My Amazing Experience of Startup Weekend!

Oct 26, 2011 | Business, Learning, Personal

as some of you may know, I love to learn and love to teach, I’ve created a community of learners and trainers to connect, called “The Learning Addict” http://www.facebook.com/learningaddict and pre-launched it last July 2011, the result was amazing, trainers learned more, and learners got what they need. We have launched 6 training programs (photoshop, blogging, real estate 101, boosting referrals, starting a food cart, and deciphering the language of finance) conducted by experts in those fields.

And then I saw this opportunity from Startup Weekend that I can pitch in this new idea of mine, hoping that I can validate the business idea and enhance it further thru collaboration. I was surprised that I’m not the only one with this concept (which is connecting teachers and learners). I met Elbert, a talented educator, artist and a great leader, his concept was more on online training called Learning Hub and mine was more on offline training with a webinar as future enhancement.

There was a voting process in Startup Weekend, whereby people will choose the startup concept they like, and fortunately both our concepts was chosen. Since it was similar, we merged as a team and started working on it!

The Startup Weekend’s process is when your startup concept is chosen, you get to pick/ recruit your own team and you will be given time to work on your concept and will be presenting to the judges on the last day, and judges will choose the top 6.

I’ve a great team with smart developers, dedicated project managers, creative artist and leader. Plus the mentors who guided us all the way.

Amazing result happens when there is collaboration! to cut the story short! We won in the Startup Weekend first prize together with another team Ventee (a startup concept I like), the result was a tie.

My objective was satisfied, I’ve validated my concept and saw the potential of it. We NOW name it Qwago “Bringing Teachers and Learners Together”

If you are a trainer or training institution or an online learning company or a Learner
LIKE-US in Facebook to get more details about Qwago
http://www.facebook.com/qwago

PS: For The Learning Addict trainers, we will still continue to grow the community, and I will slowly introduce you to the wonderful features of Qwago!

Daily Score Card

Oct 6, 2011 | Personal

Lately I’m having a hard time disciplining myself due to distractions and busyness. I always focus on things that are Urgent and Important. And therefor forgot to do the things that are not Urgent but also Important, like going to the gym, eating healthy food, and reading books. So I came-up with a system that will push me/ force me to do those things that are equally important.

I call it the DAILY SCORE CARD, it works for me, but it may not work for everyone

There are 4 Sections in my Daily Score Card

  1. Date – Put the current date. My strategy is to print 2-3 months Daily Score Cards and mark the Date already. The reason is to make it easy for me, so that I won’t get bored
  2. Checklist – The above picture is not my actual daily score card, I have a lot in the list. You may add as many as you can. It can be very specific, what fruit, what vitamins, lunch time, or dinner. (Be Honest with yourself)
  3. Score – This will tell us how we did for the day, and we can challenge ourselves to improve everyday. And also reward ourselves for a job well done.
  4. Tasks – I love this portion, since it gives me direction. It’s advisable to write it the day before. Or if you have long term plans, you may write it weeks/ months before. Tasks portion is also a great way to identify your priorities.
Self-Discipline, for me is not easy, unless it became a habit already, that’s why I use this system, it is a Force-Discipline! This system will be more effective if you have an accountability partner or a coach to monitor your progress.