Father Peter, il-Buffu

Nahseb kelli madwar disgha jew tmien snin meta l-ewwel niftakar nisma u nara lil Fr. Peter jitkellem. Zgur kien dak iz-zmien ghax konna ghadna nghixu ir-Rabat (igifieri qabel is-snin disghin) izda l-gazzetti kienu diga bil-kulur (allura wara l-1987).

Kien xi programm ta’ diskussjoni fuq Television Malta; na niftakarx l-isem ezattament ghalkemm ghandi amment li kien ta Lou Bondí. Forsi Pjazza Tlieta?

Dak iz-zmien konna nkunu ta spiss flimkien id-dar filghaxijiet naraw it-television wara l-ikla tal-familja. Hafna drabi dan kien jinvolvi xi Varietá fuq ir-RAI jew Canale 5 u fil-weekend dejjem issibna naraw Cinema in Famiglia u Domenica In. Pero ommi w missieri dejjem kienu jinsistu li naraw l-ahbarijiet fuq TVM u meta bdew jixxandru dawn il-programmi ta diskussjoni malajr saru parti mir-ritwal taghna. Allura ta tfal kont imdorri nisma, nara u “niddiskuti” grajjiet kurrenti u politika.

Izda f’dak il-programm rajt xi haga gdida. Dan ir-ragel li kien qieghed jitkellem b’mod differenti hafna mill-politici li naraw issoltu kellu caption mhux tas-soltu li kienet tghid “Hassieb u filosofu”. Sa dak inhar ma kontx naf li dak kien titlu li wiehed seta jaspira ghalih b’mod realistiku. B’dak il-mod stramb li certi memorji tat-tfulija jibqghu ittimbrati f’mohhok, dik l-istampa baqghet f’tieghi. Meta aktar tard f’hajti xi buffu (jew tnejn) qaluli “U ajma, mela int tista tkun XYZ”, dik l-istampa kienet tigi quddiem wicci u tghamilli l-qalb.

Izda lejn l-ahhar tal-programm smajt xi haga hafna aktar straordinarja. Il-Prezentatur saqsa lil Father Peter “Kieku kellek taghmel xi haga ohra b’hajtek x’kont taghzel?” Kwazi minghajr hsieb huwa rrisponda “Kont inkun buffu.”

Buffu? Father Peter elabora.

“Il-Buffu huwa dak ir-ragel jew mara li xogholu huwa li jdahhak in-nies. Mhux bil-bravura tieghu izda bl-inkompetenza. Dejjem lest li johrog fuq il-palk fejn xi hadd iehor ser jghaddi z-zmien bih. U dejjem jghamel dan b’dahka fuq wiccu anke jekk forsi m’ghandux dahka gewwa fih. Jista jkun li kellu gimgha hazina, li forsi ggieled ma xi habib jew tilef lil xi hadd li jhobb izda dan ma jzommux lura milli jpingi wicc ta ferh biex jaqdi dmiru lejn l-udjenza tieghu. Izda fuq kollox, il-Buffu, jaqa kemm kemm il-darba jaqa, wiccu fit-trab u fit-tajn, dejjem jerga jqum fuq saqajh u jkompli b’dak li kien qieghed jipprova jaghmel.”

Ghalkemm Father Peter ma kienx buffu ghex hajtu b’dan il-mod li ddeskriva tant snin ilu. Karriera bhal tieghu ma tigix b’xejn. U zgur ma ssehx jekk dak li jkun jaqta qalbu ma l-ewwel intopp.

Kwazi ghaxar snin wara kelli l-opportunita li niltaqa mieghu regolarment bhala ir-rapprezentant ta’ l-istudenti fuq il-Bord tal-Junior College. Fil ftit diskussjonijiet li kellna sibt fih li mhux talli kien ragel ta intellett kbir izda ta umilta kbira wkoll. Ta sittax il-sena min jaf kemm kont nghid, minghajr ma ndur mal-lewza, cucati. Izda dejjem tani wicc u sema x’kelli nghid bl-akbar serjeta u attenzjoni.

