[Music]
my name is Dave and I’m gonna over the
course of this evening introduce use
quite a range of other people now some
of these people you’ve never met before
but one of these people ought to be kind
of faintly familiar so Steve Jobs
unless you’ve been hiding under a rock
for about twenty years at the founder of
Apple Steve famously said but when you
go up you tend to get told that the
world is the way it is and your life is
just to live your life inside that world
and try not to bump into the walls too
much have fun
have a nice family life save a bit of
money but he went on to say that maybe
that’s a very limited kind of life maybe
you can have a broader life if you
understand one simple fact and that fact
is that everything around you in what
you call the world was made by people
no cleverer than you and once you
understand that and you think that you
know you can change it you can influence
it you can make things that other people
will use actually you’ll never go back
you can never turn around from that
moment now I wholeheartedly agree with
what Steve just said but you know I’m
busy I’ve got things to do I’ve got a
day job I’m a husband I’m a father I’ve
got a walk the dog twice a day sometimes
I really ought to go for a run so you
know it’s great you know I could I could
be tearing up all of these unwritten
rules I could be challenging all of
these assumptions but that feels like a
lot of work I’ve got to find a time
somehow and then I’ve got to you know
bring myself to do it you know make a
change that’s it’s kind it’s kind of
intimidating and well it was and then I
started talking to people who convinced
me that actually maybe changing the
world wasn’t something that had to be
this kind of big change don’t have to
tear up the whole rule book all at once
so I need to introduce you to some other
people so this is Alex
he’s a graphic designer this is Holly
and she does charity fundraising this is
Tim and he works in professional
services this is Laura and she’s a
lawyer this is will and used to work in
software development this is Sam he
works for a major international
technology firm this is George and he is
a creative technologist and this is
Gavin and he’s a designer but that’s not
the whole story
that’s just their day jobs they all do
something else that is changing at least
their world if not a lot of other
people’s worlds so let’s do this again
so this is Alex and he publishes a
physical and a digital magazine
champions independent comics and digital
comics this is Holly and she runs a
fantastic cookery blog this is Tim and
he runs a website that is devoted to
inspiring advising and equipping would
be adventurous and he crowd funds a
grant to support people to go on their
adventures this is Laura and she runs a
cycle touring festival and she’s also
involved in a project that gets more
young people and particularly women into
adventure cycling this is Will and he is
a published children’s author this is
Sam and he runs a blog dedicated to
creative technology and arts and culture
and how those two things interface
George finds and climbs unclogged
mountains largely in Central Asia and
this is gap and he makes filmed does
animations gives talks on getting into
the creative industries for young people
he runs a shop with his wife it gave us
kind of the king of side projects and so
all of these people have helped me think
that actually maybe I can change the
world but on the side I can do it
part-time and that feels quite quite
liberating
in a way but you know I’ve still got a
still going to do something different
and
still going to kind of challenge myself
to get out of my my comfort zone to go
and do that so I need to tell you a
little bit more about me so I have a day
job I’m a lecturer in innovation and
entrepreneurship at the University it’s
my job to help people have ideas develop
those ideas and try and launch those
ideas there is a problem with that
though and it is that entrepreneurship
is absolute marmite to the population
some of my students think this word is
wonderful the idea of being an
entrepreneur is fantastic they’re going
to change the world they’re going to
absolutely embrace Steve’s advice
they’re going to make things for other
people they’re going to go out and do
good things and change the world but
other students look at that word and
they don’t quite self-identify with it
in the same way that it feels a bit
intimidating surely entrepreneurship is
for people who are I don’t know more
driven more talented not more creative
more dynamic better resourced but people
not like me and people talk themselves
out of one financial it quite quickly
because they think it’s some sort of
exclusive club or an elite sport that
only certain people complain and that’s
really worrying but it’s a real obstacle
for me and my job in I can work with
some people
in my university but others will hear
the e word and run and it’s not for them
and they want no part of it so I’ve
struggled with this for quite a period
of time and then I read a blog by an
entrepreneur I called David Hyatt he was
one of the founders of a Howie’s
clothing brand and he had this idea of
succeeding slowly how do you nibble away
at a project over time however however
big I have a grand that project might be
how do you just kind of pick at it and
get towards slow success rather than
fast failure which is a bit of an
entrepreneurial thing how do you do and
