“I go to Imperial College”, “I’m applying to MIT”, “I play bowls for my county”, or “I’m a pro-series gamer” means nothing to the person who doesn’t know about the world’s top universities, what a county is, or anything about the pro-series.

To the amateur gamer who trawls through gaming sites to find out the latest news about cybergames tournaments and then spends five hours a day practising, being a ‘pro-series gamer’ is a big deal.  To someone like me, who doesn’t understand games or the games industry, I could be two feet within the biggest stars in that industry and not look twice at them.

It doesn’t matter how successful you think yourself to be, what you’ve done or how much effort it took for you to get there, other people won’t be able to appreciate it if they don’t get the context.  So, share the context with them!  Share what it is that makes you think you’re a success, share about all the great things you’ve done and share how much effort it took for you to get there.  Share your life with others - that is true success.

They’re cheap.  They don’t always look very pretty.  You can even get some with a yellow hue!  (And even if you don’t, but you leave them for too long, they develop a yellow hue of their own.)  Richard Branson swears by them - he used his to research for all his published books.  And Dave Allen recommends them.  (Or he would if Palm Pilots weren’t invented…)

Notebooks.  Pieces of paper bound together for you to write on.  What should you write?

Everything you say you’ll do.  In order to be your word, you have to know what you gave your word to.  The more games you are playing in life, the more things you will be giving your word to.  Want to take on more and complete it all with integrity?  Give your word, write it down, do it.

Planning structures for fulfillment.  Have a project in mind?  Jot down the end goal, brainstorm all the tasks that would need to be completed between now and the end goal, set dates by when the tasks will be completed and you have a structure for fulfillment.

Making lists.  Shopping lists, to-do lists, people to call, emails to type, etc.  Helps you batch like-activities together and saves time.

Brain dump.  Anything that’s on your mind doesn’t exist until it’s down on paper - get it down on paper and make it real.  Once it’s down, it frees your mind to think about something else.

Six cents each at the Big W sales at the start of the school year.  Get one.  It’s worth it.

Uni, business, studies, networking- like clockwork, life never seems to stop moving.  Rushing through breakfast to get to lectures on time, quick conversations with friends before rushing off to the next meeting on time, following to-do lists, making sure weekly objectives are met; it sometimes seems like life just keeps going and going!

But then it starts snowing.  Suddenly, the tubes are all part delayed or suspended, the buses aren’t running and drivers actually slow down when you’re walking on the middle of the street.  Lecturers can’t get into uni, 20% of your peers show up for the first lecture, the rest of the day’s classes are cancelled and you’re given the liberty to do what you want.  What do you do?

Structures of fulfillment fly out the window and minutes drags into hours as you don’t do what you say you’ll do.  A committee meeting flows on for 3 hours… and then 4 hours… and then 5 hours…  And ends with a massive snowball fight in the park with friends, followed by the building of a massive snow apple.

So it snows and you have a great day hanging out with your friends.  Don’t beat yourself up.

You’re a student entrepreneur.  You work your arse off.  Whether your goal is the dollar, because you never want to work for anyone else or you want to change the world.  Have a break sometimes.  Relax.  Enjoy your friends, have fun.  Smile!

Knowledge junkies are people who love to learn and accrue knowldge.  They’ve read all the books, registered to all the web communities, heard of all the big names, and listened to countless talks.  They are hungry for more knowledge in a certain area, and they can’t learn enough about a topic.  “What’s the correct way to do this?”, ” Who originally thought of that?” or “I want to know that!” - you get the picture.

But that doesn’t translate into action.

While it’s good to prepare as much as you can before you take something on, you’re never going to know all the facts before you do something.  So be a knowledge junkie - learn as much as you can about everything that you are interested in; yet use that knowledge - take the leap and create!