A kinder definition of success
Last week we had the privilege of having Paul Cartmel speak at the MIH Media Lab Monday event. I’ve known Paul since 2009 and always regarded him as one of the top entrepreneurs in the country. What surprised me even more, was the focus of his talk.
So often in life we get the opportunity to listen to someone’s success story, fueled by “I managed to be visionary, be at the right place at the right time”, “it’s important to scale”, and most often the undertone of “I’m trying to be humble whilst being an overachieving millionaire”.
What was so refreshing about Paul’s talk is that he barely mentioned his education, company or success. His talk focused on the sustainable pursuit of success, but success on your own terms.
Paul’s guide to being “successful”, is to have:
- A family you love
- A house you want to go home to
- Friends, real friends
- A car you enjoy driving (in my case it would be the Audi RS5 Coupé – a girl can dream a little, right!?)
- Time to enjoy your family and friends
In today’s rushed/ egotistical/ manically success-driven society, it really made me think about the life I’m busy shaping for myself. Isn’t it time that we simplify and focus on the things that are really important? Socrates once said, “The secret of happiness, you see, is not found in seeking more, but in developing the capacity to enjoy less.”
Paul’s final wisdom:
- Be less insecure
- Be less arrogant
- Be more charming
- Be gentler on yourself, have a kinder definition of success.
I sincerely hope that this will become the mindset of a new breed of “successful” entrepreneurs in SA!
Photo courtesy of Compfight: http://www.flickr.com/photos/puppiesofpurgatory/3334942412/sizes/l/in/photostream/
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Tags: success
Week starting 30 April 2012
Some weeks are more amazing than others and sometimes I really wish I could capture the things I read, conversations I have and people I meet. So I decided to keep a blog-like diary here as well. Not sure what the future of the Marketing Engineer blog looks like, but at the moment I am happy to chronicle my blessed life here. Hope you enjoy!
Monday
Read The Future of Science: The time to act is now. If you are a VC, invest in science startups. If you are an entrepreneur, hunt for an idea in the space and run with it. If you are an engineer or designer, there is a list of startups trying to accelerate science here. (via twitter: @LenSteenkamp)
Read Meet the People who are Building our Future: Moore’s Law. “Our problem with pondering the future is that our expectation is “linear, not exponential,” he says. Things aren’t going to change incrementally, they’re going to change explosively. And it was this that captured Peter Diamandis’s attention — he read Kurzweil’s book, The Singularity is Near, while trekking in Chile — and inspired him to set up the university.” , “The endgame is likely to get better. And the world is changing. In ways we can’t even begin to imagine. And whatever else it’s doing, the Singularity University is looking at problems differently.”
Chatted to @Mbwana about Systems Thinking: “Systems thinking helps me rationalize & adapt. Like when I fail on “get shit done fast”- how can I adapt the africa system for it to work?”. He recommends Systems Thinking, Systems Practice. I like the idea of “bringing together of a number of different streams of knowledge”.
Skyped with @Suhaifa. She tells me about the Coursera CS101 class she’s taking. Recall @johkollar also mentionining it. Signed up.
Watched a TED talk, ”Toward a science of simplicity” by George Whitesides. He quotes Einstein: “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler”. My mom tweets me to Read M Scott Peck’s The Road Less travelled and beyond. Yes, I was in the sitting room, she in the bedroom. She tweeted. That’s how we lol.
Watched the SAMAs. #SAMA18. Loved the AKA and Jack Parow collab. Also love love love Mi Casa. Lol’ed at @texxonfire’s tweet: “yes mi casa, they gave you the bloody sama because white and black people are finally making music together. chop.”
Tuesday
Woke up and RT’ed @the_o’s How to Spot the Future tweet.
Updated Media Lab Monday events for the rest of the year. Some excellent speakers lined up.
Came across @alanknottcraig’s tweet relating to the game show/ prisoner’s dillemma video @simondlr, @leonvniekerk and I discussed last week: ”Magnificent application of game theory on a game show“
Somebody tweeted a link to Seth Godin’s The Accountability Effect [pdf] – the book your excuses don’t want to read.This book is for your heart of hearts, for the voice inside your head, for the person you want to be, and for the person you are scared to become. It is a battle cry to regain your center, to never give up on your dreams, and to surround yourself with those who refill your cups of life, love and gratitude.
Also came across this article proving that being bilingual is actually beneficial: Being bilingual ‘boosts brain power’.
Wednesday
Prepare for my meeting with my supervisor, @kobusehlers. Always invigorating spending time with such a fun, learned person. On the way to our meeting, bump into @mattdlhey, who is on the TEDx Stellenbosch committee with me.
Spend the rest of the day preparing for my Demo Day presentation. Watch the Susan Cain, The power of introverts, TED video.
Read The Simplicity Thesis. “And as more and more of the hard work of building infrastructure, managing computing, and installing and monetizing applications is abstracted from what necessarily goes into launching a company today, differentiation is going to come from solutions that create the best (read: simplest) experience.”
Here are just a few ways to get started in achieving minimum complexity:
- Think end to end. Simplicity relates to the entire customer experience, from how you handle pricing to customer support.