Nies bhalu, u bhall-Professur de Marco ma tantx kellna, jew ghandna, Malta. Nies li lesti jiddedikaw ruhhom ghal-hsieb, il-filosofija u kburija umli. Nispera li l-Maltin li kienu jafuh ma jinsewx l-ezempju tieghu u li fil-gejjieni ikollna aktar politici, akkademici, kittieba u hassieba li jgibu ruhhom bl-istess mod.

U nispera li Father Peter, skond it-twemmin tieghu, jerga jqum, ifarfar it-trab u jkompli jispira lill-istudenti Maltin.

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English Version
Father Peter, the Clown
I must have been around eight or nine years old when I first saw Father Peter talking on TV. I’m not sure of the exact dates but it must have been around that time because we still lived in Rabat (making it late eighties) but newspapers were already being printed in colour (so post-1987).

It was definitely some discussion programme on TVM; although I don’t quite remember which one. It might have been Lou Bondí’s “Pjazza Tlieta”.

At that time our family used to often be gathered around TV of an evening after supper. More often than not we’d be watching Italian TV. My parents however were quite adamant on watching the local news and as these sort of programmes became more commonplace they also became part of our daily life. As a result my childhood tended to include political and current affairs “discussion” on a fairly regular basis.

However in this particular episode I experienced something new. This man, who spoke in a manner quite different to your average politician, had an unusual caption to his name. It read: “Thinker and philosopher”. I wasn’t aware until that point that that was a job title one could realistically aspire to in Malta. That image stuck with me in the way some childhood memories are wont to do and came back to me later in life at those points in time in which certain people would skeptically say that certain dreams are out of reach or just plain ridiculous.

Towards the end of the show I heard something else which struck me, at the time, as being even more unusual. The interviewer ask Father Peter “If you had to start over and pick a different career what might that be?” Without hesitation he replied “I’d be a clown.”

Seriously? A clown?

“You see, a clown is somebody whose job it is to make people laugh. However not through his cleverness but by his incompetence. He makes people feel good about themselves. He’s always prepared to go on stage where somebody else will be making fun of him. And he does this with a huge grin on his face, night after night, even if he’s possibly not laughing so much inside. But most of all, however many times the Clown may fall down flat on his face, he will always get back up, grin, and continue with the job at hand: giving his audience what they came for.”

Now Father Peter was no clown but he certainly tried to follow his own advice in this regard. A career such as his does not come about lightly after all; and certainly not if one gives up at the first hurdle.

Around ten years later I was lucky enough to run into him on a regular basis in my role of student rep at sixth form. In the few conversations we had I found him to be not only a clever man but a humble one too. At the age of sixteen God only knows how naive I must have been, especially when discussing student “politics” and college policy. He never once disregarded me and always made me feel like what I said was valuable to him.

People like him are rare in the world, even more so in Malta. People who are both deep thinkers yet in touch with life’s practical challenges. I hope that Malta doesn’t forget him too quickly and that those who knew him personally or were taught by him continue to be inspired by his work and ethos.

Above all I hope that he will get back up on his feet, grin and continue to inspire Maltese students now and in the future.

Entrepreneurship Acumen [6 of 7]: Social and Ethical

The sixth Acumen Fund question (see the first, second, third, fourth and fifth) went like this: “Please describe the role you believe social entrepreneurship plays in global development.”

Entrepreneurs create and deliver value. Social entrepreneurs do the same, but they also make sure that value is distributed fairly and ethically.

‘Value’ means different things to different people.  In the standard model of entrepreneurship, value for investors and entrepreneurs is measured in financial terms whereas it refers to a variety of other notions for customers. Sometimes value is inherent in the physical or aesthetic qualities of a product. However it is increasingly common for value to transcend what is merely tangible; and an entrepreneur will find himself selling ‘hope’, ‘belonging’ or simply a way for customers to get more out of life: perceived values that far exceed the financial price paid.

