Busy busy busy

In this age of constant connectivit, everyone is busy with something. It is probably the most common excuse you use when you forgot about an appointment or don't want to deal with something at the moment.

It is an excuse we all give and accept not just because most of us are really busy but also one that we can understand and grants at least some benefit of doubt.

When someone tell you that he/she can't make it because they are busy, we get it. Maybe something important came up or there's a deadline they got to meet.

But there are some of us (including myself) who like to keep ourselves busy in order to not do something else. We tell ourselves that we don't have the time for it now and we'll get to it later. The scary thing is sometimes we actually make up stuff to do to keep ourselves busy.

I'm not talking about people who look busy to get away with doing less. I'm talking about people who are genuinely busy but they are busy with the wrong things.

This happens when we mistakenly think that being busy means we are having progress. You tell yourself that, all these things I'm doing got to mean something right? Well yes and no. 

If what you are doing is moving you toward your intended goal then that's great. But too often, a lot of stuff that we do ​are just distractions. We conjure up tasks to fit into our schedules. We hold meetings to decide if we should decide on something.

​So the next time you tell yourself or someone else that you are busy, think about it for a moment. Are you really busy or you just needed an excuse? And if you are busy, are you busy with the right things?

How will you measure your life?

Recently I read a post by Jason Fried on 37Signals blog explaining why we can only teach someone who are willing to learn.

He met up with the author of Innovator's Dilemma, Clayton Christensen who said (paraphrased by Jason), "Questions are places in your mind where answers fit. If you haven't ask the question, the answer has nowhere to go. It his your mind and bounces right off. You have to ask the question - you have to want to know - in order to open up the space for the answer to fit."

Clayton's latest book (How will you measure your life?) is also full of insights on how we should approach our career, family and life in general. He provides interesting and insightful examples from the business world.

his book does not offer answers but rather tells you how to think about decision you make in your career, family and life. It tells you the type of question you should be ask when deciding your career path, what kind of family you want to raise and ultimately what kind of person you want to be.

It's a book I recommend EVERYONE to read. Go get it NOW!

I really really love building on the web

You probably have heard this a million times. Follow your passion. You should find out what you are passionate about and do that. I myself blogged about passion quite often.

But Mark Cuban have a different view on all this fuss about passion. He believes instead of following your passion (which you can have many), you should follow your effort, things that you spend most of your time on because time is a resource that you don't own.

by Hugh Macleod

This makes sense because if you are putting in a lot of time and effort into something, you are definitely passionate about it and most likely you are quite good at it too.  

I took a trip down memory lane and realized that besides sleeping, eating, being lazy and gaming, I've spent quite a significant amount of my life building stuff on the web.

​Here's a short summary on some of the fun, failed, lame and stupid stuff that I've built.

​Highschool years

• ​A browser plugin review site. Back then, browser plugin was the craze.
• Phrozz.com - Attempted to start a hardware review site with my classmates back then (John & Ed)​ hoping to get some free hardware.
• Website for my school (KKHS). Also did a Flash intro (yuck) and interactive flash tutorials. Manage to win 1st for design, 2nd for content in the SabahNet Homepage Competition. ​First sign?

​At college/university

• ​dx's playground - Personal site to mess around with PHP. 
• ​Website for the college's student government so that I can stay in the hostel.
• Mamak.phrozz.com - A site for my Warcraft 3 Guild (Mamak). Scraped Blizzard's site for guild members' rank to display on the site. I think it was on Postnuke.​
• ​My thesis in university was basically building a 'better' CMS (Content Management System)

​Entering the workforce

• ​My first job introduced me to Coldfusion. Built some HR system and CMS with it. I made a simple framework to make it more bearable.​
• Managed to convince my boss to let me use PHP. Build CMS for clients.​
• Also did some Visual Basic, C# and ASP.net. Decided to go freelance and quit my job.​

Flexnode

• Eventnode - Web app to organize events/outings. My first app built with Ruby on Rails.​
• Reservation system for a resort. My first paid gig for Flexnode.
• Biznode - Failed attempt to build a project management app like Basecamp.​​
• Ravejoint - Managed to convince John to join me and ​build a food/restaurant review site. Plan was to sell ads from restaurants. Didn't work out.
• ​Switched to consulting and built yet another CMS for Freeform. (KLue, Junkonline & Tongue in Chic)
• Showtimes.my - Our take on how movie showtimes site should be like. ​Probably our most popular site.
• ​Zoecity - Joined a US start-up that is based mostly in Kuala Lumpur. Built a few products ranging from social network to news aggregator to social sharing service.
• Startnow.com.my - Attempted to build a site for entrepreneurs and action-takers. Another failed attempt. No traction at all. 
• ​2 months contract with Says.my. Awesome company and culture.

I left out a few projects here and there but I think it is safe to say that I'm following my effort and it's definitely my passion too.

I'm not a rockstar web developer by any standards but knowing that this is what I love to do and I'm good enough to make a living out of it, is all that I need to keep going. ​

​I really really love building stuff on the web. What about you? Is your effort inline with your passion?

