When I first started Robogals, the first thing I did was tell people about my vision and ask that they sign on to join.

From that, I got a team of 3 female science and engineering students - Kelly Chiu, Ann Chee Lim and Vi Vu.

From week one, I delegated roles for us all.  Kelly was the secretary, and Ann Chee and Vi would work on the robotics lessons and competition.  My job was to call schools (because no one else wanted to do that), recruit more people, and just make the whole thing work.

Then I found more people to help build the vision.  Through a friend of a friend, I found Adam Falconer, who designed the Robogals logo and then stayed on to be the Creative Design Manager.

I found Daniel Huang, a friend of mine who lived with me at Janet Clarke Hall, my halls of residence, to be the treasurer.  Mark Parncutt took on the role of Sponsorship Manager.  He found Felicity Zhou to help him out…

I just kept telling people about Robogals.  If they were interested, then I would find out a skill they wanted to learn, then assign them tasks so they could develop those skills.

This created a whole community of people working on Robogals in the first few months.  That was inspiring to me, because it meant that even while I was working on Robogals, other people were as well, and the impact of our work was compounded.

After 2.5 months, I left Melbourne to move to London for 10 months.  I always knew that I was going to do this, so it had been arranged from week 1 that Kelly would take on the role of President when I left.

Fast forward a year later, and I'd expanded Robogals to 5 chapters in Australia, and 1 chapter in the UK.  That was really exciting, and I felt so happy!

Then I expanded Robogals to a further 5 chapters in the UK.  That was even more exciting, but also really stressful.

By that stage, Robogals had 11 chapters in Australia and the UK.  There were all these people - all these female engineering students working on Robogals and working on getting more girls interested in engineering.

I was really busy - trying to manage it all, keep up with people from all over the world, develop new projects, while figuring out a system so that we could compartmentalise roles and create processes, so that the things I was doing could be replicated.  It was really hard, and it took a lot of time, but the thing that kept me going, was knowing there were hundreds of people all over the world, working towards our vision.  I didn't want to let them down.  I wanted them to feel proud to be a part of the organisation and the community.  And so I just worked my hardest in order to create that.

Creating stuff is hard.  If you build a community around what you're doing though, the thought of their energy and spirit will keep you going.

One of the biggest muscles to exercise shouldn't be getting yourself motivated to not procrasinate.  Sure, procrastination is a big issue, and eventually, the days turn into weeks, turn into months, turn into years, and you still haven't done anything.

But I find that procrastination really isn't that much of a deterrent to people.  When push comes to shove, people submit their homework assignments, get their forms in, and make sure they organise their priorities to spend time with friends.

Hence I think the muscle that needs exercising is always giving up the thought of, "what are other people thinking about me?"

Will they think I'm a loser because I want to start this company?

Will they think I've gone crazy if I tell them I'm not going to apply to grad jobs?

Will they think I'm stupid if I don't finish my assignment completely?

Will they laugh at me if I fail?

Will they think I have too much time on my hands because I do this?

Will they say, "oh John's not serious.  He's never been serious about anything in his life."?

Will they mock and tease me?

Will they talk about me behind my back, while shaking their heads?

Because doing homework, submitting forms and spending time with friends are all the norm.  But you going out there and writing your books, starting your cupcake business or inventing a time-saving device are not.  Stop worrying about what other people think about you and you will procrastinate less on the things that matter.

In Robogals, I always looked for the hardest possible thing to do.  And then I did it.

Because I knew that if I could achieve that, then I would attain a level of confidence in my abilities that would allow me to take on even bigger, more ambitious activities in the future.

I didn't know what I would be like at the end of the project.  I just knew I would be a better version of me.

If you're over your university studies.

If you're not looking forward to taking a week out of your life and attending a conference.

If you don't want to attend the gala dinner.

Relate it to what you love.  Or try and figure out another way of looking at the situation that empowers you.

For example, finishing your university studies makes it easier for you to get a visa to go and live in another country.  Going to the conference is about doing market research for your company.  Going to the gala dinner is about meeting another 10 people and making a new friend.

Create a game for yourself, where you're constantly coming up with new contexts until one sticks.

I write all my blog posts on scrap paper.

I printed so many speeches last year that I have all these A4 scrap sheets of paper that just have printing on the one side.

I hate to waste.

And so I try to use all my scrap paper.

Writing my blogs on scrap paper takes the pressure off me to write brilliant blog posts and instead just gives me the freedom to freestyle.

I can always edit later.

And if I had to make myself only write brilliant things, then I would never get any work done ever.

Freestyle leads to creativity though and brilliance stems from creativity.

Give yourself the freedom to explore without pressure, and you may stumble upon brilliance.

And even if you don't achieve brilliance, at least you'll have done something.