Social entrepreneurship recognizes that this model is unbalanced. And thus flawed. The flaw being that the entrepreneur/investor is only satisfying one kind of motivation – the monetary – while leaving a host of other motivations unsatisfied. This leads to a one-sided focus towards financial gain, often marked by a lack of holistic consideration towards society. (This, possibly, is where the ‘ruthless entrepreneur’ stereotype arises from.) Conversely, a social entrepreneur may (although not necessarily) get less financial return from a venture, yet, just like the customer, he will obtain additional value that far exceeds the financial disparity.

Social entrepreneurship in the ‘third world’ is but a step. We are learning from these efforts how social ventures can be ethical, viable and profitable – sharing value, financial and otherwise, fairly between entrepreneur, investor and customer. The far-reaching value in global development will occur when the same ethos is abstracted and brought back to inform investment decisions and business design in the ‘West’.

Social entrepreneurship is what all entrepreneurship, anywhere, should be.

 

Why this is still relevant to me today:

Entrepreneurs everywhere are in a position to change the world around them. And as such they should think about what those changes are and how they can ensure that any such changes are positive ones. This includes an incredible spectrum of things: employee health, development and happiness, delivering good customer experience and value, environmental considerations, charity, community involvement, sponsorship and mentoring, government relations, social policy and generally “setting a good example”.

In a separate post I wrote in more detail about how entrepreneurship can and should be ethical.

Distinguishing ‘social entrepreneurship’ from ‘regular entrepreneurship’ seems to imply that non-social entrepreneurs have less of a responsibility to society and the community they operate in. However, social or not, entrepreneurs always have a significant impact on their communities (jobs, wellbeing, quality of life, innovation) and therefore every entrepreneur is a ‘social entrepreneur’.

Consequently, every entrepreneur should strive to run and promote ethical business in all its forms.

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Entrepreneurship Acumen [5 of 7]: On Failure

The fifth Acumen Fund question (see the first, second, third and fourth) went like this: “We believe that learning from our mistakes and failures is an important leadership quality. Please describe a personal failure and what you have learned from it.” This is a tricky one, and much has changed since my original reply. But first, this is what I had said:

In 1999, after completing my first undergraduate year, I started a small company together with a colleague. By the following year, the company had gone bust and, partly due to the energy invested in the venture, I failed my second year examinations thus having to repeat the academic year. Financial losses were minimal. The emotional losses of a simultaneous double failure – business and academic – were substantial. When I eventually got around to objective self-reflection, I believe the most important things I learnt were the following.

I learnt that engaging in activities from which a high return is expected (successful business, a degree, etc…) requires focus. Splitting my time between two large projects led to disorganization, desperate last minute work, and results that were not nearly good enough.

I also learnt the importance of not doing things by yourself. Be it friends, family, colleagues or mentors, having somebody to provide support and a balanced external perspective is invaluable.

I learnt that gut feelings are good things to have: our company was building products that with a little bit more effort and focus might have been successful. I also learnt that gut feelings are not the whole story: while a ‘hunch’ may provide enthusiasm and interest, sober analysis is required to build confidence and commitment. Similarly, whereas enthusiasm may easily be acquired overnight (or over a beer), confidence needs to be built up organically and iteratively by creating realistic milestones, celebrating successes and regularly revising future expectations in light of how hard achieving a milestone actually turned out to be.

Most importantly, I learnt how to learn.

Why this is still (not so) relevant to me today:

There is a strong tendency in the entrepreneurial/VC/business world to consider “the ability to learn from failure” an important trait. This is not untrue but neither is it the whole story.

First, why it’s not untrue. Simply put, if you’re the kind of person who will run away and hide the moment something goes wrong then you won’t last long in an entrepreneurial role. Things will go wrong. And you need to get up and keep going or start over.

