Last week we tried something new. The Do Lectures turned into something else for 72 hours. It became a place to start ideas.It became a place of doing. It was an experiment. And the experiment was to see if you could take ‘time’ out of the process of the starting new companies. Can we accelerate them? Like anything when you try something new, there is resistance. But you have to let the experiment take its journey: Judge it at then end, and not before it starts. And not even halfway through. Over the 72 Hours I saw people pitching their... Continue reading

1, Don’t follow. 2, Don’t seek consensus. 3, Trust your instinct. 4, Look for what isn’t there. But should be. 5, Ideas make you stand out. Great ideas make you standalone. 6, Ask dumb questions. They are not that dumb. 7, Most great ideas have difficult births. 7, Inform your ideas from what you see, what you hear, what you feel. 8, Don’t chase a fashion. Go where others haven’t. 9, Remember, ideas are plentiful. People who make them happen are not. 10, Don’t let your idea down: Execute well. 11, Good execution is hard. 11, Find the very best... Continue reading

Some books are more important than others. That’s because they contain an irrefutable truth. And once you know that truth and what it means to you, and how you need to use it in order to change things, then it is indeed life changing. Many, many books claim that. But few really are. ‘The 80/20 Principle’ by Richard Koch is one of those rare books that you can indeed call life-changing. And business-changing too. It has a simple premise: 80% of the results come from 20% of the causes. This thinking originally came from an Italian economist called Vilfredo Pareto.... Continue reading

You are now at the point of your life when you are developing your professional reputation. You are doing so at the top tier of restaurants in New York City — make it count. Only your work ethic will speak for you, not past chef’s or friends. You must love the do this for a living — no question. You must love to stay late or come early if it is necessary to get the job done. You must love to practice only the best. Most perfect techniques in order to produce a product you are proud of. Your end... Continue reading

I just had a delivery from my FedEx man. It’s pouring with rain. And it’s pitch black. But this guy is still smiling. He helps me with the boxes. And points out that some the boxes aren’t very strong. I sign the gadget thing with my signature and I ask how it was all going? He said apart from one, all of it was under control. He said it was from the Welsh gold centre, and so he knew it was someone’s Christmas present. But he had tried for 3 days to find the address. He had tried directory enquiries.... Continue reading

The Do Lectures this coming Spring is giving the event a theme.The theme is 'Start-Up'. The plan is to provide a modern day tool kit to someone who is starting up.It will be an intense, accelerated 72 hours of learning.There will be 20 speakers who will speak on all the stepping stones of getting to the start line of a new business, social business or NG0.But that is just the start.From the 100 attendees 4 breakaway groups will form. Each group will be led by one of the founding partners. Together they will start a business within the 72 hours.... Continue reading

http://dolectures.com/do-workshops/ Continue reading

Here’s the deal. I thought I was pretty good at Social Media. Then Sam Bell came over for a month to help The Do Lectures, and I quickly learnt that I knew next to nothing. I was doing it. But what I wasn’t thinking. I had no clear strategy. And, when I had great results, it was mostly down to luck. But what Sam has taught me has been invaluable, important and will help us for years to come. I urge anyone who is involved anyone in the Social Media world to sign up to her Do Workshop in London.... Continue reading

This is the first poster in a series of 10 that aims to pass on some pearls of wisdom learnt from sitting and listening to half a decades worth of inspiring talks at The Do Lectures. Each day you’re given 86,400 seconds from the ‘Time Bank’. Everyone is given the same. There are no exceptions. Once you make your withdrawal, you’re free to spend it as you want. The ‘Time Bank’ won’t tell you how to spend it. But there are some simple truths: Your time is limited. And one day you will go to the bank and it won’t... Continue reading

Every business has to make a decision of how good it wants to be. People forget that the people who run the business decide this. Just like picking which product or service to make was a decision. Or which people to hire. Or what colour to paint the walls was. It’s not luck. It’s a show of hands. It’s a board meeting. It’s written on the back of a beer mat. But, someone,somewhere makes that decision. And once your intent for the business has been declared, you follow that path. You hire accordingly. You choose your products or services accordingly.... Continue reading

1, You have to love it first. You have to love it the most. You have to sweat each detail. And that love should never stop. Each detail considered. Each detail re-considered. It has to matter to you. Then, and only then, will your customers notice that you give a shit about them. And then you will have a relationship with your customer. 2, Create value. Then Profit. Make your product faster, cheaper, healthier, smarter, easier etc. Anything with an ‘ER’ at the end of it is a good indication of you doing something right. Profit will only come once... Continue reading

Imagine on your deathbed you were able to see two films of your life: One showed highlights of what you actually achieved. And then the other showed highlights of what you could have achieved with your ability, your talent, the opportunities that came your way etc. It would probably bring you to tears to know what else you could have done. The heights you could have climbed. The people you could have met. The races you could have run. The ideas you could have made happen. The change you could have made. If only when you had come to the... Continue reading

