Things To Watch
Things To Read
Things To Do
- Young Entrepreneurs Forum, Hear 3 young student entrepreneurs talk about their journeys!
- Marc Randolph Interview - Hear our interview with the Co-Founder of Netflix where he shares his earliest memories of being an entrepreneur and his advice for young entrepreneurs.
- Why does Australia need more entrepreneurs? - Murray Hurps from the University of Technology Sydney
- Online Safety - Microsoft course and certification for online safety risks and responsibility
- From Idea To Business Animated Series
- The Business Model Canvas - 9 Steps to Creating a Successful Business Model - Startup Tips
- The Mentor Mindset
Things To Read
- That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life of an Idea
- From an Idea to Lego: The Building Bricks Behind the World's Biggest Toy Company and more books by Lowey Bundy Sichol
Things To Do
- Entrepreneurs Journal - start yours by downloading one HERE
- Check out Banqer. They are a New Zealand based startup that has designed a great online, financial literacy offering. It is FREE, that is right, free for primary schools. It's never to early for students to learn about the amazing value of compounding interest and savings.
- The Ecstra Foundation offers FREE, interactive Talk Money workshops delivered in class or online by trained facilitators. You can register your school here.
- How To Teach Kids About Money - Teaching kids about money when they’re young lays the foundation for responsible money management later in life.
Startup Resources
Online Classes
- LaunchVic Resources launchvic.org/general/resources-to-assist-startups
- $20 Boss Information youngchangeagents.com/programs/20-boss
- Kauffman Foundation: www.kauffman.org/entrepreneurship
- Babson Entrepreneur Toolkit www.babson.edu/academics/ executive-education/open- enrollment-programs/the- entrepreneurs-bootcamp-a-deep- dive-for-new- ventures/entrepreneur-toolkit/
Online Classes
- Yale University's FREE new course for teenagers is finally here! The Science of Well-being for Teens is a 6-wk course on @coursera that has been designed to give teens science-based strategies for reducing stress/feeling happier.
- Harvard 35-minute leadership lesson from HBS Professor Nancy Koehn about leading in turbulent times
2020 First Pitch Final Replay. www.firstpitch.com.au/grand-final.html
Weekly Musings Newsletter 15/12/2023
"I learned to use my brain in different ways." That was what a Year 5 student said about our Inspire Entrepreneurship program.
We are constantly bombarded with social media posts about the live your best life gurus; the sale gurus; the management gurus; the posting pictures of their cars gurus; the cold plunge gurus; and on, and on, and on.
The basics aren’t sexy. They don’t sell. They aren’t a quick fix. They are simple to understand but difficult to practice consistently. It’s why so many people buy supplements to improve their strength, but so few exercise three times a week for months, if not years, on end. It's why so many people skim twitter threads and serially subscribe to short-form newsletters but don’t read anything over 300 words, let alone actual books.
One of the basics is understanding that our brain is the most powerful tool we have. And too often we allow our brain to be our Inner Critic instead of our Inner Coach.
Our inner critic judges ourselves, criticises ourselves, blames ourselves, and makes us feel deficient. This may have had some evolutionary value for our ancestors. Having a brain that focused on the negatives helped our ancestors survive harsh conditions. Having a brain that was constantly scanning our environment for threats and that was strongly invested in not having us mess up (because it could cost us our lives) made a lot of sense for our Stone Age ancestors. Not so much today.
What can you do? Imagine that you have a magic wand, and with one swoop, you can lower the volume of your inner critic and raise the volume of your “inner coach.” This inner coach speaks only words of encouragement and support. It says things like, “It’s OK, I’ve got this. Mistakes happen - they’re a part of life. I can handle this setback.” Be kind to yourself. We are good at being kind for others, but it is often much harder to do this for ourselves.
Excellence is an inside job.
Stay safe. Stay strong. Stay curious.
Weekly Musings Newsletter 29/09/2023
"These three racks are all of our production molds. That stack of molds on the floor—those are all the bad ones. Designs that didn't work"
I visited one of our partners this week, Zero Plastics Australia. Adam founded his business after having a heart attack and dying. He was brought back to life, and as he was recovering, he took stock of what was important to him and his family. He decided that he wanted to leave the world a better place for his two young sons. So he started Zero Plastics with the mission to turn single-use plastic lids into beautiful, usable products.
