A challenge to my generation
I have been thinking about this post for awhile now, and there is probably no better way to start it then to tell you where I got my inspiration from. A couple of months ago, a very successful and hard-working entrepreneur, Derek Johnson (CEO of Tatango.com) created this video that critiqued the state of our current generation.
Being a recent graduate, I first took some offense to this video because I see myself as a “hustler” (as Derek describes) trying to make things happen for me and not waiting for someone or something. But, I soon came to realize how dead accurate he was.The video got me thinking about my generation, the generation raised or influenced by technology, beer pong, Facebook, Myspace, the iPhone and Lady Gaga. The generation that takes things for granted and whom believe success is served on a platinum plate. Day in and day out, I see so many students just passing life by with the same routine: school, pizza, gym and party (sometimes not even school). We are turning into a generation whose best trait is laziness. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard the phrase, “I was way too hungover to make it to class this morning.”
Our generation, my generation is defining itself with low ambitions; which is something that kills me inside. Just cause you show up to something doesn’t mean you’re going to be successful. Unfortunately, I don’t believe many people realize this.
Hopefully I’ve got you thinking now.
With this being said, I want to propose a challenge to you, actually to our generation. I want to challenge you to look at your life and envision where you would like it to be in 10 to 20 years. I can bet that you have some sort of general idea of what you want to accomplish or have. Now, I ask you, what are you doing NOW to get there? What steps/plans are you taking right now to get you to where you want to go? How are you motivating yourself to do the things you love?
Stop waiting for a moment to come. Instead, create your own and make sure it’s something you’re proud of and it means something to you.
This isn’t just any generation that he criticized, this is our generation, our peers, our ambitions and our future. So what are we going to do to turn things around?
{Note – I know many of you are working hard day in and day out (hustling like I am), and I applaud you on your ambitions and hard-work. Obviously, this post is not directed to you. However, I’m curious to here your thoughts about our generation and your observations. Am I right or completely wrong?}
Laughtatlife.com – My ambitious project
You may have noticed, in these past couple of weeks, I’ve been tweeting posts from a site called Laughtatlife.com, a Tumblr based-blog. You may have also noticed that all the tweets are humorous and entertaining. Keeping this in mind, I felt the need to explain myself to you, so you don’t think I’m some crazy recent graduate effected by the job market (which you still may after this).
You guys know me as the, “Twenty-something PR/communications techie that doesn’t stand for the status quo,” and that phrase “status quo” is something I stand firm on. But what you may not know, is that I’m a big goof ball, which means I do all I can to crack a joke just so I can make someone laugh. I believe laughter is a strong medicine both mentally and physically.
Therefore, these two principles laid a foundation for an ambitious project I recently launched.
Laughtatlife.com is my creation and an extension of my passions, as well as a change from the norm from other aggregate entertainment websites. The idea of Laughtatlife.com comes from popular websites like VeryDemotivational.com, Break.com, and Funny.com. After visiting these very successful sites and others which aggregate funny videos, quotes, pictures, and links from the Internet, I came to the realization that they had one thing in common: they’re cluttered with links and advertising.
So I thought, how could I change this and still make people laugh?
I thought about it for awhile, and reached a conclusion that I needed to get back to the basics; meaning I needed to make things simple, clean and easy on the eye. Psychologically and commercially speaking, when you make things simple for people to use, you’re more likely to have a higher success rate than your competitors (or so I hear!). Also, you may have noticed, from visiting the website, that I only have two image advertisements. These are the ONLY two locations on the site I designate for advertising, because, like I said, simplicity is what I’m trying to achieve.
At this point, I bet you’re thinking I’m crazy and there is no way my project will be successful on a grand stage, like the competitors I listed above. However, I want you to know that I fully understand that this project may lead to complete failure and inadequate profitability. But, I’m more interested in the development side as well as marketing/community base than anything else. One of my goals is to take the lessons and skills I learn from this and apply them to other projects I am also currently working on.
I hope you can join me on my first official project into entrepreneurship. Like I tweeted earlier, “If you don’t try something new, you never take a risk.” I want to personally thank you for all your support and help. I know it will not be a free or easy ride, but I can’t wait to see where this project may take me.
Also, I am interested in hearing your suggestions, criticisms, ways to drive traffic or anything you would like to share (be honest, I want to hear from you).
Many thanks in advance!
Helpful Links:
Twitter – @laughtatlife
Special thanks to Andrew Byrne for helping me with some design work. He’s putting together a new logo for the site, which should be launched very soon!
Graduation: Time for family and family!