Second, why it’s not the whole story. Indeed not even half the story. Although you may fail at times, you will probably also succeed in some areas. The successes could be small or big things, from producing a memorable business card to signing a large client deal. It is much more valuable to focus on these bright spots and learn from them. Focusing on your successes is infinitely more useful for two reasons.

1. The obvious first is that its better for morale.
2. The more practical second is that you’re more likely to find actionable things to replicate by looking at what you did right.

The problem with focusing on failure is that what you learn is that a particular approach (/tactic/attitude/action) was wrong. You don’t learn what the right one is. Even worse, you don’t learn what the things that you specifically need to do are. Let’s take a trivial example.

• Scenario A: I designed a memorable business card
  • Next time I will repeat the process. I will have a brainstorming session with my team, I will produce mockups, I will get feedback from the team and from clients, I will hire a skilled designer and use a reputable printing press.
• Scenario B: I didn’t
  • Next time, I will, er, do better?

A contrived example you will agree but a useful one nonetheless. In the first scenario I have a list of things that I can point to and say “Yup, those are good things to do”. More importantly, I can hand them over to other team members/employees and use the principles behind them in other areas of the business. In the second scenario all I know is that one approach out of a infinitely large possibility space did not work.

What I’m getting at is that focusing on failure makes you run away from an approach while focusing on success makes you work towards an approach. ‘Towards’ is better than ‘away’. You can build a strategy around ‘towards’ but not around ‘away’.

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Thank you January. Welcome February…

“Surely as cometh the Winter, I know
There are Spring violets under the snow.”
-   R. H. Newell

January sneaked past and what started out as a lethargic post-holiday season month quickly turned into a fast-moving and exciting time.

The first month of 2010 brought welcome changes to personal and professional life. Finding and moving into a proper (and sweet!) house in a more central part of Cambridge was a great relief in more ways than one. Finally getting rid of an age-old company liquidation matter and other financial ghosts from the past is also a wonderful feeling. At work on the other hand things are just starting to become really interesting: a top secret UX project is underway, GoTestIt is finding its feet within Red Gate and most excitingly new e-commerce responsibilities have just magically fallen into my lap. Oh yes, and this little blog of mine keeps growing in popularity with now just under 3,000 monthly visitors. Woot! as somebody I know likes to say :-)

But what does February bring?

Well, first things first, it’s my birthday in February and this year it’s a big one. I will mostly be celebrating by popping up to Aberdeen (a mere 8 hours), bundling clothes, furniture and cat into a van and together with my better half finally making the move to Cambridge a little bit more permanent. Can’t think of a better birthday gift :-)

Apart from that though, some other interesting things are in the pipeline! Stephen Chambers (head of UX at Red Gate) and myself wrote a short position paper on UX within organisations which (Woot!) has now been accepted and we’ll therefore be presenting in London on the 25th Feb at BCS. (Details here.)

Neil Davidson also kindly put me in touch with the chaps at CUTEC with a view to moderating a session at this Innovation Session & Networking event. That’s on the 6th of March so make sure to pop around if in Cambridge then. Cool stuff.

And to start the month off on the right note, this week I’ll be getting my first free Red Gate massage. Like the SQL Servery wasn’t enough! If you want to get in on that sort of stuff, check out our fab vacancies and the unmatched list of benefits Red Gate offers.

Hope to see you soon!

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Interview on DesNDev.com

Dhane Crowley of DesNDev.com kindly asked me to answer a few questions on why WordPress can be a useful tool to companies having – or wanting – a web presence.

Q5: What would you say is the single most important aspect of creating a Website – aesthetics, function, or something else?

Usability. If a website looks great but I can’t find the search feature the site is useless. If the search feature works but presents the results unintelligibly the site is also useless. Usability means making it simple for a user to accomplish a task or get information and requires equal focus on form and function.

Q6: Why should a business use WordPress to power their Websites?