- Say no. Kill features and services that don’t get used, and optimize the ones that do.
- Specialize. Focus on your core competency, and outsource the rest–simplicity comes more reliably when you have less on your plate.
- Focus on details. Simple is hard because it’s so easy to compromise; hire the best designers you can find, and always reduce clicks, messages, prompts, and alerts.
- Audit constantly. Constantly ask yourself, can this be done any simpler? Audit your technology and application frequently.
Friday
Read @Mbwana’s @Afrinnovator article: Growth Masai Key Skills Gap in Africa Technology Startups where he mentions the systems thinking approach again. Mbwana also mentions the Growth Hacker, an intersection of a few key core skills: “Growth hackers are a hybrid of marketer and coder”, which makes me think how important it is to have both technical and people skills.
Demo Day presentation goes well. The guys loved Susan Cain’s video.
Some Chinese academics visit the Lab and @nieldlr impresses us all with his Mandarin.
We end off the day with a pub lunch.
Pub lunch with the Media Lab boys
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About being inspired
A few weeks ago I stumpled upon this video about Tom Ford. At the time I thought nothing of it, but then I was reminded how things come to us when the time is right…
Style Forum Special from Music Guy on Vimeo.
Schedule some time in the next week to watch this movie. It’s 42 minutes long, but it will inspired you to do what you love. Tom said in this video: “You got to figure out what you love in life”…
Are you doing what you love?
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Tags: Do what you love, inspiration, Mariska du Preez, Marketing Engineer, Tom Ford
2011… almost the end
I’m still busy gathering my personal and professional thoughts on the last 12 months…
In the meantime, have a look at this…
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Earlier this year I had the privilege to visit Nairobi to experience the mobile technology scene and learn about the developer community at the iHub. Below is a blog post I wrote for the MIH Media Lab website. Have a look at my Mobile technology adoption in Sub-Saharan Africa_Kenya Feedback slideshow on Slideshare if you want to see more pictures of my visit.
A recent GSMA report stated that Africa is currently the second biggest market for mobile in the world. This means that there is huge innovation potential in terms of mobile technology application development, as well as creating solutions (think access to information, ability to transfer money, creating jobs) for the more than 649 million handset owners on the continent.
As part of my research I’ve been investigating the mobile tech space in South Africa and Kenya as well as the developer communities in both countries. It is interesting to see how many differences (and surprising similarities) there are in terms of mobile usage and user statistics.
This infographic by Ivan Colic was published in July this year and gives a thought-provoking overview of smartphone vs feature phone penetration in Africa.
- Mobile phones in Africa. Image by @ivanisawesome
Comparison between Kenya and South Africa. Image by @mariskaza
Developer communities
The (software) developer community in Kenya is in its infant stages, with lots of young computer science students obtaining their degrees from European universities and then returning home to re-invest their skills in the country. The opposite is mostly true for developers in South Africa, where engineers obtain their degrees here, and then move overseas to gain international experience and work for huge corporations in America and Europe.
What struck me while I was chatting to developers in Nairobi, is that they’re much more “solution for the people” focused as opposed to developing cool technologies that are sometimes immitating international apps, and not necesarily apps that will improve people’s lives. It is interesting to note that there are currently 8 million smartphones (and growing at a phenomenal rate) in South Africa, with a much smaller percentage in Kenya. Developers in Kenya still develop mostly for feature phones. That’s why a platform like Mocality is agnostic to the client platform. Mocality is a business listing app that launched in Nairobi early in 2010 and already have 67,000 users. According to Mocality CEO, Stefan Magdalinski, “This is the Mocality reality: RIM, Android, Apple are 2% of usage.”
The biggest concentration of software (and by implication, mobile app) developers, are based in Nairobi. One could compare this ecosystem with the developer community in Silicon Cape. Most developers in Kenya, however, spend time at the iHub. The iHub is Nairobi’s Innovation Hub for the technology community and is an open space for the technologists, investors, tech companies and hackers in the area.
I had the privilege to meet the founder of the iHub, Erik Hersman, in Nairobi and I recently asked him (via twitter and e-mail) what he thought the differences are between Kenya and South Arica in terms of the mobile ecosystem.
“I’d say the biggest difference that I can point out is that it seems like there are more products made for a global market coming out of South Africa, as opposed to more regionalized products coming out of Kenya. The focus is different, not better or worse, just different. South Africa tends to have more restrictive telecom and banking regulations, which I think have lead to less innovation in these spaces. Kenya has had a much friendlier regulator, allowing innovative mobile money products to develop. South Africa has more money and better infrastructure than Kenya, more developers too, yet somehow Kenya seems to have a better position on innovation in the mobile space (though not the web).”
Looking at the future of mobile in Africa, I asked Erik what kind of technology he’d invest in: “I’d double down on mobile money solutions, both on the peer-to-peer and merchant-to-consumer sides. This is what the users want, so the products will find their way to market.”
