Lessons learned from SXSW. Focus & Clarity
I never wrote a blog post talking about what I learned at SXSW. No no no, I don't mean specific tactics like what time to tweet, product iteration, how to raise money etc... If you want to hear that, see this or this. I'm talking about intangible learning. The type of learning that gives you perspective, clarity and focus. That's what I got out of SXSW.
Allow me to explain. SXSW is overwhelming. Internet stars unite to learn and build. In their presense, half way through the experieince I started to get a little down on myself. I was surrounded by such great success. I felt inclined to step back and say, "man what have we really accomplished?" My life's work (thus far) is remind101. We've done fine, but by no means have we seen the type of success I want yet (but we will!) (:
That resignation setting in while surrounded by such amazing people gave me a lot of perspective on what's REALLY important. Not the blogs about raising money, or if Chrome will beat out Mozilla. What's important is focusing on making our users happy. What's important is implementing a viable business model that makes money so we can grow. What's important is staying true to our values and saving students from missing assignments. I don't think I ever lost sight of these things, but that doesn't mean SXSW wasn't a nice wake up call.
The experience gave me a great deal of focus and clarity. A few days after, our business model hit me like a brick. We are executing it as we speak. I wrote this post because I'm a strong believer in sharing mistakes and lessons learned. What's the lesson in this? Focus on what's really important, rather than comparing yourselves to others. Especially when they are totally unrelated.
Thanks to @CAgarland for checking this
