Those close to me know I have many ideas – and when I say many, I mean many. So much so that it’s the topic of many jokes between family and friends. We could be talking about the most mundane things – but somewhere in the middle of these conversations something always happens. My eyes widen, my voice goes up, and suddenly there’s not enough oxygen in the room for everyone (mainly because I’ve been sucking it all up during my 10 minute speech full of run-on sentences).
Not all of my ideas are good (nor do they even make sense at times), but when they’re good, they’re good. Unfortunately, I’ve been guilty of letting my ideas live in my head. No notes, no research, no conversations – not one avenue pursued. Slowly but surely, my ideas died a slow, painful death.
Learning from my mistakes, I made a pact to myself 4 years ago that I would be more organized and that I would network, connect, and learn from the best. Since then, my new found outlook has enabled me to meet and work with the most amazing and inspirational people in Toronto. We did some pretty great things – attended TEDxToronto, raised 18K for The Remix Project, organized a public art installation to raise awareness for Easter Seals, and published in Elle Canada to name a few.
I’m a true believer in the power of collaboration. The success that I’ve found in the past wasn’t due to one person – it was due to the joint effort of a group of people that happened to be just as passionate as me. Startup Weekend is a perfect example of the strength of collaboration. It is a global network of leaders and entrepreneurs that come together to inspire communities by challenging them to turn an idea into reality within 54 hours (no pressure). Check out the documentary short film below which follows two teams from Startup Weekend Toronto competing with each other for the ultimate prize of turning their ideas into reality.
Kudos to Vinny Verma and the entire Eighteen Eighty team for the stellar video.
Startup Weekend – Trailer from Eighteen Eighty on Vimeo.
*Image from Ummah Films
