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A Year in Review – and my Goals for 2013

I’ve been an avid goal setter for years – and I believe it’s one of the most important things that a successful person can do. In this post I’ll share my goals for the year ahead – and review how I did on my goals for last year.

Why do I bother?

Well there’s a few reasons:

  1. It’s fun: Call me  geek, but there’s few things that get me excited more than planning the awesome things you’re going to achieve in the next year
  2. It’s selfish: I know that by posting my goals up here – it will make me publically accountable for doing them – hence increasing my likelihood of doing them
  3. Inspiration: Hopefully some of these goals will inspire you to set similar goals (if you have goals, would love you to share them in the comments below)

It was just over a year ago I sat here making goals and plans for 2012. I knew it was going to be a big year for me, and as an avid goal setter – I set goals that would make 2012 a year I achieved more than any other.

Well, how did I do?  Reviewing my goals:

 Goal 1: Post 2 Blog Posts a Week and have 10k blog subscribers

 Result: FAIL!

I did post 2 articles a week for a while, and one of my articles got onto the front of Hacker News – resulting in this site crashing due to too much inbound traffic. An interesting experience.

But I’ve just been too goddamn busy with my new startup to post twice a week, which leads me niely onto the next goal I set…..

Goal 2: Be running my own Startup

Result: SMASHED IT!

In September last year I quit my job as Head of Marketing for a very cool Social Gaming startup, to co-found my own startup. I write this as co-founder of a very exciting startup that has just gone through a startup accelerator, has raised some investment and is about to close it’s first significant funding round. It’s been all consuming, but great so far 🙂

Goal 3: Debt free and £100k in net worth

Result: Fail!

So I smashed through most of my college debt this year – but haven’t quite cleared it yet. So defo carrying this forward to 2013!

Goal 4: Do more with less

Result: Success, almost

Ok on refection this was a bit of a fluffy goal. I wanted to make better use of my time with clearer focus and be more thoughtful to people around me.

Main thing I learnt is that I believe can only be really great at one thing at a time. Which takes focus. Hence why we’re doing great with the startup – but things like this blog has suffered a little.

Goal 5: Become a Fish

Result: Fail.

I wanted to learn to swim well – I totally flunked this and I still swim like a brick. Carrying forward to 2013!

Goal 6: Coding

Result: Fail!

Completed a few courses on Codeacademy, but didn’t continue. I’d like to learn this sometime – but I just don’t see this as a priority right now. Will come back to this sometime.

Goal 7: Speak at a Conference

 Result: Success

Spoke at quite a few event, and was the lead organizer and speaker at Startup Weekend in Newcastle, which was a great success & I’ve started teaching for the first time in General Assembly, which is cool.

 Overall – 2012

I really learnt that, to do achieve something hard –you need to give it your full 150% focus. So although I didn’t achieve some things on my list (blogging, swimming etc) – I achieved the most important one: my startup.

2013 will have fewer – more focused goals.

So forward to 2013 – My Goals!

Goal 1: Future Ad Labs

As you know, last year I quit my job and co-founded a new startup. We’re launching in early 2013 and making the successful and profitable is my no.1 goal for the next year.

Hard work ahead, but it’s going to lots of fun 🙂

I have a few more goals listed below – but this getting this rocket off the ground will have 150% of my focus

Goal 2: Swim 50 lengths

Last year I failed in my attempt to learn how to swim well (I’m a sinker at the mo 😉 – this is the year. I run marathons, cycle hundreds of miles & play almost every other sport but I suck at swimming! This must be changed! And will do so by swimming 50 lengths of front crawl by the end of the year.

Goals 3: Debt Free

Yes – Still paying off my college loans, I managed to pay back over £20k last year which I think is pretty impressive. I’m so damn close to having these all paid off, and when I do I’ll feel like the richest guy in town J

That’s it – 3 goals, a lot fewer goals than last year when I had 7 – but super focused. Looking forward to what the year will bring!

Your Turn: What are your goals for 2013? Share them in the comments below!

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Barry Shaverin: Founder and CEO of Zip World London
Barry Shaverin: Founder and CEO of Zip World London

Most obviously, Howard is great marketer. He knew which channels we should try, when we should try them, how we analyse and how to react to them….as a result we sold a lot of tickets. Which was obviously great for us.

Joel Burgess, Founder and CEO Nutrifix
Joel Burgess, Founder and CEO Nutrifix

Escape Velocity was a game changer for us. The biggest impact on us was that it gave us clear direction of what we need to achieve. It has really massively impacted on my life and given me the clear direction and the sort of tools to manage my business.

Julien Deslangles-Blanch, Regional Director, UK & Germany at General Assembly
Julien Deslangles-Blanch, Regional Director, UK & Germany at General Assembly

Howard has been with us in the past five years and has taught thousands of students. I can say he is a fantastic instructor. Honestly, students just love him.

Jakob Modéer, Entrepreneurship Program Manager, Swisscontact Worldwide
Jakob Modéer, Entrepreneurship Program Manager, Swisscontact Worldwide

Our program consists of Macedonia's top performing startups (some already doing millions in revenue $). When I asked the teams who they would like me to bring in to coach them on growth, Howard's name was proposed. Howard came in and made an overwhelming positive impact and has helped our entrepreneurs grow their businesses to the next level.

Jennifer Maerz, Editor in Chief & Program Chair, The Lean Startup Co
Jennifer Maerz, Editor in Chief & Program Chair, The Lean Startup Co

Howard gave a fantastic keynote at Lean Startup Summit London 2017. His talk blended strategic thinking with practical takeaways that engaged the audience throughout.

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