Pricing models for different types of product

Read it Later recently relaunch as Pocket​ and moved from a paid up-front pricing model (iOS apps) to freemium. Nate Weiner (developer of Read It Later/Pocket) posted an insightful article on why they decided to make the jump.

He categorized products into 3 simple categories.​

1. ​Those that value fade over time like a meal. When you are hungry, it is worth more to you. After you consume it, not so much.
2. Some products' value stay constant over time. The example he gave was newspapers subscription that shows up at your front door daily​
3. Products with value that grows over time. These are things that you don't see much value at the beginning but as you keep using it, they become more and more valuable to you. (e.g. services like Evernote & Dropbox)​

​He realized that Read It Later was charging up-front like a meal but its actual value increases over time. By using the freemium model, they can also madeit easier for new users to give Pocket a try without committing anything up-front.

Lesson learned here is to determine the type of value your product delivers over time then choose the matching pricing model.​

What's your evil plan?

Finally got to read Hugh Macleod second book, Evil Plans. It is about why you should be doing things that you really love and care about. Hugh's Evil Plan is similar to a Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG). He also shares some interesting marketing strategies he used. Must read for anybody he wants more from their work.

"It has never been easier to make a great living doing what you love. But to make it happen, first you need an EVIL PLAN. Everybody needs to get away from lousy bosses, from boring, dead-end jobs that they hate, and ACTUALLY start doing something they love, something that matters. Life is short." -Hugh MacLeod  

Coming up with an EVIL PLAN is definitely fun and exciting but remember it is still only a plan until you do something about it.

Pricing in reverse

uite often, entrepreneurs build their product first before coming up with a price. Here's an interesting article on why we should do the reverse. Determine the price first then try to justify it. This is makes a lot of sense for those of you who sells your product online.

wrong: build something and then figure out how much you can charge. right: choose your desired price, then figure out how to justify it. -- Amy Hoy (@amyhoy) 

Some thoughts on our business

A leaked 28-page internal memo in 1991 - written by then-head of Disney's film studios, Jeffrey Katzenberg about why and how the company can recapture the magic. Long but worth the read.

Larry Smith: Why you will fail to have a great career

It's been a while since I last posted anything but this TED talk is just so inspiring that I had to share it with everyone

Are you going to chase after your passion? You will most likely fail unless....

Keeping it lean

In recent months, I've been reading a couple of really interesting books. They range from Steve Jobs' biography, a book on how to generate your business model, Michael Lewis's Boomerang on the European Sovereign Debt Crisis and the grand design of universe by Stephen Hawking. The book that I've found to be the most insightful and a must-read for entrepreneurs out there is The Lean Startup by Eric Ries. It's so good that I've put in at the No. 1 spot on my books page.

The great insight that Eric had about startup was the goal to learn as much as you can in the shortest amount of time possible. You do this by conducting experiments to tests your hypothesis. He called this validated learning.

In the spirit of Lean Startup, we are conducting a simple market survey to gather some information and validate certain assumptions we have for our mobile budgeting app. If you got a few minutes to spare, help us out by completing Budgetarian's survey. Thanks!

Crafting a memorable pitch

Recently, we (John and I) joined Sabah Got Ideas (a pitching competition organized by SATA) and we unexpectedly ended up in the top 6. That was awesome! Something else was awesome too. We realized that our pitch was one of the more memorable ones. Some refer to us as the guys who are building the second wife. Another one even ask if it could replace his real wife.

We pitched what we dubbed a 'Wife in your pocket'. It's a mobile budgeting application that's a little different than the rest. We want you to consult it before purchasing anything similar to asking your wife for permission to buy the latest gadget.

Of course, I wouldn't say we are an expert at pitching as this is only our second time trying to present our ideas to the world. But I do want to share what I think were important factors that made our pitch memorable.

1.  Tell a story - One of the best way to start a speech is to tell a story. I think it works well in presentation too. John started with a story about buying coffee at Starbucks.
2. Relate to them - The reason why a story works so well is that the audience can easily relate to it. It also makes it easier for them to follow and understand what you are trying to tell them.
3. The elevator pitch - Our 'Wife in your pocket' tag line actually came up when we were trying to shorten our pitch to just 60 seconds. Known as the elevator pitch, (time you have before the person gets off the lift) this is useful in helping to compress your message.
4. Make an impact - Try to get a reaction from the audience. Laughter is a good reaction. If you got a reaction from the audience, it means they are paying attention and that's what you want. Tell a joke, show a funny picture or call your app a 'Wife in your pocket'.
5. Practice, practice, practice - Both of us probably rehearsed 20-30 times by ourselves and another 10-15 times together. Because you have limited time, (5 minutes in our case) you need to make sure everything goes smoothly. Remember, even Steve Jobs practice and rehearse before he goes on stage.
6. Slides should complement your presentation - It is also very important to remember that the audience is there to listen to YOU, not read from your slides. (obviously you shouldn't too) The slides are there to help you deliver your message better. They are not the messenger, that's your job.

These are just some of the points you should keep in mind when preparing your next pitch. Pitching isn't science so there are many ways to deliver a memorable one. Happy pitching!