Week 4: You Learn

The Team, the Team, the Team.” – Bo Schembechler

It’s become apparent with the more books we read and the more people we meet, that the most important asset that a start-up has is the people. I used to always think that the idea was sacred, but the more and more I now realize that my notion of entrepreneurship was much too simple–there are layers and multiple facets. Ideas are nothing without execution, persistence, and the team.

Right now, our team is True Entrepreneur Corps, TEC, and our focus is to learn as much as possible. But if you think learning is limited to entrepreneurship and innovation, guess again:

How to be lucky: These two (linked by Vishal on his blog post here) articles have got me really thinking about the ways I go about my day. I get lost easily so I like routine. I like taking the same bus, and I like eating at the same place for lunch. But now–I try to take the bus at different times of the day, waking up at 6 am just for kicks. I take different routes to try and discover new sights and still find my way to the office. It’s my goal to consciously become lucky–to continuously keep an open mind to find things that those focused on their daily routines may not.

Nurture your fascinations: I tend to get very obsessed very quickly, but also drop those obssesions just as quickly. Past victims have been avocados, Tumblr, photography, and pilates. My new obsession with Fitbit led me to realize that I’m obsessed with collecting data–blog analytics with trying out KISSmetrics, installing tracking information on my Tumblr, keeping tabs on how music artists sell in the charts, apps that measure sleep cycles, etc. Now my endless curiousity can be categorized with tracking data, and satisfied partially with the Fitbit, which makes me very happy with its abilities for tracking food intake, exercise, steps, sleep efficiency, and more.

How to be better: With one hour commutes, grocery shopping, 9-10 hour workdays, and hanging out with True and TEC interns, I’m forced to be more productive and innovative. I’ve started to use the Pomodoro technique (work 25 minutes, break for 5 minutes) à la Ben Rigby, the awesome co-founder who is leading me through adventures at Sparked (which, by the way I don’t see all of you signed up…sign up!). I’m writing a daily log, documenting my wake-up and sleeping times (which Fitbit can now take care of), my to-do lists of the day, and random thoughts. Now, “How would you like to get four years of time back over the course of your life?” (David Allen, master of Getting Things Done). My new short-term goal is to learn how to type faster by using TypingMaster.

How to write better: Ever since reading Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, I’ve wondered if Mozart really did become a genius by composing and practicing for 10,000 hours+ or was just born that way. One thing for sure though, practice is a huge part of success and nurturing talent. One of my friends, Erik, has planned his 10,000 hours over the next three years to become a better writer, and I’m taking that as inspiration. I’ve been writing so much differently and more than I do normally–blog posts for True, Sparked and personal blogs are much different than writing academic papers, but an incredibly valuable skill that I’m excited to improve on. I also write more than 20 emails a day interacting with Nonprofits, and learning a great deal about customer service and support.

Try new things: New things I’ve tried include biking long-distance (Christiaan), electronic/house music (Vishal), coding (Lionel), using Twitter better (Teddy), Instagram (Vicki), baseball (Richard, Ron), etc. This section should actually be titled “Learning from the rest of the team” because I’ve learned so much just from sitting in the same room as them. If the following quote is true (substitute 11 people), then I am pretty lucky to be with these amazing 11 people. Or, as I like to think–it wasn’t luck, but a ton of preparation and hard work that led to this summer at True.

“You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” – Jim Rohn

Note: This was originally written by Summer TEC Intern Jenny Li on theTrue Ventures TEC Program Blog.  It was reprinted here with his permission.