WHAT IT TAKES TO BOOTSTRAP

I apologize for not being able to post the last few weeks I've been super busy teaching and getting my start ups minimum viable product ready for investors to try out.

Anyways I wanted to share what it's been like bootstrapping a start up. As you know it's been a few years from when I wanted to build a mobile game company all the way to where I am now building a line of competitive multiplayer arcade games designed to interact with a social tournament style web application. That's a lot of words to write and it's a been a challenging and fun project to work on.

Anyways to get to this point I had to learn to bootstrap. That's means I've had to make sacrifices and live like a poor student and learn to survive on very little. It's a great thing to go through and experience because you learn what's important. Before this I valued materials and after a while you learn that it's a life that doesn't make you happy. Now I value family, education, innovation, religion, things that money cannot buy.

It's only when I started following my dream of building a game changing company that life really became different for me. My perspective had changed. I no longer cared about cars, buying the most expensive stuff. It forced me to be around good supporting people, family members, and forced me to learn to survive on very little. There are a lot of free resources in the city to help you survive if you actually looked.

I went to a lot of free events to get free food like pizza, chicken, wine, h'orderves. A lot of entrepreneur centers had workshops that gave things like battery chargers and notebooks. Any time I needed a book I would go to the library. I used as many beta programs and trial periods to get the software I needed for my start up. Once you learn a lot of these things, you start to understand that you don't need that much money to survive. At first it took time to get used to but I realized if your resourceful enough you can solve a lot of problems. Too many people take the easy way out. By also taking a part time job you love you can earn money to live while using those survival methods and still build your company. No matter what there is sacrifice involved.

I've barely spent anything and I have a team of 20 people and a lawyer from RIM. My start up team consists of people from Microsoft, IMAX, Mercury Filmworks, RIM, SEGA Amusement, Waterloo, Seneca College and OPSEU Pension Trust. I've been able to problem solve to build great teams. Not everything happened all at once and I did have to go through my ups and downs. Bootstrapping requires you to live smart but it doesn't mean you have to go hungry. Hope this advice helps!!!

Best,

A.

WANNA SEE WHAT MY TEAM IS DEVELOPING?

I thought I would do a different blog post today. In light of my absence because I was so busy with my start up, I thought I would share some UI images of what we're building. It's a competitive eSports platform. Our team is focused on building multiplayer league games. With a team of roughly 15 people and bootstrapping from nothing, we will have something to show to investors waiting by the end of December. What we will have is a minimum viable product which is an early demo for early adopters to try. Bare with the sub in images as our concept artists create our own. Hope you like it. My team definitely looks forward to future users playing our competitive league games.

Here's a sneak peak:

JUST ASK!

As an entrepreneur, I've faced enormous obstacles. Just imagine yourself on a very steep hill trying to push up a boulder 10 times your size. Why do I say that? Because that's what building a company feels like. People think that entrepreneurship is glamorous when it's really not. It takes a significant amount of time. It also requires you to pitch to ask for money to put into your idea. It's risky. However it is also rewarding. I pitched my companies idea through email and in person in the thousands. I kept all the 4000 rejection letters I've sent out. What did I get out of it? A little bit of feedback, some perspective, and I grew a very thick skin.

As a non-technical founder, I come from digital media from the creative side. One thing that a big chunk of investors look for is a technical founder. I've had to recruit and build my start up in a different way. One of the things I've learned is to simply ask people for help. Not all of the time you will get a yes from people but the worse thing that can happen is that you will get a no or a maybe. That's not so bad right? So one of the most valuable lessons I've learned is to just ask. It has led me to  meet the top people at Microsoft, the Founder and CEO of Electronic Arts and so much more.

So just ask.

THE STARTUP KIDS

I ended up wondering if there were any good start up movies after going to the theatre to see "Steve Jobs". While I liked the movie as a whole what I felt was missing was the fact that it didn't have a lot of the start up zest that the I look for in these type of stories. The movie was more of an abstract interpretation of Steve Job's persona with 3 connected acts through various accounts. It didn't really seem like the Walter Isaacson book was that much of an influence given that Sony had purchased the rights within weeks after his death.