WordPress allows you to manage a website’s content and function independently of how it looks and without specialist knowledge of HTML, CSS, PHP etc. Writing or editing a blog post, article, event or product page is as easy as writing an email in GMail or Yahoo! Mail.

You can read my insightful answers to all 10 questions on his blog.

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Paris in the Spring

I will be visiting Paris next week (roughly 21st – 26th) for some client work.

If you know of any interesting events and happenings, or would like to meet up for a kir, drop me a comment or an email.

Entrepreneurship Interview on “Phase” magazine:

Yesterday Phase Magazine published a short interview feature about entrepreneurship and start-ups with yours truly. Am posting the answers to the original questions here together with scans of the actual published article below. Thanks to Caroline Gatt for taking the time :-)

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1.    What is ethical entrepreneurship and why do you think it is important?

‘Ethical Entrepreneurship’ is the idea that business ventures – and their success – need not only be measured in financial terms.

By this I do not mean that entrepreneurs and businesses should switch professions and become philanthropists or missionaries. Nor does it mean that business owners should not be ready to take tough decisions like firing people when necessary. All businesses need to profitable and that should always be a core aim. But it needn’t be the only one.

Ethical Entrepreneurship happens when entrepreneurs are not just out to make money, but also to make meaning.

2.    What does it mean to be an entrepreneur?

I don’t believe there is a one-size-fits-all definition of an entrepreneur. Bill Gates, Caqnu and the pizza guy down the road are all entrepreneurs. But I’d be hard pressed to say what is realistically common between them.

Of course this is an extreme example but it doesn’t diminish the fact that entrepreneurship tends to be indifferent to background, personality, sex, creed, race, physique or any other typical ‘market segmentation’ criteria. Some entrepreneurs are shy (Ben & Jerry’s), some are geeks (Bill Gates, Microsoft), some are show-offs (Richard Branson, Virgin), and others environmentalists (Anita Roddick, Body Shop). Some were born rich (Jeff Bezos, Amazon) and some poor and oppressed (Martin Varsavsky, Fon).

I think your personality and background define what kind of entrepreneur you can be – not whether you will be one. And being an entrepreneur means getting up off your ass and doing something.

3.    What was the first company you set up and when did you set up, how old were you?

In 1998, when I was 18, I set up a web and graphic design company with my cousin. We produced a website and a brochure for one client!

4.    Since then what companies have you set up and what various things are you currently working on?

Since then I have co-founded an advertising agency and a mobile marketing company. Today I split my time between independent tech consulting and working on a new company focused on helping people reduce electricity consumption.

5.    What motivated you to set up on your own and how did you know what to do?

Growing up I was a rather shy and introverted person. However I inadvertently discovered – through my work with a political student organisation – that when I needed to convince people of something (I believe in) I could easily overcome my introversion. And life became much more fun when I could socialise and network. Entrepreneurship is a great ‘excuse’ to meet people and thus it makes life fun for me. Of course, other factors like peer influence, financial independence and the desire to create something that has a positive impact on society all play a part too.

As to ‘knowing what to do’, there are various ways of finding out. Most people tend to be very helpful when you ask for advice. Reading and research helps too. It’s also important to document what you do so that you can remember in detail what you did when something worked or not.

6.    What other entrepreneurship projects/initiatives did you work on? What are they?

Startup Malta is a non-profit foundation aimed at promoting entrepreneurship in Malta. It was founded in 2000 and it launched Malta’s first ever business plan competition. I joined in 2001 and was active until 2006. Unfortunately, since I left in 2006, the foundation has not been active.

More recently I have been involved in Smarter Start – a small entrepreneurial think tank. I can’t say too much about what we’re doing because we’re mostly researching at this stage but we’re hoping to launch a few interesting tools to help people get started on the entrepreneurial path.

7.    Why do you think these initiatives are important?

During 6 years of Startup Malta activities, hundreds of people attended and participated in our competitions, training events, workshops, networking meetings and seminars. To me this is a clear indication that there is a significant group of people who want to learn and practice entrepreneurship – and that’s one thing that makes it important.

