I constantly lose things, or forget what I opened that website for.
The easiest hack is to retrace your steps, reread what you were reading, click through the sites, walk back downstairs. Go back to the start and start again.
Whatever you were intending do to will come back to you.
As whilst you’ve physically retraced your steps you’ve also mentally retraced your steps, making the same connections and in turn arriving at the same thought.
This book explores who we behave when our means are low. Very interesting insights. One that really struck me was the complexity of the financial instruments used in developing countries.
One such thing was ROSCAS, rolling savings schemes, a group of people meet up at regular intervals. Each time they contribute a certain amount and one person takes the whole amount. All you have to do is turn up and commit to doing that to hit your savings goals.
Read more below:
“When we met her, she belonged to no fewer than six ROSCAs, which differed in size and frequency of meeting. In one of them, she contributed 1,000 Kenyan shillings, or KES ($17.50 USD PPP), per month, in another one 580 KES twice a month (500 for the pot, 50 to pay for the sugar for the tea, which is an essential part of the ceremony, and 30 for the welfare fund). In another, the contribution was 500 KES per month, plus 200 as extra savings. Then there was a weekly ROSCA (150 KES per week), one that met three times a week (50 KES), and one that was daily (20 KES). Each ROSCA had a specific, separate purpose, she explained. The small ones were for her rent (this was before she built a house), the bigger ones for long-term projects (such as house improvements) or for school fees. Auma saw many advantages to ROSCAs over traditional savings accounts: They don’t have fees, she could make small deposits, and on average she got access to the pot much faster than it would take her if she saved the same amount every week…..”
“But her financial portfolio did not end with the six ROSCAs. She had taken a loan from one of her ROSCA savings pools in early May 2009 (a little over two months before we met her) to buy maize worth 6,000 KES ($105 USD PPP). She was also a member of the village savings bank, where she had a savings account, though it was currently almost empty. She had used that money to buy shares in the village bank worth 12,000 KES ($210 USD PPP). Along with some shares she already had (each share entitled the borrower to borrow up to 4 KES from the village bank), this allowed her to borrow 70,000 KES ($1,222 USD PPP) and build herself a house. She also had little stashes of money hidden in various parts of her house to deal with small emergencies such as health needs, although as she pointed out, sometimes the health money was used for feeding visitors. Finally, she was owed money by a variety of people, including 1,200 KES by her clients and 4,000 KES by a former member of her joint liability group in the village savings bank. He had defaulted on the loan when he still owed the bank 60,000 KES ($1,050 USD PPP), obliging the group members to cover for him, and he was only now slowly paying them back. As a market vendor married to a farmer, Jennifer Auma probably lived on much less than $2 a day. Yet she had an array of finely tuned financial instruments.”
Excerpts from Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty – great read.
Imagine this concept here?
I’ve always believed, we can learn as much from developing countries as they can from us.
Very small.
Taking something that is a regular size, making it smaller and thus reducing the commitment and opening up opportunities.
Smaller drinks for on the go.
Smaller content for greater consumption (tumblr, instagram, facebook status).
Smaller car.
PSP Slim, quadrupled sales, same product, just smaller.
What other opportunities could be created through making a micro version? Smaller, less commitment, more guidance. Great process to undertake.
That tactility, once you pick it up you can’t put it down.
Apple stores purposely tilt the screens just enough so you can’t quite see it, so you reach out and adjust the screen. Then you can start playing with it and you start to get a sense of ownership.
They’ve all been loaded with games, apps and of course internet access. Heck just pop in and use the internet for free.
How do you create a sense of ownership? Getting your customers involved so they can actually take ownership of what you’re offering.
Kind of like what Michael Gerber was saying when I meet him, the best companies allow their customers to create.
It’s what gets people talking.
A study of discussion around entertainment content:
There’s this argument, that financial management (in this day and age) is something beyond the average capability of a citizen. We don’t expect people to be doctors right? [discussion & podcast here]
I think one simple lesson would help – that is establishing, what does it cost us to hold or spend money?
