they ran from as toddlers.

There is also perhaps no better example of experiential learning, than learning to be safe in the surf. You could read up on beach safety, but until you have been tumbled by a huge wave and felt the current ripping along the beach, the theory means little. Unfortunately many people in New Zealand get into trouble on our beaches because the rely solely on their own, very limited, experience and don’t learn from the knowledge of others.

Our best learning comes in two ways, through a blend of our own experience and from the experiences, struggles, skills and wisdom of others.

If you really want to learn quickly, constantly seek both.

∴

Lately I have had the opportunity to lean in and glean insight from a few very talented people, many of them younger than me. Their stories, their background and their actions form unique lessons that have portability across many areas of my life.

I have been reminded that it is important to learn from my own experiences, but it is equally important to learn from the experience of others.

I think we forget to do the later all too often.

Being the best.

8 March 2013 / Andrew

I was honoured to hear a friend give a talk about being the best in everything she does. She spoke of what it means to be the best in her music, as a mum, for her boys and at agoge.

Her words reminded me how striving to be the best is difficult and I was challenged about how often I settle for less. What follows are a blend of her words and mine as I contemplated what it means to be the best.
Being the best means failure, as you struggle to live up to your own expectations

Being the best means embarrassment, as you publicly stumble along the way

Being the best means getting it wrong, as you learning new ways

∴

Being the best takes risk

Being the best takes courage

Being the best takes sacrifice

Being the best takes faith

Being the best takes diligence

And the best of the best do all that … with humility and love.

Be the best!

4 key lessons after attending the Entrepreneur Development Program (EDP) at MIT in Boston.

26 February 2013 / Andrew

Moments earlier we had been given five minutes to prepare our business idea and now I found myself pitching, to one of the 126 entrepreneurs gathered from around the world. They’d pitch their idea, I’d pitch mine and we would agree how we would split 7 points. You take 2, I’ll take 5 (not that easy with A type personalities).

After 7 pitches to complete randoms, we had a score out of 49. Bill Aulet, Managing Director in the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship, humorously states that higher scores (I was 6th highest) meant you either had a really good idea (mine was created in 5 mins on my flight to the US), or you were really pushy (StrengthsFinder calls it “competitive”).

The top 26 of us pitch to the remaining 100 and then they walked up and choose a team, leaving only 16 ideas. Through this ad hoc process team reCollect was formed.

They say that attending MIT is like drinking from a fire hydrant, and over the next week we were saturated with ideas, discussion, teams sessions and coaching. So much so that it is only now I am narrowing down key lessons.

#1 Team is everything. The team that chose the reCollect idea was smart and diverse. Neil and Mark from Scotland, Rafael from Spain, Saeed from UAB, with Tanmay, Jax and myself from NZ. We all had radically different backgrounds and skills, which meant we ended up working incredibly effectively as a team.

I was reminded at MIT that having a cross functional team with a complimentary skill set is critically important when starting anything new. Startups with co-founders are more likely to succeed, however founding with friends you have never worked with before is more likely to fail.

∴ Build a great team with a common vision, but different skills and networks.

#2 Narrow your focus. Many startups spend huge portions of their precious resources on trying to be all things to everyone. Successful startups spend a lot of time talking with a narrow market of customers before they even build a product to make sure it is something they will actually use, and more importantly pay for. Test an idea and pivot constantly.

∴ Narrow your target market right down and talk constantly to you potential customers.

#3 GSD: Get S(tuff) Done: Just make stuff happen. You can talk about it, have meetings, create really great plans and strategies, but if you don’t GSD and get a product delivered then it is worthless. Herb Kelleher of Southwest said “We have a strategy plan. It’s call doing things!”

∴ everyone needs to GSD, and add real value to the customer. Everything else is worthless.