you do slow success and that idea really
resonated to me and that idea that a
side project was a way of referring to
this kind of activity
again really resonated to me and seem to
resonate for lots of the people that I
went to speak to and it transpired that
almost everybody I knew had a sign
project everybody had a little hustle
people were people were making money
people were practicing for a future
career that they hadn’t had yet people
were doing incredible things that you
just could not call a hobby it was it
would be rude to call them a hobby it
will be dismissive to call it a hobby
this was this was kind of powerful
powerful stuff but they were just
succeeding at this kind of slowly so
that for me was a breakthrough and
suddenly I could talk to students who
would have run away if I’d have kind of
badged my session entrepreneurship but I
said I’m gonna kind of help you of your
side projects and they’re like brilliant
I’ve got this idea I’m gonna do this so
I’m making this thing I’m crafting this
thing and I could really help and
actually the people that I was change
about this we’re coming back to me and
saying actually that was really
validating like I had kind of described
this as a hobby but now I can describe
it as a venture I can describe it as a
project and that gave them confidence
and then they could talk to other people
about it and they could find people and
meet people get advice it seemed to I’d
changed the language and I changed the
rules that suddenly people could look at
themselves and they could look at the
people around them in really different
ways and for me I was absolutely
dumbstruck by the quality of stuff that
my friends were doing that I had no idea
that they were because they hadn’t
talked about it in that way before now
some of you may recognize an
illustration like this so this entirely
self drawn diagram is demonstrates all
projects ever that any project can only
have two of the three things written at
a point of a triangle so if your project
is gonna be good and fast it’s gonna be
expensive if it’s fast and cheap it’s
gonna be bad
actually this probably applies to more
than just projects this is life really
isn’t it however if it’s good and cheap
then it’ll be slow and I think this is
what David Haier is talking about that
actually you want to do this well it’s
something that you care about but
because you’ve got a day job because
you’ve got family you actually you can’t
invest loads loads of time in it it’s
it’s expensive in time so actually you’d
have to resign yourself to the fact that
you’re gonna do it quite slowly but
that’s no bad thing so for me well I’m
talking about side projects I’m talking
about things that are good but things
that are cheap but they might just have
to be slow as a result of that all of
the people that I’ve shown you I’m sure
would love to spend more and more time
on their projects but they know that
actually there’s a real discipline to
doing that slow to doing that on the
sidelines and it means that they’re not
nested kind of rushing things but
they’re really working on them over time
and that I think makes a difference to
the quality so I had found something
quite interesting here now as an
academic obviously I thought I’d maybe I
need to do some research and in talking
to some of the people that had already
had a bit of a chat with we said why
don’t I start interviewing people about
their side projects so why do I spend my
weekends and evenings interviewing
people about their weekends and evenings
my side project has become other people
side projects which gets a little bit
better but I’m kind of quite happy with
that so the other thing I had to do
being an academic was I had to try and
draw a diagram so my diagram for some
projects is just there again apologies
for my artistic skills so I’ve
determined roughly this is a work in
progress
so I predicts have three key elements
the first of those is passion you’ve
really got to be into this you are
trying to do this on the sidelines over
a long period of time you are finding
little moments in your day to try and
spend time on this you’ve really got to
care about it because you’re gonna have
to be pretty disciplined about seizing
all those little moments to make this
happen
it’s a gaffe who mentioned earlier he
gets up two hours early every working
day to get his project time in he is
making animations he’s making films he’s
working on speeches he’s going to give
in those two hours before his working
day starts George spends his two weeks
annual leave every year going straight
out to the former Soviet republics
straight out to the mountains doing the
kind of expeditions that professionals
would have taken six weeks to do in
acclimatize properly he’s out there two
weeks done it back again I mean that I
mean that’s not a holiday anymore
bluntly so so passion makes a difference
and if you stop enjoying it stop it
actually if if you are not getting
enough out of it maybe you don’t do it
anymore or if you can’t bring yourself
to do it maybe you’re not interested
enough the second element is
professional competence almost everybody
depicted here brought some professional
skills into their side-project and
that’s got real value it means that the
project looks a bit slicker it moves a
bit quicker and it has a bit more
credibility to the the wider audience
other than just your maybe your friends
and family who will always tell you
