What I’ve Learned – 15 June 2017

Silicon Valley: Innovation’s Holy Grail

We often think of Silicon Valley as the Holy Grail of innovation. I spent last week in California and learned a lot during my visits to Salesforce, Facebook and LinkedIn. Each started as a small business less that two decades ago… but each is driven by a sense of purpose and a shared sense of values. Salesforce nurtures young businesses through the Heroku innovation lab – it was really great to meet with these people and members of EO to realise that whilst they might be in Nirvana when it comes to the ‘startup ecosystem’, the business challenges they face are no different to anywhere else.

Thought for the week

What I’m reading

Fear often thwarts passion… Gary Vaynerchuk on why entrepreneurs must focus in on their own desires.

There’s so much opportunity yet success really comes from the ability to say ‘no’: read why the most successful people are embracing ‘no’.

We’ve all heard this: never take advice from someone you wouldn’t want to switch places with. Read an interesting post with a framework to quickly get you into the top 5–10 percent of your field so you can begin the real quest of becoming the best at what you do.

On the blog

I’m often asked when did you know that you would be successful – what was that moment; there was no one moment – there were many. In fact it is quite a journey. However there were some pivotal things I did which led us to where we are today. Being reminded every day of why I do what I do was one of those pivotal moments. The second was that I did believe that I could do it, be it and have success. Believing in yourself is the first step. I wrote about my entrepreneurial journey here.

Facebook HQ and its campus is phenomenal; such an innovative workplace. I wrote about my experience, the anatomy of a great workplace and the five lessons I learned from my visit to Facebook, 1 Hacker Way, here.