Artful Roger Journal



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 Post subject: Re: Artful Roger Journal
PostPosted: Fri Jul 31, 2015 2:26 pm 
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Joined: Thu Apr 19, 2012 12:03 pm
Posts: 198
Location: London
So I'm here to check in, a crazy amount of 6 months later. A brief update of what I was up to:

- Got my wife into the UK. Researched and did the job of an immigration lawyer myself
- Finished working in schools. I'm done with that now I can't go back but also unemployed currently
- Started my own freelancing services, building a portfolio
- Found a schedule that keeps me incredibly happy
- Launched an online start up with a cofounder

However I'm here to learn goal setting and working efficiently. I'm not shy of working hard, but sometimes you just do work for the sake of doing work. Busyness is a form of laziness. So I want to focus my goals and have something to aim for, as I never learned how.

Now though I'm back for some goal setting and learning how to do it. I just watched a video on youtube of how an ex-facebook employee was working with Mark Zuckerberg. The Facebook goal was "to grow," so after hours of brainstorming and coming up with some incredible ideas, it was often 2 weeks of work were thrown out the window because they didn't focus on making them grow.

So here I'm trying to define some goals and work towards them for areas of my life that are important to me right now:

Goal 1:
With my co-owned online business (CSH we'll call it). I want to make 100 sales before the end of the year.

Current state of affairs:
- We have a website
- We have an email list of 1 person
- We have an almost finished product

How can this done?
Building a bigger audience. Through guest posting, media coverage and gaining a reputation in relevant forums
- Guest posting = find relevant sites and contact the editor, write a post and offer it for submission.
- Media coverage needs to start small, contact local editors of tiny papers and get in touch
- Building a reputation means finding the forums, and starting a Q&A with the clinical psychologist coming to answer all the questions they have for him.

What needs to happen first?
- Finish the product, get it to a rough draft position and get some beta testers to run through the program.

When will this happen?
- Friday 7th August. Have the diagrams finished and uploaded - then sent to the first beta tester



Goal 2:
I don't want to be an employee. I want to manage my own work remotely and be able to work anywhere. By the end of this year I want to have 3 paying clients.

Current state of affairs:
- I have a website with my portfolio and services offered on there
- I have done some free work to build my portfolio
- I have some good contacts

how do I get paid work?
- Get in touch with business owners (and keep contacting more)
- Offer them my services in how I can help
- Add case studies and testimonials to my site as I go along

What needs to happen first?
- Constantly contacting new business owners offering my services

When will this happen?
- I need to set a micro goal of contacting at least one business a day with a proposal of getting work. Minimum should be at least finding a business per day.


Now I've set this I need to make sure I'm accountable for checking in on this goal and making sure that I actually stick to it. That's the part I have issues with. Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

_________________
My Journal is thoughts on life game and approaches: artful-roger-journal-vt148980.html


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 Post subject: Re: Artful Roger Journal
PostPosted: Mon Aug 03, 2015 12:25 am 
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Joined: Wed Aug 27, 2008 5:53 am
Posts: 3102
Wedding bells:

Through researching marriage and immigration law, you've learned that a marriage is not a contract between you and your wife but a contract between you/wife and your government... and this is a financial contract. They require that she be bound to you and/or proper (accountable) work so that you (couple) can be counted on to dutifully pay taxes. Keep this in mind... the #1 topic for arguments between married couples is financial. The idea isn't to avoid the inevitable... it's to anticipate and plan ahead... and a married couple living with the parents for more than an "adjustment period" is a formula for implosion.

Dreams:

I am a big fan of dreams but dreams alone cannot pay the rent. Most success stories we read in books and the internet fail to cover the day to day gritty progress to sucess. Statistically, how many Zuckerbergs are out there? ... and I am not referring to the $$ amount of his success but the timeline/pattern of his success. Ie college drop out... not having worked in various jobs in various sectors, etc...

Go ahead and dream big (ie I want to be a millionaire) ... but also realize during the planning phase that you probably won't achieve this through a lemonade stand, no matter how well you strategize and market your product.