What happens to money when we hold it? What happens to money that we spend each week versus give to an investment advisor? Who performs better? (and it can be either or.)
What happens when we spend money on lotto tickets versus savings schemes? What happens when we buy a tv via hire purchase versus cash.
How does that capital earn a return. Is that return good or sub par?
What is it that we own? Are we doing the right things for us? If not maybe should we have someone else manage it.
Mostly looked at by accountants but should be done by us individually. Taught at a personal level. At a younger age.
The same as a chef works hard to get the highest quality ingredients we need to manage our inputs in other areas.
Sports coaching.
Having the right team.
The reading material you consume
The feedback you listen to.
You can easily change your current perspective & ability to change just by changing your inputs.
Too often I find that the wrong outcome has been achieved as the wrong ingredients were put in at the start. You start with finding the right chef, then letting them pick the right ingredients.
When there isn’t a step forward. A noticeable difference.
If you can just help people move forward, even if it’s just to help start the ball rolling, they’ll love you for it.
Instead of focusing on what you’re achieving, focus on how you can help others to achieve your goals.
It’s often the disconnect that happens around boardroom tables, focusing on intrinsically what can be done to hit numbers rather than looking at what you can take to the market to help them and in turn achieve your objectives.
..
Reading this sparked me to write this post: One Click: Jeff Bezos and the rise of Amazon.com
is in seeing that something is a far surer bet than the world thinks.
It’s not that they take unfathomable risks, it’s that their unique perspective helps them understand the real risks involved.
..
Via a great couch conversation with Malcolm Gladwell conducted by Toronto Public Library.
A nice little assumption during the creative process:
Your first idea isn’t the best one.
It’s the most obvious one.
You need to dig deeper into the problem instead of rushing off on that tangent. Go further, question why it will work, why it won’t.
The first idea can be the best just realise the weakness of it, it is likely what most other people will arrive at provided with the same information. And you don’t really want to arrive at the same exact destination as everyone.
Uniting people around a central cause.
Getting that co-ordinated effort towards a goal in turn creating value through combining & bringing people together.
Individually little value, together massive value.
This actually is a job, you just have to create the ideas that pull them together.
Mess happens.
When you do something for the first time something will go wrong at some point.
Don’t stress about it.
You can deal with it, as it pops up. Otherwise you can spin your wheels before you’re even off the starting line.
Over time you learn to identify the structural problems that turn up over and over again with change. But you won’t if you don’t start.
Is it a born or learned behaviour?
Often the argument with entrepreneurial traits.
Same with that ‘sales flair’.
The thing that this argument misses, is that if you’ve had a go with entrepreneurship at age 5, you’ve had 20 years of that thinking by the time you’re 25. When someone else is starting. That’s a lot of learning.
That’s almost your first 10,000 hours.
Google anything with the Top Ten before it chances are you’ll find a list.
I even had an idea several years ago to build a site just all around top 10 lists. Pretty sure someone has done it since.
It’s when we get stuck in comparing us against others that often pull us from our strategy. That’s why political parties end up so middle of the road, they keep comparing rather than sticking to their plans. It’s why brands start to compromise from their values rather than holding fast.
You could stack yourself up against that or just stick to what’s important to you.
That would be a great way to start the year. Not to strive to beat your neighbour but to strive to what matters.
This is the final post for 2011.
Posts have been a bit sporadic of recent, due to an ever increasing timetable, things are back in balance now though. So we should scream into 2012.
Few things to celebrate with Young & Shand, 290 proposals written in the last year, 250% revenue growth, 1 prototype product, 2 in development. Couldn’t be more stoked with progress!
How’s your year been?
Time to take some time off, reflect, read some good books, figure a plan of attack for the new year. Wherever you are – enjoy the festive season.
Look forward to tackling 2012.