I ended up Googling some terms to find the best start up movies to watch. Some top 10 lists had documentaries as oppose to movies. I decided to order a few documentaries and watched a few. One that particularly resonated with me is a documentary called "The StartUp Kids". It covers the CEO's recollections of being in a start up and bootstrapping a company. It was great to see and one particular part was inspiring especially the Co-Founder of VIMEO Zach Klein. What I particularly liked about him was his thinking and passion for life. He worked hard and bootstrappped to build VIMEO. Shortly after he sold the company to IAC and instead of building another company in tech, he ended up building his own house in the forest where he looks so free and happy in a place without distractions. He goes to New York as he pleases and he gets invited to all the tech parties but at the end of the day he goes home to this wooden cabin he built himself. I just loved the passion he has for building. The other entrepreneurs were so inspiring and I could definitely relate. 4 of them today are doing very well today (Drew Houston of Dropbox / Jessican Mah of Indinero / Brian Wong of Kiip / and Alexander Jung of Soundcloud). You can also learn some interesting lessons on selling your company to failing from Leah Culver of Pownce and Ben Way of Rainmakers. Definitely enjoyed the documentary and recommend it to all entrepreneurs.

Check out the StartUp Kids trailer:

WHAT MAKES A GREAT COMPANY GREAT?!?

Sorry it's been a week, I've been busy recruiting new members to build out my eSports gaming prototype. I think we're actually gonna have something working completely and built in the next 3-4 months so I'm super excited.

Anyways, here is my vision for a good place to work at. I also think it's the future of business.

1) A place that care's for it's employees and know's that the employee's are right at the top of the list with customers

2) A place that let's employees fail

3) A deep and caring mission

4) A company that knows how to have fun

5) A company that does not have crazy politics that stops the best employees from innovating

6) A goal whose benefits once achieved will benefit everyone

7) Great companies care about the environment

8) A company that is outstanding has a great vision that is bigger that everyone in the company

9) A good company consists of management that supports all employees from top to bottom

10) A great company cares deeply about it's relationship with it's customers. That's why I believe great customer service is still important today and it always will be.

A RICH LIFE WITH LESS STUFF

Let me start with my own story. 10 years ago I had over 500,000.00 in my bank. I was working in digital media. I had a car, owned part of a paid off house, was living in hotels. I was always in restaurants and going to a movie almost everyday. Life was fun. However eventually I got burnt out, and was very unhappy. Eventually it felt like people liked me more for my money than they did me. Something was off and I knew it. The simple happiness I had experienced as a kid playing hours of basketball with my friends in the cold to playing endless hours of video games with 8-10 friends and ordering pizza was gone. Some of my favorite childhood memories involved simple things like enjoying the snow or playing tag with friends. So what happened? I grew up, went to animation school, found a job, and ended up working in stressful digital media production houses. I can't complain and I am very grateful for the jobs and experience but I eventually realized that life could be so much broader and richer than the current life I was living. I had ended up also partying endlessly with people that did not really add value to my life. For someone with so much, why did I feel so poor and unhappy? 

One of my friends in school came from an upper middle class Jewish family. Although his parents were all about getting rich in business and hustling to get into a corporation, my friend himself was different. He started not to care about materials. He didn't care about animation. What he did care about was helping people, volunteering, he went to Mexico to live a simple life there. At first I thought he was nuts, but I also ended up realizing how happy he was compared to when we both worked in animation. One day he gave me a copy of a film called "The Peaceful Warrior", a movie about a former college gymnast who's life changes after meetings some stranger. What I got out of the movie is the art of mindfulness and that eventually led to living a life of passion through minimalism. That is what really made me want to find my passion, which ended up being entrepreneurship. 

Part of the road to living a fulfilling life is getting rid of the shit in your life that you don't need so you can spend quality time with true friends, family, and lovers. You can also spend time volunteering and giving back to people in need because it feels fantastic to genuinely help others. My family regularly donates food and clothes because our excess stuff can go to some family that truly needs it. It's one of the things my Aunt has taught me that has resonated with me. She gave up her entire fortune to help so many people in our family. While others may look down at her because she doesn't have the money she used to I am actually really proud of her. As she says she helped so many people that she has a clear conscience because she did something good with her life. She's so much happier than some of the other people in my family who until today stab each other in the back over money. Me and my Aunt live very simple lives. So if your life feels heavy, ask yourself if you are spending your time and actions on things that actually make you happy and add real value to your life and others around you or are you wasting your time and money trying to please people that don't care about you. Think about it because it could make a big difference in your life getting rid of clutter. 

