Ah, like so many, yup…I’m doing resolutions…
But first a quick look back at last year…which will help guide this year’s and see how well I did last year. I’ll give a simple Pass/Fail on them…because like Yoda said “Do or Do not; there is no try”
1) Improve my Punctuality
FAIL. I’m gonna fail myself on this one…I manage to do ok for hard deadlines like Airlines and Amtrak departures, but meetings, I’m still bad. I really don’t want it to be a character achilles of mine, but we’ll see…
2) Improve Time Management
Pass. I’ve got a full time job at oneforty, still rocking Greenhorn Connect and manage to find time to work out, play some team sports and occasionally take a break.
3) Get Back to the Gym
Pass. See #2…successfully have placed physical fitness as a key part of my life and have reaped the benefits of increased energy and focus.
4) Get Back to Running
FAIL. I could never find a good routine, but I’m pleased I’ve instead found team sports like Ultimate Frisbee, Soccer and Dodgeball, which I feel is an okay replacement….but that wasn’t the resolution, so still a Fail.
5) Read a Book per Week
Pass. Ok, on a technicality here. I didn’t read 52 books this year, but I did read 25! See the right column for the list of books I covered, which it’s such a significant accomplishment (and probably more books than I’ve read in the last 10 years combined!) that I’m passing myself.
6) Post More Often
FAIL. So that hasn’t happened, but I have managed to blog every week for Greenhorn Connect, so it’s not like I’m not talking (I also blog on the oneforty blog from time to time). Still, I am thinking about how I can take the ideas I do have and pump them out quickly as I’ve had quite a few posts come into my mind and never use…
7) Keep Learning
Pass. All those books and all the experiences at oneforty and with Greenhorn have been priceless. I feel like I’ve come a very long way in a year in my entrepreneur IQ. I definitely still feel like I know more that I don’t know than have actually gathered knowledge, but I’m moving in the right direction.
8.) Pay It Forward
Pass. I can’t always be as helpful as I’d like but I feel like I’m doing ok on this one. I started Greenhorn to try to help people and I definitely think it has. One thing I do want to improve though is follow through; I often have asked people to “email me” to get me to follow through on an offer to help, which I think I should work to not make that a requirement to get help if we speak in person.
…so I went 5 for 8 last year…not bad.
So what does 2011 have in store for goals/resolutions:
1) Focus on Passion
Somewhere along the way in 2010, I think I lost my way a bit on pursuing my passions. I’ve learned that doing things you are not passionate about require significantly more effort and energy to complete. I feel I owe it to everyone, but especially myself then to focus on what I’m passionate about so that I can deliver the most value to everyone with my time.
2) Read 26 books in 2011
So in 2010 I read 25 books, which was huge in my learning and growth. I read a wide range of books which often were chosen based on what I had questions, interests or present challenges with. Thanks to friends and the Social sphere I got some fantastic recommendations, so I feel like I really didn’t read any “dud” books. I want to beat that total this year and keep the quality high…so please make recommendations of books I should read! I list what I’ve read on the right.
3) Improve my Punctuality
I always want to work on things until the last possible second and seem to have a misconception in my head that if I’m early, that’s lost time I could work. I need to reframe that and really fix this issue…because I think it is my character achilles right now.
4) Build Greenhorn Connect to a Sustainable Level
In many ways I feel like Greenhorn Connect is already a sustainable platform as the community is so engaged, Pardees is killing it with our social media and I’ve managed to forge many great connections that put help and potential partners at our fingertips going forward. At the same time though, we still have a lot of work to do to finish the site and some work to do to better monetize our efforts. If you have ideas for Greenhorn Connect, I’d love to hear them!
5) Get more feedback
I’m definitely my own worst critic, but no matter how hard you are on yourself, there’s only so much you can recognize that way. So, I’m hoping to engage more people to get their feedback so I can improve. Feel free to reach out to me privately if you have feedback….I can’t get better without hearing constructive feedback!
6) Make better use of Mentors
At oneforty, I have access to some awesome mentors for customer development, but I’m not very good at using them. I find I either don’t think about when I should talk to them or always worry I’m “not ready.” I need to better figure out how to best engage smart people that can help instead of just forging ahead on my own. Any advice here is appreciated.
7) Be More Open at Events
The Boston Startup Community is my life. And because of this, the vast majority of my good friends are now also entrepreneurs. This is good, but it also means that at events, I can often spend the majority (or entire) time I’m at an event talking to my friends. If my goal is to help new/first time entrepreneurs with Greenhorn Connect, I need to live up to that and talk to and welcome those new to our community. So…I’ll work to make sure to devote some time when I’m at events to meet new people.
8.) Post More Often
I have a lot of ideas for posts that never seem to see the light of day after I think about them in my head enough that I could hammer out a post. I’m going to try to make sure to turn those ideas into short posts now.
So there you have it…8 new resolutions…with a few carrying over from the year before. Hopefully I can improve on last year’s success rate (5 for 8).