I asked him why he kept the stack of bad molds. He said, "They serve as a reminder, a negative image, of what didn't work. When I'm designing a new product, they are a reminder of what didn't work and to use those learnings moving forward."
We tend to focus on the successes. We like to see and read about the "Wall of Fame," where companies showcase their innovative breakthroughs and products. We listen to podcasts and read books about the common traits of successful people. We don't spend a lot of time on the thousands of other people who have the same traits. This is a cognitive bias called "Survivorship Bias."
The best-known example involves the U.S. Air Force. During World War II they wanted to add reinforcement armor to specific areas of their planes. Analysts examined the
returning bombers and plotted the bullet holes and damage to them. They came to the conclusion that adding armor to the areas that sustained the most bullet holes would improve their odds of survival.
A young statistician, Abraham Wald, recognized a key fact. They were excluding a key data set: the analysis of the planes that did not survive or return to base. Wald recommended that armor should be added to the *unharmed* regions of the returning planes, the areas without bullet holes.
The mistake that arises when we consistently pay attention only to the success stories while neglecting the failures is akin to looking at the tip of the iceberg and missing the much larger portion submerged beneath the surface. It distorts our understanding of the genuine odds of success and leads us to draw inaccurate conclusions.
Adam has transformed 3.4 tons of plastic into over 100 different products. We're creating a Sea Turtle Christmas ornament made from 100% recycled plastic to raise awareness of the problems that plastic represents for marine life. Our students are raising money from the sale of the ornaments to be a part of the solution. The Magnetic Island Network for Turtles in Queensland is a volunteer organisation that is always looking for much-needed financial support and will be the recipient of their entrepreneurial efforts.
What's often hidden or overlooked can be just as significant as what's readily visible.
From Our Weekly Musings Newsletter 17/03/2023
"Raising the bar."
For over 50 years high jumpers used the straddle technique to clear the bar. This technique involved jumping face down over the bar and rolling over it. This was how high jumpers jumped. They used what everyone considered was the most effective way to jump over the bar.
Until it wasn't.
In the 1968 Olympics an unknown American athlete changed the sport forever. Dick Fosbury realised that the old technique had limitations and was not sustainable for him. He believed that there must be a better way to jump higher and more efficiently. So he came up with a new approach that would allow him to clear the bar without having to straddle it. And it won him a Gold medal.
When a journalist asked him what his technique was called, he borrowed the terminology that his hometown newspaper had used in a picture caption, which read: ‘Fosbury flops over the bar’. “It was alliterative, it was descriptive, and I liked the contradiction – a flop that could be a success.”
Dick Fosbury passed away earlier this week at the age of 76. In a 2012 interview, he said: “I guess it did look kind of weird at first but it felt so natural that, like all good ideas, you just wonder why no one had thought of it before me.”
Fosbury's story is a reminder that sometimes the best ideas come from challenging the way things have always been done. It's about how persistence and grit in pursuit of new ideas can disrupt the status quo.
And how one person with an idea can raise the bar to new heights.
Stay safe. Stay strong. Stay curious.
"I learned to use my brain in different ways." That was what a Year 5 student said about our Inspire Entrepreneurship program.
We are constantly bombarded with social media posts about the live your best life gurus; the sale gurus; the management gurus; the posting pictures of their cars gurus; the cold plunge gurus; and on, and on, and on.
The basics aren’t sexy. They don’t sell. They aren’t a quick fix. They are simple to understand but difficult to practice consistently. It’s why so many people buy supplements to improve their strength, but so few exercise three times a week for months, if not years, on end. It's why so many people skim twitter threads and serially subscribe to short-form newsletters but don’t read anything over 300 words, let alone actual books.
One of the basics is understanding that our brain is the most powerful tool we have. And too often we allow our brain to be our Inner Critic instead of our Inner Coach.
Our inner critic judges ourselves, criticises ourselves, blames ourselves, and makes us feel deficient. This may have had some evolutionary value for our ancestors. Having a brain that focused on the negatives helped our ancestors survive harsh conditions. Having a brain that was constantly scanning our environment for threats and that was strongly invested in not having us mess up (because it could cost us our lives) made a lot of sense for our Stone Age ancestors. Not so much today.
