Mistakes and Lessons - Taking Responsibility

So something that I was thinking about recently is how some of us learn, improve and move forward faster than others. Amongst the factors included good observation, intelligence and experience. But there are some people that stagnate and plateau, whereas there are some that will continue to improve and grow beyond their friends and peers. How come I have seen so many peers that I admire for their ability or talents, but eventually overtake them as time passes?

Not to toot my own horn, but there I must do something different to what my friends do. Something that sets us apart. I had actually spent about the last 4 days playing video games with several friends. How my friends treated losing were different between each other. I had a look at those friends that were better at games in general, they all responded to a loss in a more constructive way. Instead of complaining of cheap tactics, overpowered characters or blaming team mates they took each loss as an opportunity to learn and reflect.

I know this isn't a gaming blog (although I'd like to start one), but some behaviours from video games can be extrapolated to real life. In this case, I felt those friends who were more willing to take responsibility of their outcomes were more successful in what they did. Those that who asked themselves, how to deal with that situation in the future or how to prevent themselves from ending in the same outcome were better able to improve in their future attempts.

Although many of the factors that I described in the first paragraph had an effect as well, I think that something we could try to do more is take responsibility. People can blame their studies, career, health or well being on external factors, but unless they believe that their own future is in their own hands and they can do something about it, their growth will stagnate and they will never be better.

Even, I'm guilty of this as well.  I can no longer blame my lack of employment or income on the economy or industry. I have come to understand that I am the only one that can change my current outcome, whether it be shifting industries, moving or preparing myself better to find work. I believe that no matter who we are, we can all be better or happier if we took a little bit more of the world into our own responsibility.

In Summary
- the next time you are upset or mad with the world, consider what you can do to change the situation
- believe that you have the power to change your circumstances for the better
- take some time to think about the problem
- do something about it

Mistakes and Lessons - Personal Ethics

I don't know what other people might think in their mind, but personally I'm very self-conscious of what I do and the decisions that I make. I suppose that's one of the benefits of having a tight upbringing. There are plenty of times, when I have a business or strategic decision to make and it's not so clear cut which decision is the better one.

So one night, after thinking quite deeply over something like this, I figured out what my decision making process is. Although, decisions are something that we do on an extremely regular basis. I wanted to know if there was a systematic way that I would be happy to make decisions with. I came to the following conclusion.

In Descending Order of Importance

1) Do What is Good

2) Do What is Right

3) Do What you Want

The first two points may seem very similar to some, but as fellow lawyers know we are very specific with our words. I interpret good from a utilitarian perspective, or in other words what is the literal and material benefit of this decision. I conversely see right from a ethical standpoint.

So my list places utility above ethics, does that make me a bad business person, does this make me an immoral person? Well that's up to you to decide. But while you think this through, I'll elaborate a little bit more. First of all what is good, is more of a cost to benefit calculation. Literally weighing up the total costs to the total benefit. Notice how I said total costs and total benefit? I try to take into account the impact of my work on everyone, not just myself. I feel that if more good comes out of a decision than bad then society can gain overall.

I feel that as an entrepreneur, my greatest asset is the freedom to do what I want. Compared to many people, I am not restricted by what my boss thinks, but what the market and society is willing to except. I want to do good for society, and being an entrepreneur I'm willing to fight norms and social expectations to make great things happen.

This doesn't mean that I'll never consider the ethical questionability of my actions by any means, but I've just decided that if it came to a questionable decision, I know what I believe in and what I would do. Here's an example of a situation that you might be put in. Although not an easy decision by any means, I would know what I would do.

Well, it seems I'm just ranting now, but I suppose if there's one things I want to communicate in this post its this. We all make decisions in our lives, find out what is important to you and always stand by it. What you believe in may be different to me and this is fine. But definitely contemplate and find out what you stand for, your future decisions will be much easier if you do this.

Mistakes and Lessons - Get out of the house!