that’s brilliant keep going so for
example Alex can design a beautiful
document which really rather helps when
you’re trying to make a magazine Sam
knows all about the creative sector so
that really helps when he comes to talk
to technologists about creativity and
the cultural sector
everybody is bringing something tim is a
really credible adventurer
so people are quite willing to listen to
him listen to his advice and take his
guidance on what kit to buy but I also
noticed two other things happening one
was that people were often using their
professional skills in a more creative
manner that they were using side
projects to do what they wasn’t as much
fun when they were in work doing it for
a client or doing it for their boss but
they were actively creatively expressing
themselves using those professional
skills but the other thing I noticed was
that people were also learning new
skills people were using side projects
to get better so Holly could already
cook
but what she was doing was learning how
to use social media she took a food
photography course to make the blog look
even better
so people were actually investing in
this and some of them were using it as a
stepping stone to other things in their
professional life as well
so the third part here is tomorrow’s
plan and this is all about the idea that
you are purposefully investing in this
being something bigger tomorrow or it
developing you into tomorrow so most
people have brought existing skills in
they were they were learning new things
as well so gap was he his main design
work is around kind of graphic design
and games design but he really wants to
get into filmmaking and animation but he
has to find a way to prove to his bosses
that he knows how to do those things
despite the fact he can’t do them in his
day job so he does them in his project
time Sam managed to move out of a job in
the creative sector into the technology
sector because his blog was all about
technology and he could convince those
recruiters that he cared enough so
people were making these stepping stones
and they were getting often unexpected
benefits so Laura does charity law and
she was finding that actually it made
her more credible with her clients
because she ran a charity herself so
there are some really interesting
connections not necessary planned
connections as to what you wanted to do
tomorrow but things that helped you
advance so these three elements I think
are really really critical to making a
good side project and lifting it out of
what might be a hobby or an amateur
activity into something that is really
seriously credible but there is a fourth
element that is not on my diagram and
that fourth element separates side
projects from successful business
ventures and that item is customers
because if you couldn’t do all of that
and you can also find a customer who
will pay you enough often enough to do
that thing you have a business if you
can’t find anyone to pay you for it you
have an expensive side project
now I will add one word of warning here
that sometimes when you go looking for
customers you end up walking away from
the thing that is actually interested
you in the first place there are plenty
of business owners that there are plenty
of entrepreneurs out there who have
ended up doing something they’re neither
very good at or enjoy but they did find
a customer now I’ll leave that to you
it’s whether you thing that is a
situation that you’re willing to
tolerate but painted a bit of a picture
so let’s distill some advice out of all
of these side projects if I’ve convinced
you that maybe you want to do some side
projects find something that you love to
do find something that it’s easier to do
than not do you know what is genuinely
gonna get you a bed in the morning so
what’s gonna get you spending your
weekends and your holidays doing this
stuff Alex is finding time for his
magazines during his commute Holly used
her maternity leave to launch the blog
and then a second maternity leave to
improve the blog I’m not sure that’s the
reason for the maternity leave but she
used it effectively you have to make the
time you have to carve it out you have
to get it from all these sort of small
places in your life to dedicate enough
time to do it you have to tell people
about it that really makes the
difference it transforms it it was when
will who you saw earlier told his wife
that he was been scribbling on the train
writing things and she sent him to a
writers group and only at that point did
he take it seriously and he’s now a
full-time children’s author follow the
people you admire look at who’s doing it
well look at who’s doing what you want
to do really well and cents checks that
you want to do it too
and one final insight sometimes making
that step feels really difficult and you
build it up in your mind and it’s you’re
committing to something how about
actually you’ve already started it and
you started it the first time you had
half an idea about it and by that logic
you’ve already started dozens and dozens
and dozens of things you just not
finished them
and maybe it’s easier to continue
something than to start something so my
advice to you is to think actually maybe
you could be a part-time entrepreneur
maybe you can rewrite your own rules
about who you are what you do and what
other people think you do and maybe you
could start something amazing as a side
project thank you very much
[Applause]
you
my name is Dave and I’m gonna over the
