Guest.
This week's #founderhacks are from our special guest contributor Rich Robinson.
Rich is a serial entrepreneur, super connector, speaker and soon-to-be author. He also lectures at Peking University’s Guanghua Int’l MBA programme where he teaches entrepreneurship.
Seen.
Calm Mind
This week we heard a story about meditation.
We've heard of many founders struggling to engage with meditation. However, this week's story was about a founder who persevered.
They started with a long programme, including a silent retreat for 10 days. But it was too much. They didn't find it delivered what they were looking for.
A shorter course however, opened the door to a long term commitment, and a host of benefits to focus, mood regulation and choiceful attention.
This reminded us that there are many ways to get to where you want to be. Maybe persevering with what interests you until you find your own way of making it work for you, can get you there?
Read.
Mind the Gap
AI Super Powers by Dr. Kai-Fu Lee may give a taste of the world to come.
Whilst a lot is written on the impact of artificial intelligence, it's the stories of how it's being applied that open our eyes. In Dr. Lee's native China, many companies lack the presumptions of their counterparts in the West about how long things are supposed to take, or how difficult certain things are to achieve.
So they're leveraging AI to make happen what they think should happen.
Whether an iPhone delivered in 7 minutes from order to the knock at the door, or a mortgage approved in seconds rather than weeks, it's clear that the tidal wave of AI will soon crash onto our shores, wherever you may be.
It may not be up to us how and when we engage with the coming AI revolution, because it may well be that it's already upon us.
Learned.
Hive Mind
One of us is writing a book. It's not Ben, Antony or Alex.
The ambitious title - "At the Speed of China" - set a challenge. How do you write a book fast?
Originally envisaging weeks chained to a keyboard, the author had a different thought. Instead, to write the book by engaging outwards, rather than inwards.
As the volume of creativity in the world grows ever more exponentially, is the true act of creation the discovery of narrative? Is the modern act of creation inevitably an act of curation?
This made us reflect that maybe the same is true of leadership. Perhaps once the role of leader was to know and tell. Perhaps now the role of leader is to share stories about not knowing, that inspire others to envisage different futures.
What's your story?
And finally.
Hosting Richard on this week's Founderhacks was rather fun.
Richard has spent the many months of Covid lockdown in Bali. Finding himself there coincidentally at the outset, and with many offers of accommodation from tourist-bereft hoteliers, he decided rather than trying to get home he would bring his family there too.
It was rather beautiful and looked warm and sunny. Alex, Ben and Antony, gazing out on London's chilly March drizzle, wondered if they had missed a trick.
Every day offers learning, if you choose to notice.
Don’t forget to check out the accompanying podcast version of #founderhacks for a tantalising live experience of team atomex!
