Writing

Looking back 2011 and goals 2012

2012 essays

✓ The Not Shit PromiseWritten by me. No AI.

Looking back on 2011, and goals for 2012

2 things make this post quite unique.

  1. I’ve never really written anything like this before in 23 years.
  2. Out of my 23 years of my life, I think this year has proven to be one of the biggest and most important.

Short highlights:

Genius Division

The under-current that’s made most of the year possible has been Genius Division. Amazingly, we’ve somehow ran a successful business for 12 months. 15 months ago, I felt like I was probably the least-qualified person on the planet to run a business. To some extent, I still feel like that. I certainly don’t feel like a “businessman”.

However, James and I grabbed an opportunity 14 months ago, and we’re still living that opportunity now. I find that humbling, beautiful, and fantastic. I feel genuinely honoured to still be doing it.

The goal of Genius Division in the last year has been to survive. Lots of people say it’s not until you’ve been running a business for 3 years do you truly come out of that stage, but we feel ready to come out the goal of surviving.

We’ve been working since the summer on our new brand. We’ve had a fantastic brand consultant helping us out, and we’ve gone right back to the basics. We looked at the name, whether it was right for us, worked out our core principles and values, decided what our vision for Genius Division was, and now we’re finishing off the design side of it. It’s taken a long time, and it’s been tough, but we’re nearly there.

The biggest change I’ve seen from that process has come from working out our values and principles. Since then, I’ve seen them slowly creeping into our practices and attitudes, and I think it’s making us into something really special. Knowing your values and principles, and being principle-lead, is a beautiful thing in business and life.

Pecha Kuchas and Speaking

After doing 3 Pecha Kuchas in 2011 and giving countless lectures at FdA Web Design, I discovered something strange building inside of me. It started to become obvious immediately after my second Pecha Kucha1:

“You know, I actually enjoy speaking.”

This was a really odd thing to come to terms with. For the people who know me, you may find the following thing I’m about say quite unbelievable: I used to be a shy person.

That shy side always stuck with me when it came to public speaking. I found the whole thing terrifying. I had to do a 25 minute presentation at the end of my HND in Interactive Media, and the build-up to that was probably the worst 3 hours of my life I’ve ever experienced. After that, I said to myself that that was probably going to be the scariest thing I’d ever do.

By that, I meant I’d never have to do a public speaking thing again. I was right about one part: it was probably the scariest thing I’ll ever do. It certainly won’t be the last time I do any public speaking. In fact, I’m already taking on my next challenge: a brand new talk for The Digital Barn in February.

Blogging and writing again

Blogging. Now, that’s been a toughie for this year. I’ve wanted to do it, but I’ve not really done it. I’ve written a bit for Elocute, the Genius Division blog, but personally I’ve written little.

I do like writing, and I do miss it, which makes it even more frustrating that I haven’t been blogging. It’s because I’ve been a busy fool.

I’m always busy, and always claim I’m so busy, that I can’t do things I want to. Starting this year, right now, that changes. I’m going to make time to do stuff for myself, the way I should.

Making myself a website, ignoring it, then relaunching it

OK. I took massive leap forward in 2011 by actually making myself a website. It took ages, and when I’d done with it I didn’t even really like it anymore.

It’s difficult, making your own website. Really difficult. It’s like making a car for yourself, or making a piece of clothing for yourself. It reflects you, and what you’re about. You want that to be really, really good.

I made the first version, and I’m glad I got it online. It kickstarted a change in attitude towards my stuff. I’ve started thinking about archiving all my stuff properly now. If I gave this up tomorrow, right now I’d have nothing to show for it.

So that’s the new reason for my website: to chronicle, archive and file away all the stuff I’ve done over the years. I’m going to try and think back, and be really thorough.

Goals