Archive for the ‘Lessons’ Category
Sunday, September 25th, 2011
Today I completed my first half marathon, so I thought it was only right and proper that I should blog about it and shoehorn in some pithy lessons.
Here’s seven:
1. Big achievements require hard work
Sounds bloody obvious, but sometimes there just isn’t a shortcut. Running a half marathon requires you to run for thirteen miles. And the only way to do it well is to put in the miles before the big day.
Want to do something remarkably rewarding? Make a decision to do it, and get to work.
2. Small victories make big achievements
I didn’t try to run thirteen miles today. Instead, I decided the first mile would be a warm-up, then I’d settle into a nine-mile run, and finish with a gruelling five kilometres. My parents’ house was half-way into the nine miles, too – so it was a great boost when all my family were outside cheering me on.
Avoid big idea inertia by ripping it into smaller pieces.
3. Don’t follow the crowd
“Pace yourself,” they tell you. “I will,” you say. You have every intention of doing so. Then the race begins, runners push forward, and the adrenaline kicks in. Before you know it, you’re running much faster than you want to, fully aware that you’ll pay for it in the latter parts of the race. This happened to me today. I had to slow down, let people overtake me, and stick to my strategy.
Know what you’re trying to achieve and have the confidence to stick to it.
4. Be proud of your achievement
It’s very British to be quiet about your successes; after all, nobody likes a boaster. But being proud of doing something difficult isn’t necessarily boasting. Who knows? Your achievement might inspire others to do something remarkable. Watching Mo Farah storm to victory in Daegu inspired me to step up my training and do this half marathon. As did training with Jen.
Modesty is an overrated virtue.
5. Dress for success
I bought a special pair of Nike underpants and a nice Adidas t-shirt for the run today. Not because they’d make me a better runner, but because they made me feel like a better runner. Nothing wrong with that in my book. In fact, I think we can trick ourselves into performing better by getting ourselves in the right mindset. And if what you wear does the trick, why the hell not?
You can’t always change your attributes, but you can change your attitude.
6. Don’t judge yourself against others
While I was huffing and puffing my way round Ipswich, finally finishing my half marathon in two hours, seven minutes and nine seconds, Kenya’s Patrick Makau was in Berlin setting a new world record for the full marathon in a time of two hours, three minutes and 38 seconds. Simply incredible running – but I’m no less thrilled to have completed my half marathon.
If you’re always comparing your achievements to those of others, you’re in for a miserable ride.
7. Get some support
Running’s a lonely old sport (although there’s appeal in the solitude). But running today wasn’t lonely at all. People came out of their houses to clap and cheer, the marshalls were supportive throughout the course, and loads of people tweeted me with messages of encouragement. My lasting memory of today will be seeing my dad with 200m to go. He was willing me on, just he like used to when I was a terrible eight-year-old footballer – with pride and passion and unwavering love. I sprinted those last 200m on the adrenaline of those claps and cheers. Thanks, Dad.
Want to do something big? Surround yourself with brilliant people.
Wednesday, June 1st, 2011
Condiment recently launched Up To The Moon – an emporium of educational toys, gifts, games and suchlike. It’s one of the first few e-commerce sites that we’ve launched on the incredible Lemonstand platform, and the learning curve has been steep at best, and vertigo-inducing at worst.
I’ve learnt loads of code-based stuff, but I thought I’d jot down a few non-technical benefits of building this particular website.
1. Chuck yourself in at the deep end
It’s a bit scary, often cold, and you can end up in serious trouble, but it’s wonderfully liberating to chuck yourself in at the deep end. With Up To The Moon, I decided not to modify the demo theme (starting with something that works, and tweaking it until it looks different and still works) but rather start from scratch. First there was nothing, and then there was a fully functional website. Every piece of code in that website is written by me or, at the very least, copied and pasted by my fair hands.
If you always start at the shallow end, you’re always getting closer to being out of your depth. Do the opposite.
2. There’s always a dip
There were times when I literally tried to tear my hair out when building this website. I’d spend hours trawling the internet looking for similar issues, in the hope that one forum or blog post, somewhere on this incredible internet, would hold a clue that would solve my riddle. Often I had to resort to submitting support tickets (a coder’s white flag; a horrible admission of defeat).
This is the dip. The difficult bit where we feel despondent; where chucking in the towel seems like a bloody good option. The dip isn’t pleasant, but pushing through it gives you valuable knowledge and a pleasant sense of achievement.
3. Do something different, often
I still see myself as a copywriter. I still love words and phrasing and rhythm and psychology and tutting at people’s apostrophe usage.
But being able to code makes me stronger. It gives the mathematical side of my brain a good workout, it increases the profitability of our company, and it means I can walk into a meeting and sell an e-commerce store based on my experiences of building them – not on something I retweeted from Mashable once.