Pm me a better idea of your actual product/service. Do a search for similar businesses and look for how well they do in the market, how they market their services... and if no similar product/service exists, ask yourself, "why not?"

But a Lemonade Stand can lead to a Million Dollar Business:

Look up Nantucket Nectars under "business". Their business story has been written up for a Harvard Business School case study. But even this is highly unusual.

Back to the Real World:

Path to success is gritty and dynamic. Many start-ups go through vast changes to survive. . . And this is possible because its founders and share holders typically have many varied backgrounds. I once thought that big name business schools would be filled with bankers and corporate suits. This is untrue. There were ESL teachers, gas station owners, politicians, military leaders, etc... in my class.

In terms of your own project, not only do you have kittle experience in various sectors that your business will surely need to cater to or be familiar with, but you do not even know your own business well. This is a big barrier.

If you were a single man, I'd suggest you chase the dream and continue living with your mother while you gamble on a few start-ups. . . Statistically speaking, I'd know you'd fail, but there are lessons to be learned. You'd figure out if this entrepreneurship thing is your thing or not... and hopefully, you'll learn some lessons along the way.... but...

Wedding Bells... remember the bells?:

Maybe you're ok with it but exactly how long do you expect a woman to live with her husband's mommy for him to figure out his shit? Go do a search for how long it takes, even for successful businesses, to turn a profit...

Back to the real, real World:

Go get a job. . . hopefully with a well run company.

1. You will learn all facets of business.
2. You will meet many people.
3. You will learn the dynamics of working groups.
4. And you will earn a salary from day one... which will allow you and your wife to get a flat... and actually live a married adult life.
5. You are young. There are 50 year old entrepreneurs who juggle full time jobs while setting up multiple startups at the same time... surely, at your age, you can do this too.
6. Meanwhile, if your startup takes off, you can easily transition to devoting more time to your own business.

You're a married adult... time to grow up.


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 Post subject: Re: Artful Roger Journal
PostPosted: Sun Aug 30, 2015 8:21 pm 
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Joined: Thu Apr 19, 2012 12:03 pm
Posts: 198
Location: London
Just coming back to check in now, I thought it was important to take the action then report back on it. I've tried to take this approach throughout my whole journal.

So I've landed a job at a top, up and coming company! Immediately the pay is not the best, but it's for the first initial 3 months and if they like me, my contract will be upgraded. More importantly I'm going to be working in a small team of 3, and super close to the 2 founders of the company. I'm going to be working in startup which is exactly what I desire, and will learn essential business skills to succeed. I start next week and have for once in my life been excited about my job!

I don't compare myself to Zuckerberg and I often think I lack the tenacity in terms of pursuit of dreams. Some crazy examples I've found is the creator of wordpress, did a polyphasic sleep cycle for a whole year to get his company up and running. That means a sleep cycle of 45 mins asleep then awake for 4 hours, and he did that solidly for a year. No wonder he made so many millions before 30. I referred to that video to help me focus, working towards one goal constantly gives me clarity of mind.

Annoyingly I couldn't make headway on my side project, my co-founder was hospitalised for an illness and is in recovery, I'm meeting with him on the 7th Sept, so I'll reconvene then. I'm sure there's things I can get on with in the mean time on the project, I just need to work out if it's work, or being busy for the sake of being busy.

###

Life has taken a dramatic change with my wife here, some daily habits have dropped that I liked, not because of laziness just to shock of system due dramatic life change. Anyway I want to reintroduce my morning journalling and meditation to grab my mind back from my lizard brain. I find it incredibly good for focus, and airing the crap from my mind. I highly recommend it, I keep myself happy by finishing of my journal with 3 things I'm grateful for, that could be anything like "Slept really well last night" or "Can't believe the rights movement in Syria has changed so many lives" etc. as long as it's positive that's all that counts. One thing I have kept going was reading a minimum of 5 pages of a book a day.

This entry was a little rushed and I'll check back in soon with some more action plans. This week coming, I just want to focus on my new job and then I can move forward on other ventures.

_________________
My Journal is thoughts on life game and approaches: artful-roger-journal-vt148980.html


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