#4 Cash: Capitalism in America is NOT dead. To be honest if a Kiwi has a great idea and someone in the States has the same idea. They will be funded about 10x more than you. Thats the reality. It doesn’t mean you can’t win, just that you need more resolve around the first 3 points. The downside risk to not having cash, is we fail to rapidly build Innovation Based Enterprises at a speed quick enough to compete.

∴ Charge your customers as soon as possible, export and seek funding. Run out of cash and all your hard work means nothing.

Attending MIT was a fantastic learning experience, which I liken to reading 12 books in a week. Thanks to MSI / MBIE, now Callaghan Innovation for the incredible opportunity.

Watch this space for a new business to spin out of Agoge this year.

2 lessons about leadership I gleaned while being driven through Phnom Penh.

5 December 2012 / Andrew

Those of you who have travelled through parts of Asian know how mad, crazy, radical their driving can be.

[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/54691916 w=500&h=282]
If you haven’t, watch this short video of a normal intersection at 6:30 at night.

At first we described it as ‘Organised Chaos’ and soon realised that it was best described as “Disorganised Order”. Everyone headed were they needed to go, in an orderly yet apparently disorganised way.

The drivers themselves were probably the most fascinating part of the driving experience. They’re a paradox of determination and grace. They wanted to get there first and fast, but were gracious as others pushed and squeezed their Tuk Tuk’s into gaps that moments before didn’t exist.

Disorganised Order,

and

Determination with Grace.

∴

Disorganised Order, you don’t see that much in business or law in New Zealand. I wonder if it isn’t the essence of being truly entrepreneurial.

and

I have met plenty of determined people, and I have the privilege of knowing a lot of gracious people. Sadly, most often the determined people are not characterised by grace.

Determined with Grace, describes the leader I would like to be.

One reason why education in New Zealand is fantastic!

8 November 2012 / Andrew

Imagine a 10-year-old student you have known. Now pause, and think about their schooling and what they have really learnt at the age of 10.

Consider how little they really know in mathematics and english.

Their drawing is good, but they are no designer.

They have creativity but their cognitive skills are lacking.

Now, imagine the 10-year-old finishing school for good. Then you discover they have no access to books or libraries or the internet and you realise the child’s lifetime intellectual learning is over.

Gone is the opportunity to learn more about science or maths or design or art. Gone is the opportunity to seek a University degree.

I have just described the average student in Cambodia. Most rural children have access to a basic primary education, at which point the distance and cost increase to attend high school is so great, that the children finish school and start working on the family rice fields.

If most people you knew finished school at 10, how much opportunity to develop, invent and improve would your community have?

How much opportunity would exist to improve the efficiency and productivity of your family land?

At a very basic level, how much opportunity would you have to improve water quality, sanitation and health, if your education finished at 10?

The unfortunate answer is at best, ‘very little!‘

∴

As I toured rural Cambodia recently and heard that most children finish school at the age of 10, all I could think about was my 10-year-old daughter finishing school at the end of this year. She is smart and has learnt heaps, but hasn’t yet learnt anywhere near enough for a lifetime. And if her access to books and teachers and even the internet disappeared, her future learning would be unthinkably limited.

As I thought of the implication of finishing school at 10, I realised how incredibly blessed we are to have the education and resources on offer in New Zealand.

It offers our children a lifetime of learning.

It means our children’s children will learn even more, and develop more cure’s and create more truly great things.

Education offers hope for our future!

Oh, and the one reason I think education in NZ is fantastic? Because my children continue in school until at least 16 and even then their opportunities aren’t limited. Too often we forget that.

Lesson 3 from Cambodia visit 2012: Education is pivotal for the future of communities

Category: Life Lessons (Page 6 of 8)

∴

What’s the most important phrase for making things happen?

∴

Why you should believe in failures like me.

2 ways to learn from experience.

Being the best.

4 key lessons after attending the Entrepreneur Development Program (EDP) at MIT in Boston.

2 lessons about leadership I gleaned while being driven through Phnom Penh.

One reason why education in New Zealand is fantastic!

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