Select Page

How the Dynamite Circle has helped me in business and life

by | Jul 25, 2016 | General

These days my office looks like this some days, thanks in part to the DCI am not a natural participator.

I’m an introvert* and my personality type means I prefer just focusing in and doing something myself rather than collaborating with others… Fortunately I grew up with two older sisters who made sure I didn’t turn out entirely asocial.

Put me in a team for a project and I’ll be comfortable working together. I’ll even happily take the lead—though mostly out of impatience for action to be taken!

When it comes to online communities, I’m not a big contributor.

I don’t post YouTube comments, I barely interact with friends and family on Facebook, and though I’m technically a member of dozens of online communities, there are only two or three which I would say I’m an “active member” of.

Since joining the Dynamite Circle three years ago I have posted over 1,000 replies in the forums and started almost 100 discussions myself. I am not just an active member, but actually help out on a voluntary basis as part of the “leadership team”. This month I travelled internationally to attend one of their in-person events.

And here I am, writing a blog post—my first in years**—simply because I love and value this community and want to do whatever I can to help it continue to grow and maintain its incredibly high quality.

So why has the DC had such an impact on my life, when I’m not a natural participator and all those other sites I’m a “member” of have failed to draw me in?

At the DC event in Barcelona this summer

At the DC event in Barcelona this summer

Before we get into that, I should explain how I came to join the DC in the first place…

(more…)

Surely you will be saved one day

by | May 11, 2013 | General

I wrote this post at the end of 2012, and then hesitated over whether to publish it. It felt too honest and raw and I don’t normally blog about my business or entrepreneurship. But I’ve drawn strength from other startup founders sharing their experiences fighting depression (e.g. 1 2 3 4) so I’m sharing the following in case it might help someone else.

Yesterday’s return of Hyperbole and a Half prompted me to finally hit publish.

Nutshell background: I run a small music education tech startup. I’m not sure you need to know much more than that.

This year has been tough. Good, awesome, exciting, and in many ways successful… But not easy.

Huge ups and downs in my work sending me emotionally to my lowest points ever, but also some of my highest, and some interesting diversions along the way. (more…)

Never be afraid to bootstrap your musical education

by | Aug 8, 2011 | Music

The startup world loves “bootstrapping”: the idea that you get a business off the ground not by seeking investment and outside funding, but by starting to sell products or services and then gradually growing the business using your own income. It comes from the expression “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” and just means that you’re using whatever resources you have to hand to get yourself going. I’m a bootstrapping fan myself; it’s how I’m running Easy Ear Training so far.

Lately I’ve been thinking about bootstrapping in music learning, and specifically ear training.

There may not be an obvious connection to you, but if you’re a musician you’re probably doing this to some extent already – just without realising it!

There’s a huge wealth of history to music tuition, and no shortage of teachers to tell you “this is how you learn X”, “this is how you practise Y”. And I wouldn’t for a second want to dismiss the value there.

But there’s another way too. This is the attitude of bootstrapping. Of “do whatever works”.

Bootstrapping your music education

If you want to be a concert pianist or reach the top of the profession in your chosen instrument or talent, you need to be careful. You don’t want to learn the wrong fingering for a scale, or develop poor embouchure early on – because the more you practise the wrong method, the more ingrained it becomes, and the harder you have to work later on to fix it. As a saying I recently came across puts it: “Practise makes permanent”.

That suggests that a “do whatever works” mentality is wrong-headed, and will only cause you pain later on.

But I think that attitude is far too motivated by fear. (more…)