Most developers in Nairobi are under the impression that we are light years ahead of them in South Africa in terms of our technological innovations. I would go as far as to say that yes, we are privileged in terms of technological experience, but that we will definitely need to adopt Kenyan developers’ outlook on building solution-oriented apps for the more than 80% of people who still rely on feature phones to communicate, share and transact.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_africa
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenya
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gini_coefficient
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/sf.html
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ke.html
http://www.voanews.com/english/news/africa/Report-Africa-is-the-Fastest-Growing-Mobile-Phone-Market—133534983.html
http://thinkprogress.org/yglesias/2011/09/18/321937/mobile-phone-penetration-in-africa/
http://whiteafrican.com/2010/06/22/mocality-mobile-business-listings-for-africa/
http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats1.htm
http://www.8ta.com/plans/prepaid-data/
http://www.kenyandroid.com/apps/kenyan-apps/item/167-kenyan-data-bundle-price-comparison
Image sources:
http://www.vecteezy.com/Map-Vector/5908-African-Map-Vector
http://afrographique.tumblr.com/post/7087562485/infographic-depicting-smart-and-dumb-mobile
Filed under: Africa | Leave a Comment
Tags: Africa, Kenya, mobile app development, mobile technology, Nairobi, Silicon Cape, South Africa
About amazing opportunities
About a year ago I wrote a post “About inspiring people, and dreams coming true“, where I mentioned about getting my dream bursary. A year later I look back at a year that was filled with wonderfully challenging interactions, lots of learning and becoming a more tech-savvy individual.
Computer Engineer Barbie
I won’t go as far as calling myself Computer Engineer barbie yet, but my focus of “engineering the world of marketing” has since shifted to “marketing the world of engineering”. Most of this journey happened at the MIH Media Lab in Stellenbosch. Another fantastic opportunity that crossed my path, was to get involved in Girl Geek Dinners, an international networking group that brings together girl (and boy) geeks in cities all over the world. I learnt that being in an intellectually stimulating environment not only encouraged me to become more critical about the world around me, but it made me acutely aware of the opportunities that exist out there. Opportunities not only to change the world in terms of your own little ecosystem, but encouraging people around you to aim higher, take risks, make things happen for themselves.
A great opportunity I want you to look into, is a bursary at the MIH Media Lab. They offer Master’s bursaries for students from a variety of under-graduate backgrounds (computer science, engineering, business management, etc) and give them the space and support to pursue a post-graduate degree in a very stimulating environment.
2011 was for me a year to make changes, make the most of opportunities that graced my path, but most importantly, have fun along the way with a bunch of amazing people. And for that, I am super grateful!
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Tags: Girl Geek Dinners Cape Town, MIH Media Lab
Good design
This morning I clicked on a link in twitter and started watching Objectified -a documentary made in 2009 about Industrial Design. Some of the principles listed by Dieter Rams on good design really resonated with me and I thought to share…
- Good design should be innovative
- Good design should make a product useful
- Good design is aesthetic design
- Good design will make a product understandable
- Good design is honest
- Good design is unobtrusive
- Good design is long-lived
- Good design is consistent in every detail
- Good design is environmentally friendly
- Good design is as little design as possible
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Tags: Design, Dieter Rams, Good design, Mariska du Preez, Marketing Engineer, Objectified
Doing well by doing good
Gustav Praekelt‘s presentation at the Net Prophet event. Doing well by doing good: Developing a successful social business…
Two take-aways for me:
Happiness = satisfying, engaging work + feeling successful + social connection + meaning
Social business = accessible (affordable, simple) + relevant + sustainable
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The 3 A’s of awesome
I just had to share this video by Neil Pasricha:
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I’ve had the privilege (thanks to Avusa Media Live) to attend this year’s Geek Retreat. Geek, what?
Geek Retreat: Every year, a group of people passionate about the internet and collaboration, get together for a weekend of sharing, fun and geekiness. The 2011 GeekRetreat had the theme ‘Geeks in Action’ – people were split into teams and asked to complete a project in 3 days.
Highlights of the weekend included some projects (real life and fun): Geeks @ Play, Solve my *&£$*%& Problem, Bootstrap Secrets and Argent Brown. Check out the Geek Movie as well!
I met some amazing people, learnt a lot about technology, people and life in general and got inspired for the year ahead. In my personal experience, (un)conferences, networking events, and workshops add value to your professional and personal life because of the people involved. Each experience in life is as beneficial as you allow it to be. So, make the most out of each opportunity in 2011!
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Tags: *mdp marketing, Alex Fraser, Andy Hadfield, Andy Volk, Avusa Media Live, Brian Pinnock, Coenraad Loubser, Craig Rodney, Elan Lohman, Elodie Kleynhans, Eshaam Rabaney, Geek Retreat, Guy Taylor, Heather Ford, Heidi Schneigansz, Henk Kleynhans, Jarred Cinman, Jonathan Maliepaard, Kerry Anne Giloway, Larry Claasen, Len Weincier, Leslie Maliepaard, Luisa Mazinter, Mariska du Preez, Marketing Engineer, Pam Sykes, Paul Furber, Paul Scott, Pete Flynn, Randolf Jorberg, Reuben Goldberg, Roger Norton, Sam Christie, Saul Kropman, Shawn Graaff, Stanford Valley Lodge, Tasleem Williams, Tim Lunn, Tim Price, Wesley Lynch
