Ups and Downs

Valentines day. Bah, a commercial day, where many shops make money out of people, and prescribe what is romantic. A day where people value love more highly than on other days. I don't really approve. Not because I'm single and feeling lonely when everyone around me is being all Valentines dayish, but because I don't see the point. The commercialism thing, I hate strongly dislike it. Shops with these garish displays and stuff. They do it for Christmas and Easter, and it irritates me then too. The high emphasis placed on love, well isn't love important everyday? And doesn't Valentines cheapen love, and weaken people's originality when it comes to showing love?

Ah, well. That is just a random piece giving my feelings on the day because I don't think it is possible to blog on Valentines and not mention the day. What this day really comprised of was weirdness, with both good and bad bits in the mix. First off, yesterday I had a day off, so it felt a lot like a Monday today (what a way to start Friday). Then I got some admin sorted out with my varsity access card, great. I'm a registered student, and I now actually have access to computer labs and the library. This is a very good thing. The thing that followed was a bit of a downer though, a very cold NVP lecture. That is really one of the things that stands out. Yes the concepts of the lean start-up are pretty interesting, and I would have thought the most logical business model if you have enough money and enough guts. I don't. I do not have it in me to go up to someone randomly and say, 'hi, can I talk to you for a moment about the idea of product X. What do you think of this and that, what would you really want from such a thing.' I admit this is very necessary in a business that wishes to provide a product, but its not me.

It probably didn't help that we were trying to do market research about an app for junior school kids on a varsity campus. Where anyone with kids is probably actually a lecturer or member of staff, and those are much less common than the students. Also, none of my group had whatever it takes to find some of those people. Maybe we were cowards, but I found us one person to talk to, so at least we did get some feedback. I dunno. I'm all uninspired again, maybe this is to do with the remainder of the day.

Since I'm using logical order, we'll move on to lunch. This was provided by the Maths department, so they could meet the honours students. All six of us. This was awkward, but at least there was free food. That was good. And I did get to know a little bit more about the maths honours class, which is helpful. I then did random stuff most of the afternoon, some admin, and a visit to the library, where they didn't have the books I wanted. I then waited around with a few others for a meeting that had been moved without our knowledge. I'm a bit bummed about that  one actually. It would have been nice if we had been contacted more reliably than through a chat room. An email would have been really nice, but alas it was not to be, and so I waited at varsity, and made my brother wait too, for no reason.

The evening was at least pleasant. Sewing and listening to rock music seems to have helped me to calm down. Maybe I can face tomorrow with a little more positivity and energy. It would be nice if the weather would cool down as well, but that is unlikely.

So, my funky rant about the day is now over. I don't know if it is meaningful for anything except to get it off my chest and to put things into perspective for me. Overall, I don't think the negatives should out way the positives, but the positioning of them made them seem even worse. So on that note, I say to you, may God bless you, and may you have a pleasant weekend, whoever you may be.

NVP Day 2

Yes, another day of the new venture planning course. I am starting to revise my opinions a little, with the help of friends. I think the course is interesting, and the concepts could be very valuable, but I have trouble taking it seriously. It feels very cynical, and tongue in cheek. Like we keep getting told all these bad things about entrepreneurship.

Anyway, moving on to the basic concepts learned in the lecture, and some thoughts provoked (based on the notes I took and annotated). So, the creative process. A messy business, but no-one really cares about that. All the customer cares about is the result, not how you got there. We do need to care about the route though. We are expected to follow that route. As a fairly well ordered person though, I find that a messy process can be irritating, almost as bad as adapting to a slightly different key spacing and sensitivity on the keyboard of a computer. So, to follow the route, we need to accept that everything is essentially creative. This means that every process we follow, every item we develop or use, is a creative process or the result of a creative process. So why don't we pay more attention to this? The creative process is powerful, yes every person has their own unique process, but what are the common threads?

Sorry, that was a little bit side-tracked. That is how my mind processes things though, the search tree is not very efficient, but it is generally pretty thorough. Our lecture did go through some interesting routes though. For example we had a brief lesson on tax evasion in the import/export industry. Which then lead on to different areas where creativity evolves. That doesn't actually seem that related, but it comes from too much(?) story telling around the subject.