Nope, didn’t think so. There aren’t any. Zumba didn’t need advertising. The aerobic class he came up with was unique. So each class he took, people would go and tell their friends. From simple old fashioned word of mouth, it just grew. Now, there are 12 million people weekly taking Zumba classes in over 110,000 locations across more than 126 countries. And it all started from Alberto ‘Beto’ Perez forgetting his music for a class he was teaching. So he had to improvise. He took the tapes he had in his backpack—consisting of traditional salsa and merengue music – and... Continue reading

It’s easy to become comfortable. It’s easy to stop pushing. It’s easy to do what you did last year. It worked, for goodness sake. It is harder to question everything. To walk in dumb each day. To start again with a blank piece of paper. There is a difference between companies who are always thinking about new ways forward. And those who seek to repeat themselves. Those who repeat themselves have an easy life, then one day they wake up and their business is no longer there. The easy life is replaced with a hard life. Those who keep pushing,... Continue reading

The most you can ask of any athlete is to fulfill on their potential. The same thing can be asked of any business. Did it achieve all it could have? My feeling is adidas has under-performed on what it could have been. After all, it had a thirty-year advantage over Nike. It was the biggest sports brand in the world for decades. And yet now, even if you combine its sales with Reebok, it is still number 2. So how did Nike do it? When you first look at both companies, it’s hard to see much of a difference. They... Continue reading

I have never liked Facebook. I just don't get it. The only reason I went on there was that my old next neighbour invited me. He was also Clare’s uncle. And to boot, he was my old football coach. So I just couldn’t say no to him. And, then once you are on there, well, they’ve got you. I never use it. I don’t know what my password is. I am sure it works for lots of people, but it isn’t for me. But I do like Google+. I like the idea of the circles. So you choose who to... Continue reading

There is a film called Mystery Train by Jim Jarmusch. In the film a teenage couple of Elvis fans take the tour of Graceland’s Mansion. They walked around in awe. The boy had a camera around his neck for the whole tour, and yet didn’t take a single photo. When the couple got back to their cheap bedsit, the boy started taking photos of all the lampshades, the cheap furniture, the bad wallpaper. His girlfriend, slightly surprised, asked him why he was taking photographs of all these dumb things when he hadn’t taken a single photo all day long. He... Continue reading

This book never made it to the printers. It lacked a central hook to pull all the various thoughts together. But it is not a wasted effort. It has informed me how to do it better next time. Continue reading

1 mountain. 1 Gale. 0 regrets. Continue reading

“How to build a great brand with very little money”. David Hieatt is co-founder of The Do Lectures. And Co-Founder of Hiut Denim Co. He has built companies with strong brands using some simple rules that anyone can use. What you will learn? How to tell your story? How to give your brand a voice? How to get people to love your brand? The importance of 1000 true fans. How to use the real advantages of being small? Is your idea going to change anything? How to put a moat around your idea? How to identify a niche before others?... Continue reading

Just the next step. Just the next step. Just the next step. Just the next step. Just the next step. Just the next step. Just the next step. Just the next step. Just the next step. Just the next step. No past. No future. Just now. Continue reading

Have you noticed that doing the opposite to what you think often has surprising results. To get better results at work, our instinct is to put in more hours. When things stop going so well in our business, our intinct is to work even longer and harder. When a footballer stops scoring, his instinct is to train harder, do more practice. And yet, doing the opposite may give you better results. It's counterintuitive, so it's not something many people try a lot. So there's not much proof. But here's one example to think about: An experiment in the 1940’s measured... Continue reading

Getting the fit right on a pair of jeans is perhaps the most important thing a jeans maker can do. The difference between a great fitting jean and one that is sucky, can be measured in a matter of millimetres. That’s why cutting a pair of jeans from the cardboard pattern using a chalk and a single blade-cutting knife is an art. It is where those millimetres can go missing. And like all arts, it takes time to acquire. Our cutter, at The Hiut Denim Co, has cut jeans for 38 years now. So in terms of hours, that is... Continue reading

Look up to the mountain and think it was too steep to climb? Did you ever wonder, even for the smallest second, if you had the talent to make it to the top? Did you ever just watch a rival and think ‘I might as well as quit now.’ But you didn’t, did you? You took the first step up that mountain. You practiced. You practiced. You practiced. You said nothing. You just put one-foot in front of the other one. And climbed. Never looking up. Never looking down. And the journey wasn’t a quick one. But overtime, people started... Continue reading

If you are going to start a business, read this book. If you are running a business, read this book. If you are hiring people, read this book. If you are expanding, read this book. If you are contracting, read this book. Basically, if you have any thought of running a business, you just gotta read this book. Les McKeown has launched and managed over 40 businesses. And it shows. This is not a book written by a theorist. This knowledge comes from being at the coal face. It’s simple, practical and bloody essential. Les spoke at The Do Lectures... Continue reading