Linking back to my earlier post, I wrote that I wanted to go out to more events. My main motivation at the time is that I just want to meet new people. Not to say that there is anything wrong with my current friends or what they are doing. It's just that sometimes, what you want to do and what you are interested in may not be what your friends want to do or interested in.

I think it safe to say that, company is a good thing, both pleasurably and productively as well.  No doubt, the enjoyment that I drew from many of my past hobbies were often more from the people that I enjoyed these hobbies with. Most notably were my friends Stuart Brine and Tony Dos Santos who I played Yugioh very closely with when I was young. Additionally, I don't think I would have been as successful in many of my endeavors if it weren't for the people, mentors and team members that supported me. There are too many examples to name, but I'll be sure to mention you guys in future posts.

But anyways, how does this all relate to what I've been doing. So after a big night of gaming with friends during Friday night (and Saturday morning), I drove down to Brisbane to attend a video game conference called Game On Symposium: Foreplay to Freeplay. I was supposed to head down there with a couple of class mates from Bond, but everyone else was too slack to get up in the morning, so it was just Blade and I that drove down to attend.

The conference was themed around indie game development and many of the presentations were about technical business aspects of independent studios, things such as intellectual property and general business management were discussed. I honestly didn't learn anything from this side, partially because of my own experiences, plus I had some pretty damn good lecturers at Bond University. I felt that I gained a lot more during the breaks than during the presentation. I got to meet plenty of people at different levels within the game development area. I met plenty of students, who were still in school, couple of indie game developers doing their own thing after finishing their courses as well as meeting other more senior members of the industry.

While I was there, I had a chat with a couple of the indie game devs about possibly coming down and showing off a bit of their work at next Gamer's Life Convention. These guys all seemed pretty keen to get out there and show off what they got, so we exchanged details and I'll get in contact with them later on. In addition to meeting plenty of people that might be interested in working with me, I got some pretty good insight from one of the founders from Screwtape. He spoke about 10 rules that he had learnt while starting up his indie studio. I took some notes and here's what he said.

1) Start within your own means
2) Log your time. So you can see how much time you are actually working on a project. Then consider if you would be able to pay yourself a wage using those numbers
3) Spend plenty of time "Selling" your game, not just developing it.
4) Embrace the established rules until you know enough to break them
5) Talk to anyone about your work
6) Start small. You'll make plenty of mistakes when starting. Might as well learn from mistakes that cost less.
7) Be ruthless with certain decisions. Sometimes you have to make some hard decisions on what is worth it and what isn't. You'll have plenty of ideas and opportunities, scrap the bad ones.
8) Ask for help when you need it. You'll be much more successful if you do.
9) Play a lot. Don't just focus on your own work, take time to experience what others are doing.
10) Know your business and Industry. You not only need to keep up to date, but be ready to follow future trends

Overall, I have to agree with most of his list. Points 2 and 4 were things that I haven't thought of so especially I made sure to note them down. It's nice to hear that there are other people out there who are doing what they love, even with the lack of security surrounding it. I had really gotten a lot out of the day and was really happy that I went. Blade even met a couple of people who were interested in similar gaming fields as he was.

Looking back on the day, I was right to force myself out of the house. If I were to summarise what I can take away from this experience it would be

- If you want to be someone that does something new or follow a different path, make sure you spend regular time getting out, having new experiences and meeting new people.
- You might meet people who have similar interests and goals as you do.
- You can learn so much from other people's experiences and perspectives 


Ps: I really dislike politics and networking with people specifically to gain. Thinking about what I wrote, I'd like to believe what I did was different. I want to believe that I'm not a hypocrite. In future, I think I'll post something up about what I believe to be networking ethics. Until then, thanks for reading.

The Mind is a Double Edged Sword - Goal Setting

Something that I got caught up with recently, are the different interesting things that were happening within my life. I had Gamers' Life Convention stuff to work on, resume and job applications, plenty of gaming events and other potential business projects as well. There were quite a few projects that all wanted a bit of my time, so I tried to spend some time on each project. At the end of the day, there were certain things that I left too late and certain things that I didn't set aside enough time for.