On a more practical level, during a global credit crunch and recession such as this one, where your likelihood of being unemployed quadruples overnight, a few entrepreneurial skills could certainly have been useful in transforming the jobless into job providers.

8.    What did you study, and how did your studies help / hinder / not related to your entrepreneurship?

I studied computer science and then read for a master’s degree in creativity and innovation. I think that any sort of study is helpful and there isn’t one kind of field or course that makes it more likely for you to be a successful entrepreneur. In fact, a long-running joke amongst venture capitalists is that MBA and commerce students make the worst entrepreneurs! I don’t think they mean that if you have an MBA you can’t be a good entrepreneur. The real lesson is that you shouldn’t be overconfident of the knowledge that you have and need to be constantly aware that there’s always much more that you don’t know.

9.    What was the toughest lesson you have learnt from your actual experience of setting up alone or in partnerships?

Working with partners is always much more fun as well as the added benefit of mutual encouragement. However, having a partner just for the sake of not being alone is not a good idea. While there is probably no such thing as ‘perfect business partners’, there is definitely an abundance of ‘terribly bad business partners’. This could result from a number of factors but typically stems from a misalignment of expectations. If you think that firing somebody is tough, ‘firing’ or breaking up with a business partner is much harder. Just make sure that if you’re going into business with somebody, he or she knows clearly why you are doing it and that the other person has a complimentary skill set to yours.

10.    Did any of your businesses fail? What is failure for an entrepreneur?

The ‘correct’ answer is that failure is a learning experience. In reality it is a depressing, emotional and trying time.

However failure will at some point in time happen to everyone – entrepreneur or not. Just ask somebody who’s been fired, passed up for promotion or lost an important football match. I think an important aspect of dealing with failure is being pre-emptive. That is, being aware of the potential for, and consequences of, failure before you put yourself into an irreversible situation. The worst failures are those that blindside you.

Many of my projects and ideas have failed. But the only times that they truly affected me badly were the times where the failure completely and utterly surprised me because I had been too blind or caught up in the rosy aspects of a project to recognise and deal with certain risks. I would recommend any budding entrepreneur to research and read up about Scenario Planning to help minimise such experiences.

11.    What has been your biggest success so far? What keeps your motivation to be an entrepreneur going?

Probably presenting my latest project at the LeWeb conference in Paris last December was my biggest success in terms of visibility. However each and every successful client interaction I’ve had, be it getting sponsorship money, selling a product or getting people to attend an event, has always yielded the same feeling of deep satisfaction. In part, my motivation to keep going is definitely due to wanting to experience this feeling one more time, every time.

12.    Will everyone’s experience of being an entrepreneur be the same?

Some things will be the same. It is almost a given that you will have some very low and tough times. You will have people who will react negatively to your project and people who try to dissuade you from doing your own thing. You are also likely to have dissatisfied customers and possibly even angry ones.

If you persevere you are very likely to also have significant ‘highs’: grateful customers, positive feedback, financial reward, the possibility of ‘leaving a legacy’, or whatever makes you tick.

What will be different for everybody is the process of achieving those highs and of dealing with the lows. This will depend quite a bit on your personality and habits so it’s crucially important to at least be honest with yourself and acknowledge your strengths and faults in order to make the best of the bad times and to remain an Ethical Entrepreneur during the good ones.

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The full page scans of the article:

Photo from VRM London November

Found this running around somewhere. Yours truly fourth from the right looking interested.

Recording Skype calls on GarageBand with LineIn and SoundFlower (Mac)

Just wanted to keep a copy of this handy really.

Recording Skype calls on GarageBand with LineIn and SoundFlower (Mac) – 360east | design, media, technology.

Update: The above works well but AudioHijack Pro is a much more elegant solution.

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Malta Visit

Visiting Malta for a couple of weeks starting Thursday 12th March.

Message to meet…