course of this evening introduce use
quite a range of other people now some
of these people you’ve never met before
but one of these people ought to be kind
of faintly familiar so Steve Jobs
unless you’ve been hiding under a rock
for about twenty years at the founder of
Apple Steve famously said but when you
go up you tend to get told that the
world is the way it is and your life is
just to live your life inside that world
and try not to bump into the walls too
much have fun
have a nice family life save a bit of
money but he went on to say that maybe
that’s a very limited kind of life maybe
you can have a broader life if you
understand one simple fact and that fact
is that everything around you in what
you call the world was made by people
no cleverer than you and once you
understand that and you think that you
know you can change it you can influence
it you can make things that other people
will use actually you’ll never go back
you can never turn around from that
moment now I wholeheartedly agree with
what Steve just said but you know I’m
busy I’ve got things to do I’ve got a
day job I’m a husband I’m a father I’ve
got a walk the dog twice a day sometimes
I really ought to go for a run so you
know it’s great you know I could I could
be tearing up all of these unwritten
rules I could be challenging all of
these assumptions but that feels like a
lot of work I’ve got to find a time
somehow and then I’ve got to you know
bring myself to do it you know make a
change that’s it’s kind it’s kind of
intimidating and well it was and then I
started talking to people who convinced
me that actually maybe changing the
world wasn’t something that had to be
this kind of big change don’t have to
tear up the whole rule book all at once
so I need to introduce you to some other
people so this is Alex
he’s a graphic designer this is Holly
and she does charity fundraising this is
Tim and he works in professional
services this is Laura and she’s a
lawyer this is will and used to work in
software development this is Sam he
works for a major international
technology firm this is George and he is
a creative technologist and this is
Gavin and he’s a designer but that’s not
the whole story
that’s just their day jobs they all do
something else that is changing at least
their world if not a lot of other
people’s worlds so let’s do this again
so this is Alex and he publishes a
physical and a digital magazine
champions independent comics and digital
comics this is Holly and she runs a
fantastic cookery blog this is Tim and
he runs a website that is devoted to
inspiring advising and equipping would
be adventurous and he crowd funds a
grant to support people to go on their
adventures this is Laura and she runs a
cycle touring festival and she’s also
involved in a project that gets more
young people and particularly women into
adventure cycling this is Will and he is
a published children’s author this is
Sam and he runs a blog dedicated to
creative technology and arts and culture
and how those two things interface
George finds and climbs unclogged
mountains largely in Central Asia and
this is gap and he makes filmed does
animations gives talks on getting into
the creative industries for young people
he runs a shop with his wife it gave us
kind of the king of side projects and so
all of these people have helped me think
that actually maybe I can change the
world but on the side I can do it
part-time and that feels quite quite
liberating
in a way but you know I’ve still got a
still going to do something different
and
still going to kind of challenge myself
to get out of my my comfort zone to go
and do that so I need to tell you a
little bit more about me so I have a day
job I’m a lecturer in innovation and
entrepreneurship at the University it’s
my job to help people have ideas develop
those ideas and try and launch those
ideas there is a problem with that
though and it is that entrepreneurship
is absolute marmite to the population
some of my students think this word is
wonderful the idea of being an
entrepreneur is fantastic they’re going
to change the world they’re going to
absolutely embrace Steve’s advice
they’re going to make things for other
people they’re going to go out and do
good things and change the world but
other students look at that word and
they don’t quite self-identify with it
in the same way that it feels a bit
intimidating surely entrepreneurship is
for people who are I don’t know more
driven more talented not more creative
more dynamic better resourced but people
not like me and people talk themselves
out of one financial it quite quickly
because they think it’s some sort of
exclusive club or an elite sport that
only certain people complain and that’s
really worrying but it’s a real obstacle
for me and my job in I can work with
some people
in my university but others will hear
the e word and run and it’s not for them
and they want no part of it so I’ve
struggled with this for quite a period
of time and then I read a blog by an
entrepreneur I called David Hyatt he was
one of the founders of a Howie’s
clothing brand and he had this idea of
succeeding slowly how do you nibble away
at a project over time however however
big I have a grand that project might be
how do you just kind of pick at it and
get towards slow success rather than
fast failure which is a bit of an
entrepreneurial thing how do you do and
you do slow success and that idea really