I felt like I was moving one step forward, but moved two steps back everywhere else. It wasn't until one late night that I decided to go for a walk and buy some coffee powder that I got some good thinking time in. During that walk, I realized that I was actually in the great position of having a few too many opportunities to take. I really had to decide in my mind what was important to me and what I would prioritize in the next few days.

After I had got back, I pulled out my note book, flipped to the back and started writing down the thoughts going through my mind. I wrote down what I wanted to be in the near future. Which was for me, to be a all-round great gamer and a respected business leader. I then started writing down, what the future strategy would be, which included

choose you game > commit to it
find work > at least enough regular work to secure living costs
look after health
go out to events
meet new people

I then started writing down more specific plans in how I would achieve each of these. I sat there with my freshly made cup of coffee and read through it again and again to make sure I didn't forget anything and I was truly content with what was on the list. I made sure that the list included literally the most important parts of my life at the moment. I also made sure that I was listing only things that I thought I had the time to do.

As the following week came, I felt much more focused. I woke up in the morning and wasn't intimidated at all the stuff I could be doing. Instead I knew something on the list had to be done and then proceeded to get things done. Looking back at this, I think the benefit to writing down goals is that it really makes you think about what is important to you. There are distractions that come by every day and by making a list, you can much more easily determine whether that distraction is a waste of time or not. Ultimately, I think a good summary for today's post is "If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything".

Summary
- when confused or uncertain, go take a walk and think about things
- writing things down are a good way of collecting your thoughts
- make a list of what is important to you, so that you can determine what is worth doing or not
- know what you want, so you can be focused on getting it

Mistakes and Lessons - Start within your own means

Today's post is actually a post that I started a few weeks ago but I didn't feel that the idea was complete. But I feel that I've found the answer to what was missing and so here it is. Today's post is about starting within your own means.

Now this lesson is something that I believed in quite instinctually when I was younger and trying my luck with business. But as I got older and expanded my horizons, I realised that what I was doing was so small and insignificant to what many huge and established businesses were doing. I felt increasingly more inadequate with what I was doing, seeing others do something I couldn't hope to even begin to compare to.


It played through my mind a lot within the last couple of months as I was considering a new strategy for Gamer's Life Convention 2013. Raw encouragement from peers and attendees of the event fueled my decision to plan a second event, but in the back of my mind I couldn't help feel that I was nothing compared to Supanova and other huge events. I was so afraid that the event I organise won't be able to meet the expectations of attendees and I was so afraid of letting them down.

It wasn't until some recent soul searching that I remembered what I used to believe in. That it was fine to start off small and do something within your own means. Even if you start small, as long as you do it well, it will grow. Someday you might even be able to compare or compete against other players in the industry. I realised that there is no perfect opportunity or situation. We can only do the best that we can, pick ourselves up from any falls and learn from our mistakes.

So this is applicable in several ways. Firstly, it helped me with my blog. I've literally left several posts as unfinished drafts because I didn't feel it was the "perfect" time or that it wasn't a neat self-contained story. Maybe it's the best we can do at the time, but we can always revisit these ideas on the future and complete them. Secondly, this has helped me jump over my recent mental barrier of feeling inadequate in what I was doing. I'll be focusing less on trying make ourselves look huge and professional as the competition, and really focus more energy on using my skills and talents and give more to the people I serve, whether they are clients, the community or friends.

On an interesting side note, this recent revelation has brought back memories of a good friend I had during my senior year in high school, a good friend by the name James Gilbert. He was interested in business just like me and we used to chat about business stuff all the time. Something that he gave me that was quite memorable was an ebook called "The Bootstrapper's Bible" by Seth Godin. I remembered that it was a great read and I have recently started rereading this book. I highly suggest anyone starting off in business to have a look.

So to Summarise today's post
- it might be daunting when starting out and seeing what established businesses do
- focus your energies on doing the best you can and serving your clients the best you can
- start within your own means,
- value your friends, the impact they have on your life is sometimes indescribable

So once again, thank you for reading my blog. Please leave a comment and subscribe using the feature on the right.