Telling people your plans too early doesn't make you less likely to achieve them. I know when I tell people what I plan to do the response I get most of the time is that I have to go back to the drawing board and find a better idea, that I still have a lot of work to do, and that the world doesn't need what I want to make.
Hardly endorphin-inducing excitement from the congratulations of well-wishers.
What concerns me even more though is premature over-exposure to a project. If a project tries to attract and and foster too-large a community from the beginning, you lose a lot of people who have had a so-so experience, because the project isn't developed enough yet to support them all.
However, if a community is built from the ground up, person by person, organically, who then go on and advocate on behalf of the community, while the project continues to be developed and improved upon, that'a a much more sustainable model for growth.
When I was touring schools with Geoffrey Rush and we were answering questions in front of hundreds of kids, lots of them said, "I really what to be an actor".
Geoffrey Rush started working in the theatre at 20. He won his first Oscar and international acclaim when he was 45. He trained for 25 years before he was internationally recognised at the highest level.
If you want to be an actor, then be prepared to work for 25 years and not get an Oscar. If you're happy with the thought of that, then be an actor, otherwise don't.
Similarly, if you want to be an entrepreneur, be prepared to work 24/7 and have no life for many, many years, living on minimum wage. If you're happy with the thought of that, then be an entrepreneur, otherwise, don't.
From August 2009 to August 2011, I was the "Founder and Director of Robogals Global". Before that, my title was "Founder", and we hadn't created "Robogals Global" yet, so I was just the "Founder of Robogals".
In September 2010, our first "Australia and New Zealand Director" of Robogals took her post and subsequently in February 2011, our first "United Kingdom and European Director" took her post.
The rest of my Global team had the title Secretary, or X Manager. I didn't think too much about the titles. As long as people were doing their roles, doing a good job and we were achieving results, then I was confident they were content with their roles.
My "Organisational Development Manager" managed the IT Manager, Science Challenge Manager, the Secretary, the SINE Event Managers (for Australia, UK and the USA), was in charge of documenting all our processes and did off jobs here and there to make sure the organisation ran smoothly.
Organisational Development Manager is a pretty cool title, because whenever I look at it, I think the person either (a) is a glorified sales manager, or (b) has a really awesome job because they get to assess the company and suggest improvements.
In August 2011, my organisational development manager approach me and said he wanted a different title to better reflect all the work he does, and so we came up with the title "Operations Director" for him, and "Executive Director" for me.
Since then, there has been an added level of ownership towards Robogals in his enthusiasm and commitment.
I think the lesson to learn from that is that the little things like someone's official title within an organisation matter and have more of an impact than you think.
Life gets busy. You say 'yes' to things to fill up your life and your time and pretty soon your days are filled with back-to-back commitments. And life becomes an endless chain of doing.
You get better at what you're doing, because you're doing it all the time - practising, and so improving incrementally.
Going on break enables you to breakaway from the day-to-day busyness and assess yourself for how you're actually doing. And this allows you to step back and come up with ideas that you didn't see before, that don't just incrementally improve your performance, but causes a paradigm shift.
For example, last year, I ran around and gave 140 speeches, studied at uni, worked on my final year project and worked on Robogals.
I didn't have time to do all of that, let alone sleep or assess how well I was doing at all my commitments.
Now that I've been having a planned break for a week, I'm reassessing everything I do, and I'm so excited about my insights into my life.
For example, I was just going around and speaking continuously last year, with no time to assess how I was doing. But during my break, I realised that there was a whole another dimension to my speech-giving that I'd never tapped or realised before. By getting that breakthrough, I now know something that can fundamentally shift my speech-making abilities. And I know how I can systematically improve.
This was an area I didn't know how to work on before. But going on break makes you assess everything in your life, and good things come out of that.
I also had all these plans for what I would do after my break. But by taking time off, I realised that doing all those plans and projects wouldn't make me content, that I was doing some of the projects for the wrong reasons, and that what I really need to do is just focus on my core projects and bring more balance into my life by hanging out with my friends.
So go on a break, reassess, and come back with more clarify, focus and energy. Bring back a plan that causes a paradigm shift in what you're doing.
What are your priorities? Work? Family? Relationship? Start-up? 9-5? Non-profit? Volunteering? Watching television? Reading blogs? Eating? Meetings?
Don't kid yourself on your priorities. Where you spend your time determines your priorities; where you focus most of your time is your first priority.
Forbes named me a world's top 50 woman in tech & 30 Under 30. I founded Robogals and Aipoly and was Young Australian of the Year 2012. Currently working on robotics company Aubot. I'm the youngest Member of the Order of Australia (AM) and I give speeches around the world.
I tweet @maritacheng and I'm on Facebook.
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