I am now starting to wander if I am doing this quite in the same spirit as expected, but I think I will decide not to care. This is a blog of thoughts and ideas and how they affect life. If I analyse things here, well that's cool isn't it?

Right, moving along. After deciding the difference between innovation and creativity (innovation is creativity with value) we move on to the ideas of the great Walt Disney. Be a dreamer, be a realist, and be a critic. Get all three of those right, and maybe you will be able to be as innovative as him? That would be cool.

Skipping ahead a bit, because I feel like I'm going on too long on a topic which I don't find as interesting as some others I could write about here, I will get to the final points. First off, when marketing, raise a purple cows. Yes that grammar is intentional, it bugs me too, which is why I quoted it. Then, make use of milkshake marketing. Then use the concept of the "golden circles" by selling a dream that happens o be functional and feasible.

That seems to sum up the day's lectures. What did I learn? My lecturer needs to sit in on our professional communications lectures. I think he might benefit from some of the presentation skills we are learning. Also, I am not very interested in marketing and business strategy. Oh well, I must do what I can to get through. At least the group has some kind of idea of a product which could possibly make money in the education sector.

NVP Day 1

An introduction before the ranting and other nonsense begins. This is, for the next few days, more than just my personally neglected blog. I have a university course called New Venture Planning, which I have to do, and for which the lecturer requires we keep a blog. I do think that it will be possible for me to get into the habit of regular blogging about the goings on of my university career through this, I just have to hope my lecturer wont judge me too harshly for some of the other weird stuff that winds up in my blog posts. So without further ado, here it is, the NVP log, of me.

We have been instructed to keep a blog for this course. Great, I agree, the most learning is done in the time spent contemplating the material. Unfortunately for the lecturer this is also a time when it becomes possible for me to air my feelings about the course. Under some circumstances a blog I kept of a course would be quite fun, in this case it may simply serve as a ranting spot while I analyse my own feelings about certain business concepts which are being taught. That is not to say that all my feelings about the course are negative, but rather that my instincts are not business oriented, and I struggle to put money before social betterment. Perhaps that makes me a socialist, but then that is who I am, and how I work.

The way in which our groups were assigned I found to be fairly interesting. It leaves us with quite a nice spread of interests and areas in which we are “experts”. I would say that there are some groups who will perform to a higher standard than others, but that is due to the socialisation of the group members, and how well they interact. I feel that in some ways I will pull my group back, because I struggle to see how it is possible to make a money focussed educational product. I suppose though that to think about it rather as an educational product than a thing to make education more accessible to people would aid in that process. There are a number of odd educational toys and things that are simply making money out of parents who wish to give their children a head start.

This is a much nicer way of thinking about it actually I think. To create a product which also happens to be educational which will make money is much easier than to create a product which will revolutionise the education system and make me money as well. I don't have any ideas yet, but I'm sure they will come to me over time thinking about this.

It is now time to think about what I learned today, if anything. Well, obviously I learned something. It is very rare that I sit through three or so hours of lectures or discussions without learning anything. One thing I learned is that I struggle to pay full attention to these lectures because they are outside my are of interest. I find it would be really easy to sit and draw pictures all through these lectures. Obviously if I actually want to do well I need to pay attention, but I struggle, I am a theorist. I do aspire to becoming an entrepreneur. I do not feel that it is meaningful for me to sit through a bunch of lectures telling me how hard entrepreneurship is, but I should do it anyway.

Okay, thing I learned today. 0.5% of business ventures presented to venture capitalists are funded. That is 2 in 2000. I am in a class of forty something all being told we could be entrepreneurs. I feel like we are all being set up for failure. Oh wait, of course we are, entrepreneurs love to fail! Failure means we are trying things. A good entrepreneur has lost millions in other people's money. It is these people who make me think I will never invest my money unless I know for sure that it is safe, i.e. I will quite happily make use of a good savings account, but don't ask me to be part of any of this stupid risky stuff. I want to be a teacher, not a risk taking venture capitalist.

Perhaps my rant is compounded by the other things which are being stupid at UCT, but I was hoping I wasn't going to find that this course was mandatory for me, so, you know, I'm a little disappointed right now.

Of course the reader of this blog now has no idea what to think of me, except that I waffle and I am either really brave, or really stupid, or both, because I have said that the course for which this blog is mandatory is boring and not what I actually want to be doing with my time.