resonated to me and that idea that a
side project was a way of referring to
this kind of activity
again really resonated to me and seem to
resonate for lots of the people that I
went to speak to and it transpired that
almost everybody I knew had a sign
project everybody had a little hustle
people were people were making money
people were practicing for a future
career that they hadn’t had yet people
were doing incredible things that you
just could not call a hobby it was it
would be rude to call them a hobby it
will be dismissive to call it a hobby
this was this was kind of powerful
powerful stuff but they were just
succeeding at this kind of slowly so
that for me was a breakthrough and
suddenly I could talk to students who
would have run away if I’d have kind of
badged my session entrepreneurship but I
said I’m gonna kind of help you of your
side projects and they’re like brilliant
I’ve got this idea I’m gonna do this so
I’m making this thing I’m crafting this
thing and I could really help and
actually the people that I was change
about this we’re coming back to me and
saying actually that was really
validating like I had kind of described
this as a hobby but now I can describe
it as a venture I can describe it as a
project and that gave them confidence
and then they could talk to other people
about it and they could find people and
meet people get advice it seemed to I’d
changed the language and I changed the
rules that suddenly people could look at
themselves and they could look at the
people around them in really different
ways and for me I was absolutely
dumbstruck by the quality of stuff that
my friends were doing that I had no idea
that they were because they hadn’t
talked about it in that way before now
some of you may recognize an
illustration like this so this entirely
self drawn diagram is demonstrates all
projects ever that any project can only
have two of the three things written at
a point of a triangle so if your project
is gonna be good and fast it’s gonna be
expensive if it’s fast and cheap it’s
gonna be bad
actually this probably applies to more
than just projects this is life really
isn’t it however if it’s good and cheap
then it’ll be slow and I think this is
what David Haier is talking about that
actually you want to do this well it’s
something that you care about but
because you’ve got a day job because
you’ve got family you actually you can’t
invest loads loads of time in it it’s
it’s expensive in time so actually you’d
have to resign yourself to the fact that
you’re gonna do it quite slowly but
that’s no bad thing so for me well I’m
talking about side projects I’m talking
about things that are good but things
that are cheap but they might just have
to be slow as a result of that all of
the people that I’ve shown you I’m sure
would love to spend more and more time
on their projects but they know that
actually there’s a real discipline to
doing that slow to doing that on the
sidelines and it means that they’re not
nested kind of rushing things but
they’re really working on them over time
and that I think makes a difference to
the quality so I had found something
quite interesting here now as an
academic obviously I thought I’d maybe I
need to do some research and in talking
to some of the people that had already
had a bit of a chat with we said why
don’t I start interviewing people about
their side projects so why do I spend my
weekends and evenings interviewing
people about their weekends and evenings
my side project has become other people
side projects which gets a little bit
better but I’m kind of quite happy with
that so the other thing I had to do
being an academic was I had to try and
draw a diagram so my diagram for some
projects is just there again apologies
for my artistic skills so I’ve
determined roughly this is a work in
progress
so I predicts have three key elements
the first of those is passion you’ve
really got to be into this you are
trying to do this on the sidelines over
a long period of time you are finding
little moments in your day to try and
spend time on this you’ve really got to
care about it because you’re gonna have
to be pretty disciplined about seizing
all those little moments to make this
happen
it’s a gaffe who mentioned earlier he
gets up two hours early every working
day to get his project time in he is
making animations he’s making films he’s
working on speeches he’s going to give
in those two hours before his working
day starts George spends his two weeks
annual leave every year going straight
out to the former Soviet republics
straight out to the mountains doing the
kind of expeditions that professionals
would have taken six weeks to do in
acclimatize properly he’s out there two
weeks done it back again I mean that I
mean that’s not a holiday anymore
bluntly so so passion makes a difference
and if you stop enjoying it stop it
actually if if you are not getting
enough out of it maybe you don’t do it
anymore or if you can’t bring yourself
to do it maybe you’re not interested
enough the second element is
professional competence almost everybody
depicted here brought some professional
skills into their side-project and
that’s got real value it means that the
project looks a bit slicker it moves a
bit quicker and it has a bit more
credibility to the the wider audience
other than just your maybe your friends
and family who will always tell you
that’s brilliant keep going so for