I’ve accomplished one very important hurdle in my life a couple of weekends ago, I graduated from college. Graduation weekend (May 21st – 23rd) was on of the most joyful, eventful and family filled occasions of my life. Since Friday morning when 25 family members drove into Austin from Dallas and Houston, I knew that weekend was in for some memorable moments. For example, when I took my 45 year old aunt kayaking and she had never been on a boat or anything like it in her life before. Or when my energetic and highly entertaining cousins (now known as cuddys) were showing me pictures of them tubing on Lake Travis and their adventures traveling down 6th street.
The best part was getting the family all in one spot for the weekend and cracking jokes, remembering old times, and celebrating a much earned accomplishment.
Here are a few pictures from this weekend. I didn’t include them all but you can see some more on my Flickr.
Zain (my cousin) and I
Mom, Me, Dad and Little Bro Hasnain
Cuddys – Maliha, Erum, Me, Anum and Neha
Jawad, Me, Zain and Zaran (more cousins…)
My family is full of loving people and I thank God everyday for giving me such a big family to support me, help me when I’m down, raise me into the man I am today, and celebrate with me when the good times are rolling. Although, I have to take two classes this summer to finish out my degree, I’m so glad I was able to celebrate my accomplishments with them this weekend and I know more such occasions will be around the corner.
I'm Texan, that means I say "Yes sir or ma'am"
Disclaimer: This post is not meant to offend anyone but give a perspective from someone raised in Texas.
The reason for this post is that I want to make something clear that has been bothering me for awhile now. When I or anyone else from Texas says “Yes sir or ma’am” that shows a sign of respect and courtesy, not a sign of age. Many people I’ve talked to, usually those from up north, take this as an insult because to them it means they’re old.
THIS IS NOT TRUE!
If you’ve been raised in Texas your entire life, or in my case a majority of my life, you create a sense of pride and loyalty to the state. Hints why we are so proud of the “Don’t Mess with Texas” campaign. But, with this sense of pride comes a set of manners and respect one shows to others. Texans are proud of where we came from and the traditions and customs we hold so dear to our hearts. Ever since I was in elementary school I’ve been using “Yes sir or ma’am.” It’s a part of us just like football, barbecue, cold beer and the word “yall.”
So please, the next time anyone from Texas says “Yes sir or ma’am” take it as a sign of courtesy and respect and not a sign of ones age. I promise we mean well and don’t intend to insult anyone.
3DS – An entreprenurship lesson in 60 hours
A couple of weekends ago I had the honor in participating in one of the most eventful, intense, passionate, and valued experiences of my life. I was selected as one of forty participants for this year’s 3 Day Startup program. Here is a description of the event from their website:
“The idea of 3 Day Startup is simple: start a technology company over the course of three days. We rent work space for an entire weekend, invite 40 students with a wide range of backgrounds, cater food, drinks, snacks, and coffee, pick the best idea for a software startup during the Friday brainstorming session, and release a minimal prototype by Sunday night. The goal is to build enough momentum among a network of motivated people to sustain the company beyond the weekend.”
The experience, knowledge and network I was able to gain during this weekend by far surpasses anything I would have learned in a classroom. But, I do have to mention that those techniques and theories discussed in class were applied during this weekend and will be applied moving forward. Here is what 60 hours of passion and drive can teach you:
- Passion will not override business knowledge – Just because you are passionate about something you have to understand the business part of it to make it work. You have to understand the components necessary to add value to your customers and make money to attract the attention of investors and take a percentage of the market share.
- There are people out their to help you – Never think that you’re alone in your adventure into entrepreneurship. There are tons of networks and individuals out there that want to help your idea get launched. All you have to do is find those people, because most of the time they will not find you.
- Act quickly when you realize you have failed is the first step in changing things around and meeting a deadline – As I stated in an earlier post, understand that failure is part of success. Our team ended up hitting rock bottom Saturday night, but a couple of red bulls later we were up and running, putting together a presentation that got all the investors excited to learn more.
- Involving yourself in a tech-based startup requires you to build a relationship with your programmers – No matter how smart you are, you have to build a solid relationship with the people that are going to make your idea a reality. They share your passion, so never forget that.
- Passion never sleeps, it only takes naps – Being an entrepreneur means that you spend countless hours working on your passion. But, I came to realize this weekend that the passion and drive you have needs some time to nap. Getting some sleep allows you to refresh your mind and get back to what you love doing.
I highly recommend anyone wanting to get into entrepreneurship to check out the 3 Day Startup program. I can guarantee it will open doors to opportunities you may have not thought of before.
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