John Williams is the founder of The Ideas Lab, the company that has helped thousands of people to find something they love, get it started, and make a living out of it. John started his career in creative technology as a developer on pioneering special effects software (including on-site work at Disney Feature Animation, LA) and became Digital Media CTO at a startup before moving to head up a media technology consultancy team at Deloitte. John quit, declaring he never wanted another job for the rest of his life. John consulted independently to the BBC and other broadcasters around the world before finally founding The Ideas Lab, running a popular London event called Scanners Night, and writing his first bestselling book. His latest book ‘F**k Work Let’s Play: Do what you love & get paid for it’ is WHSmith business book of the month and has now been translated into 10 languages.
Entrepreneurial Role Models:
- Brian Eno
- Eddie Izzard
- Chris Rock
- Naval Ravikant founder of Angel List
- Paul Graham
- Balaji Srinivasan
When business started difficulties overcame:
“I had absolutely no entrepreneurial skills whatsoever. I mean just nothing. I just knew I didn’t want a job. So, when I first went freelance I was a software developer at the time, I’d also done some tech support, I’d done some other things. But I tried to market myself in a way that didn’t fit any of those boxes and funnily enough I didn’t go very well. Sort of couldn’t describe what I was, I couldn’t really work out who needed me because I didn’t have any of that kind of thinking back then. And I had to learn time management and there is not all of the time in the world just because your day doesn’t have any appointments in it. I had to learn finance stuff like it actually matters that you count how much money you’re making and how much money you’re spending. Really I was utterly hopeless ”…[Listen for More]
Favourite Books:
- Families And How To Survive Them Book by John Cleese and Dr Robin Skynner
- The Almanack of Naval Ravikant: A Guide to Wealth and Happiness Book by Eric Jorgenson
Favourite Quote:
“Where your talents and the needs of the world cross, there lies your vocation” Aristotle
Recommended Online Resources:
- Twitter – It’s what’s happening. From breaking news and entertainment to sports and politics, get the full story with all the live commentary.
- Paul Graham
- Naval Ravikant
- Balaji Srinivasan
Best Advice to Other Entrepreneurs:
“make sure that you create a business you enjoy so that when it actually pays off and it makes money you don’t discover that you’ve sacrificed what you actually want out of life just to make the money ”…[Listen for More]
More About John Williams:
Neil’s Quote at the Beginning:
“It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, it’s a life for me and I’m feeling good.” Feeling Good, Michael Buble
Other Quotes From the Chat with John Williams:
- “I think it is just that products market fit thing… So, it’s making sure that as long as you go out to the world and say hey, I can do anything… A lot of coaches do this. A lot of therapist do it as well. And other people who sell themselves by the hour or by the day. You know I can do anything. If you do that you are making the client do all of the work to determine whether you are the right person and how you are going to help them and whether you are the ideal fit or not. So instead of that think about how to take all of the stuff you are good at and put it in a form where it solves a particular problem and produces a particular result. And once you do that you can slap a price on it. Often that can be a fixed price. If you are selling into corporations then usually not. Often it can be a fixed price on something you run around your skills and expertise and it becomes much easier to sell it. So, I wish I’d known that at the beginning. ”
- “I think partly it is a willingness to be uncomfortable. So, I know some people who almost never do anything to make them feel uncomfortable and you just can’t be successful if you do that. And so as long as you are willing to do things that have difficult conversations and ask the things that you think you might not get and so on that’s fine . And I also think you need to know that entrepreneurship is an iterative process and it does not work like school does and it doesn’t work like jobs work… The problem is everyone comes into their first company thinking like an employee. Because employment looks a little bit like being at school. And both those things make you powerless to a certain extent. And They make you extrinsically reference so you are looking outside of yourself for our doing this right? You are looking for permission, that’s the problem… Is this the right way to do things? Well, the answer to that simply is does the market like what you are doing? That’s the only external reference you should have . Otherwise, it should be what are we really trying to do here? What do we believe is the right way this thing should happen inside of the company?”
- “If you can find that sweet spot tween the things you are good at and the things people need… And I would add in also the things you enjoy because not everything you are good at you enjoy… Then you’ve really got a business that’s really special”
- “if you have a feed for love just incredibly bright successful people it’s kind of like just raising your own IQ by several points”
Leave a Reply