I accidentally came across these guys story today. I can relate to it. Sometimes it's very easy to get caught up in day to day life and at times everything can be overwhelming. Check it out.

Check out these guys, the Minimalists (TED):

Here is their blog:

http://minimalists.com/

Here is their Instagram:

https://instagram.com/theminimalists/

The Peaceful Warrior:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0438315/

The Peacful Warrior Trailer:

WHY MANAGING YOUR TIME IS EVERYTHING

We live in a world that is measured by 24 hours, 7 days a week, and we count 365 days a year. As the cycle of time resets after the 365 days hence New Years, another year begins. So why are some people successful and a lot of other people not successful? You ever see the guy who goes in to work for a few days a week, is invited to every party around you, and seems to make a crap load of money? Well after many years of study I found one of the key components of success is how you manage your time and what you do with it. If your going to spend time doing something, make sure that it gives a return on investment as time is a commodity that once when passed, you cannot get it back. It's simply gone.

Managing your time requires you to be nimble, and focused on what really matters. One thing I also noticed about very successful people is that they balance their time by dividing it so that they at least touch on all parts of their life within a week. For example even though a person might be a business man, he or she will spend an hour at Church for spirituality, 7 hours of exercise time per week (1 hour a day), a few hours for family and dinner time each day, and 4-6 hours a day on their career each day. I also noticed that the most successful people are the ones who socialize, create connections and valuable relationships, and they make damn sure that wherever they spend their time they remain present and laser focused. I always hated when I am around someone and they are not looking into  yours eyes and they remain in a dreamlike state thinking of being somewhere else just nodding their head like a bobble head toy. So the key things are this:

Do you think your spending your time wisely?

Can you take other actions that can yield you better results?

Are you balancing your time with the most important things in your life?

Spending your time, are you happy or stressed out? Do you have energy after your week or do you feel burnt out?

Do you look forward to the next day or are you dreading it?

Hopefully these thoughts and questions help you out and that you are able to re-calibrate the way you manage your time to do amazing things. Managing your time is one of the keys to living a fulfilling life. Thanks for checking the post out and don't forget to spread the word on my blog and feel free to follow or leave comments good or bad.

WHY I BELIEVE IT IS A MUST TO LEARN TO PROGRAM IN TODAY'S ECONOMY

This is just my random thought of the day, however I am convinced that if you want to survive in this ever changing economy moving forward then you must learn to program. As manufacturing jobs gets shipped overseas to countries like China, Taiwan, and Mexico for Electronics and Bangladesh for clothing, then that leaves very little jobs for the blue collar people of today. This doesn't just affect manufacturing but it even affects digital media where companies like Disney outsources to countries like Korea or Philippines to get their classical animation work completed.

So what does this have to do with programming? I believe that the tectonic shift in the economy is that all the work that does remain in North America revolves around white collar jobs where a lot thinking and information is involved. That is entrepreneurship, upper level management, data management, marketing and sales. Also note that some companies have their customer service in North America and some companies customer service is outsourced to counties like India and Philippines.

The information age we're in evolves around digital lifestyle such as wearable technology like smart watches, consumer and web apps, smart devices such as nest, telepresenece robots, and drones, then all the action moving forward is occurring in the technology sector. Every other market will follow technology as it leads the world moving forward.

So if your stuck in your job as a customer service agent, or there are no managing positions to apply to, then it's time to think about solving problems in the world and learn to program a web app, desktop app, game, or smart phone app. Learn to program and learn to scale. This is how you can move your life forward and keep up with the digital economy that exists with trillions of dollars. Just food for thought.

10 RANDOM THOUGHTS TO IMPROVE YOUR CREATIVITY

Feeling stuck creatively? Here are 10 random thoughts to help you think different.