example Alex can design a beautiful
document which really rather helps when
you’re trying to make a magazine Sam
knows all about the creative sector so
that really helps when he comes to talk
to technologists about creativity and
the cultural sector
everybody is bringing something tim is a
really credible adventurer
so people are quite willing to listen to
him listen to his advice and take his
guidance on what kit to buy but I also
noticed two other things happening one
was that people were often using their
professional skills in a more creative
manner that they were using side
projects to do what they wasn’t as much
fun when they were in work doing it for
a client or doing it for their boss but
they were actively creatively expressing
themselves using those professional
skills but the other thing I noticed was
that people were also learning new
skills people were using side projects
to get better so Holly could already
cook
but what she was doing was learning how
to use social media she took a food
photography course to make the blog look
even better
so people were actually investing in
this and some of them were using it as a
stepping stone to other things in their
professional life as well
so the third part here is tomorrow’s
plan and this is all about the idea that
you are purposefully investing in this
being something bigger tomorrow or it
developing you into tomorrow so most
people have brought existing skills in
they were they were learning new things
as well so gap was he his main design
work is around kind of graphic design
and games design but he really wants to
get into filmmaking and animation but he
has to find a way to prove to his bosses
that he knows how to do those things
despite the fact he can’t do them in his
day job so he does them in his project
time Sam managed to move out of a job in
the creative sector into the technology
sector because his blog was all about
technology and he could convince those
recruiters that he cared enough so
people were making these stepping stones
and they were getting often unexpected
benefits so Laura does charity law and
she was finding that actually it made
her more credible with her clients
because she ran a charity herself so
there are some really interesting
connections not necessary planned
connections as to what you wanted to do
tomorrow but things that helped you
advance so these three elements I think
are really really critical to making a
good side project and lifting it out of
what might be a hobby or an amateur
activity into something that is really
seriously credible but there is a fourth
element that is not on my diagram and
that fourth element separates side
projects from successful business
ventures and that item is customers
because if you couldn’t do all of that
and you can also find a customer who
will pay you enough often enough to do
that thing you have a business if you
can’t find anyone to pay you for it you
have an expensive side project
now I will add one word of warning here
that sometimes when you go looking for
customers you end up walking away from
the thing that is actually interested
you in the first place there are plenty
of business owners that there are plenty
of entrepreneurs out there who have
ended up doing something they’re neither
very good at or enjoy but they did find
a customer now I’ll leave that to you
it’s whether you thing that is a
situation that you’re willing to
tolerate but painted a bit of a picture
so let’s distill some advice out of all
of these side projects if I’ve convinced
you that maybe you want to do some side
projects find something that you love to
do find something that it’s easier to do
than not do you know what is genuinely
gonna get you a bed in the morning so
what’s gonna get you spending your
weekends and your holidays doing this
stuff Alex is finding time for his
magazines during his commute Holly used
her maternity leave to launch the blog
and then a second maternity leave to
improve the blog I’m not sure that’s the
reason for the maternity leave but she
used it effectively you have to make the
time you have to carve it out you have
to get it from all these sort of small
places in your life to dedicate enough
time to do it you have to tell people
about it that really makes the
difference it transforms it it was when
will who you saw earlier told his wife
that he was been scribbling on the train
writing things and she sent him to a
writers group and only at that point did
he take it seriously and he’s now a
full-time children’s author follow the
people you admire look at who’s doing it
well look at who’s doing what you want
to do really well and cents checks that
you want to do it too
and one final insight sometimes making
that step feels really difficult and you
build it up in your mind and it’s you’re
committing to something how about
actually you’ve already started it and
you started it the first time you had
half an idea about it and by that logic
you’ve already started dozens and dozens
and dozens of things you just not
finished them
and maybe it’s easier to continue
something than to start something so my
advice to you is to think actually maybe
you could be a part-time entrepreneur
maybe you can rewrite your own rules
about who you are what you do and what
other people think you do and maybe you
could start something amazing as a side
project thank you very much
[Applause]
you
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