4. Building an e-commerce site is the easy bit
The difficult bit is the ongoing work to make it a success. Building a robust e-commerce site isn’t cheap, so a small business isn’t going to have a bucket of money for pay-per-click, display, or traditional advertising. Getting visits through natural search is vital, as is a commitment to social media marketing – but visits don’t necessarily mean sales.
Increasing the conversion rate will take time, patience and a willingness to try things out. Alter the structure of the homepage, tweak your pricing policy, be critical about your copy. Even if the first iteration of the site proves to be a success, there’s always room for improvement.
5. An online shop isn’t the easy alternative to a physical store
You don’t have to pay rent for an online store, but if you want to do serious numbers you’ll need some powerful hosting. E-commerce stores can be much more memory intensive, and any downtime will lose you sales and customers – so scrimping on your hosting is very much a false economy.
Opening a shop in a town centre gives you guaranteed foot traffic and exposure. Building a store online doesn’t guarantee you any visitors whatsoever. If your site is poorly optimised, and your marketing is forgettable, you’re going to get very few visits and very poor sales.
*
And that’s it. Blimey, this is almost like a proper blog post, with hints and tips and everything. Sweary service will be resumed shortly.
Sunday, September 12th, 2010
It’s not often advice from Sheryl Crow (this ain’t no disco, and it ain’t no country club either!) seems pertinent, but yesterday, the ninth anniversary of 9/11, “don’t sweat the small stuff” rang very true.
(The quote comes from an interview with Sheryl Crow in The Guardian’s weekend magazine thing – I don’t listen to her records for guidance. Well, not often.)
Every time I watch those planes smash into the Twin Towers, it’s like being punched in the gut. I’m not American, I don’t know anyone directly affected by the attacks, but using an aircraft of innocent people as a missile to destroy tower blocks of innocent people will sicken everyone with any hint of a moral compass.
Last night’s 9/11 documentary on Channel 4 certainly put my poor harvest of back-garden potatoes into perspective.
That’s all I wanted to say, really.
Tuesday, October 27th, 2009
A word from The Master:
Hire people who are better than you are, then leave them to get on with it. Look for people who will aim for the remarkable, who will not settle for the routine.
There are many Ogilvyisms that float around my head, but this one has – until recently – sat quietly in the back of my brain, happy to be along for the ride.
After all, it stands to reason that if I don’t own a company, I’m not responsible for hiring and firing.
Yet without sounding too much like a corporate twerp, I think we ‘hire’ people all the time.
Currently, I’m responsible for a brilliant mega-leaflet we’re doing for a client in the education sector. The concept is supermarkets: the campaign is about communicating the range, convenience and simplicity – all in a trustworthy, affordable package. Because finding a course on Beekeeping should be as simple as buying a jar of honey.
It’s a good idea. But good ideas don’t make good campaigns unless they’re executed well.
So I hired a crack team.
Designer Rob came up with the idea for the front cover and inspired the lead headline. Creative Director James oversees the whole thing because he can visualise a good idea quicker than anybody. And Production Director Simon makes sure everything gets sent to the printers and distributors.
Today we shot the front cover image. Simon was behind the lens. James and I directed the shot. Simon even drove for miles to find that bloody metal shopping basket.
If the campaign goes well, the client will give me the credit.
I’ll happily take the credit, of course. For some brilliant hiring.
Tuesday, February 17th, 2009
Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination.
Devour films, music, books, paintings, poems, photographs, conversations, dreams, trees, architecture, street signs, clouds, light and shadows.
Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic.
Authenticity is invaluable.
Originality is non-existent.
Don’t bother concealing your thievery – celebrate it if you feel like it.
Remember what Jean-Luc Goddard said: ‘It’s not where you take things from – it’s where you take them to.’
I stole this from Paul Arden. He stole it from Jim Jarmusch. And I stole the photo of Banksy’s Rat from Paul Stevenson.
Wednesday, November 26th, 2008
[Photo by afiler]
When I was young, my mother told me that when you assume, you make an ass out of u and me.
These days, a more popular phrase seems to be assumption is the mother of all fuck ups.
Both are true, of course.
Suppose it’s just you doing the assuming. You’re going to assume right or assume wrong. You’ve got a one-in-two chance of getting it right. Fifty-fifty.
Now add another assumer.
You’re working together on something. You assume, they assume. You both need to get it right, otherwise the legs fall off your project. You both have a one-in-two chance of assuming right, but there’s only a one-in-four chance of both of you assuming right.
Four of us assumed the other day. We had a one-in-sixteen chance. It was 93.75% certain that we would fuck up.
And fuck up we did.