1. Take a walk and don't listen to music

2. Create a new project, experiment with something new such as try a different material, method, and express yourself in a way you have NOT done before

3. Push yourself out of your comfort zone by talking to new people to gain new experiences

4. Fail at something you always wanted to try and be excited about it

5. Dream about something big, an idea, and jot your notes in a notebook

6. Change your career and do something you love. If your at your job looking out into the window wishing you are somewhere else, then it's time for a change don't you think?

7. Do something crazy! Ask a girl out! Ask a boy out. Shave your head bald. Get a tattoo. Change your wardrobe. Live and experience the benefits and highs of being alive!

8. Dance! Especially if you don't usually dance.

9. Spend time with a friend and really talk! No phones, no tablets, just hang out in a quite place and truly talk with no holding back. Get things that mentally and emotionally weigh you down off your chest! It feels fantastic!

10. Give someone a hug or volunteer to a charity with a worthy cause you believe in. It will make you feel good! Oh and don't forget to look people in the eyes and smile! Be genuine and sincere!

I hope you enjoyed these 10 recommendations to help you get out of your rut. Oh just to be nice, here are 2 extra bonuses. I'm feeling really nice today.

11. go to a quite place and scream at the top of your lungs

12. Go skinny dipping!

Hopefully you found this advice valuable and don't forget to follow me on the top right as I will be posting very frequently.

MY TOP 5 LESSONS FOR SURVIVING AN ENTREPRENEURIAL LIFE

Wanting to build your own company is chaotic and tough yet still rewarding. I have been living the life of an entrepreneur for over 15 years now and I've learned quite a bit of lessons to really survive. Here are my top 5 lessons.

#1 - Never try to do everything by yourself

You need a team of people to do big things. Find people around you who can see your vision and support you through thick and thin. Also being alone means that investors can't really give you money because there is no company or team to invest in. Build the best team you can, go after a big market, and go through the ups and downs of being a company together. 


#2 - Maintain your focus 

Focus on tasks that give you the greatest value in return for your time spent. Create a strategy for yourself that can help you get the best outcomes. Sometimes we can be at a desk drifting into lalaland and sometimes if we're not mindful, we start doing what we think is an important task when it's really not. Snap of it, and focus!

#3 - Think! 

This world is busy and noisy. We really live in a time where we are being bombarded with email offers, people on the street trying to get your money, advertisements on Facebook, the subway, buses, television, radio, and billboards. We get thousands of ads proposed to us in a single day even if we're not paying attention. On top of that your probably getting texts from your friends or colleagues throughout the day. With this vibrating noise in your work and family life, it can sometimes blow your mind. To manage this, take the time to plug out for a few hours, go for a walk, and just take the time to think. Take 2 hours in the morning and just sit. This can really help you figure out what to do with your day, gives you a chance to dream while your awake, and gives you a chance to just breath and think before your day gets crazy. It also gives you a chance to re-calibrate your sense of purpose and gives you an opportunity to simply think for yourself. 

#4 - Put real value back in your relationships

I know we live in a time where we have Facebook, Google +, Twitter, and Instagram. However, while this gives us information quickly, it does not beat spending quality time with people in person without a computer screen in between you, your family, or your colleagues. I believe a distance was created when people started using social media. It is the reason I left Facebook for years before returning and creating a new account. Take the time to go out with your friends, hang out, play a board game. Go for a hike with your friends and play ultimate Frisbee. Nothing beats being in the physical presence of people and being at a concert live. It's an amazing experience. So go out there, value relationships, and spend quality time with colleagues, friends, and family. Put the value back into your relationships. 

#5 - Exercise!

Being an entrepreneur is a 24/7 job. You always have to be ready for anything. However, there are down times in your day and I believe it is important to allocate a chunk of your time to exercising. It is important to maintain your physical health so you have the mental and physical energy to put into your most challenging tasks throughout the day. You also feel better when you maintain exercise everyday. I have made the mistake of yoyoing by putting more time into business and less on exercise and when this happens, I feel and look like shit. So, I am going to make the effort to eat the right foods, drink lots of water, and do exercises that I love. I recommend the same for you as building a business is more of a marathon and not a sprint. So remember, make the time to exercise.