What can you do? Imagine that you have a magic wand, and with one swoop, you can lower the volume of your inner critic and raise the volume of your “inner coach.” This inner coach speaks only words of encouragement and support. It says things like, “It’s OK, I’ve got this. Mistakes happen - they’re a part of life. I can handle this setback.” Be kind to yourself. We are good at being kind for others, but it is often much harder to do this for ourselves.
Excellence is an inside job.
Stay safe. Stay strong. Stay curious.
Weekly Musings Newsletter 29/09/2023
"These three racks are all of our production molds. That stack of molds on the floor—those are all the bad ones. Designs that didn't work"
I visited one of our partners this week, Zero Plastics Australia. Adam founded his business after having a heart attack and dying. He was brought back to life, and as he was recovering, he took stock of what was important to him and his family. He decided that he wanted to leave the world a better place for his two young sons. So he started Zero Plastics with the mission to turn single-use plastic lids into beautiful, usable products.
I asked him why he kept the stack of bad molds. He said, "They serve as a reminder, a negative image, of what didn't work. When I'm designing a new product, they are a reminder of what didn't work and to use those learnings moving forward."
We tend to focus on the successes. We like to see and read about the "Wall of Fame," where companies showcase their innovative breakthroughs and products. We listen to podcasts and read books about the common traits of successful people. We don't spend a lot of time on the thousands of other people who have the same traits. This is a cognitive bias called "Survivorship Bias."
The best-known example involves the U.S. Air Force. During World War II they wanted to add reinforcement armor to specific areas of their planes. Analysts examined the
returning bombers and plotted the bullet holes and damage to them. They came to the conclusion that adding armor to the areas that sustained the most bullet holes would improve their odds of survival.
A young statistician, Abraham Wald, recognized a key fact. They were excluding a key data set: the analysis of the planes that did not survive or return to base. Wald recommended that armor should be added to the *unharmed* regions of the returning planes, the areas without bullet holes.
The mistake that arises when we consistently pay attention only to the success stories while neglecting the failures is akin to looking at the tip of the iceberg and missing the much larger portion submerged beneath the surface. It distorts our understanding of the genuine odds of success and leads us to draw inaccurate conclusions.
Adam has transformed 3.4 tons of plastic into over 100 different products. We're creating a Sea Turtle Christmas ornament made from 100% recycled plastic to raise awareness of the problems that plastic represents for marine life. Our students are raising money from the sale of the ornaments to be a part of the solution. The Magnetic Island Network for Turtles in Queensland is a volunteer organisation that is always looking for much-needed financial support and will be the recipient of their entrepreneurial efforts.
What's often hidden or overlooked can be just as significant as what's readily visible.
From Our Weekly Musings Newsletter 17/03/2023
"Raising the bar."
For over 50 years high jumpers used the straddle technique to clear the bar. This technique involved jumping face down over the bar and rolling over it. This was how high jumpers jumped. They used what everyone considered was the most effective way to jump over the bar.
Until it wasn't.
In the 1968 Olympics an unknown American athlete changed the sport forever. Dick Fosbury realised that the old technique had limitations and was not sustainable for him. He believed that there must be a better way to jump higher and more efficiently. So he came up with a new approach that would allow him to clear the bar without having to straddle it. And it won him a Gold medal.
When a journalist asked him what his technique was called, he borrowed the terminology that his hometown newspaper had used in a picture caption, which read: ‘Fosbury flops over the bar’. “It was alliterative, it was descriptive, and I liked the contradiction – a flop that could be a success.”
Dick Fosbury passed away earlier this week at the age of 76. In a 2012 interview, he said: “I guess it did look kind of weird at first but it felt so natural that, like all good ideas, you just wonder why no one had thought of it before me.”
Fosbury's story is a reminder that sometimes the best ideas come from challenging the way things have always been done. It's about how persistence and grit in pursuit of new ideas can disrupt the status quo.
And how one person with an idea can raise the bar to new heights.
Stay safe. Stay strong. Stay curious.
Our Partners
- Banquer
- Explore Innovation
- Pachira Advisory
- Wildfire Consulting
- Quantum Success Coaching