I wish I knew…

Will CritchlowFounder, Distilled (2005-)

Alumnus, St. Aidan’s (1991-1998)

This is my best friend – we met playing basketball at St. Aidan’s in 1991

This is my brother – he left St. Aidan’s in 2001

Somehow, we’ve grown a decent business

It wasn’t always this way – back in 1997, we made £800 and got sued.

In 2005, we made a go of it – we made £36,000 in revenue and learnt the value of getting things in writing

Overnight success takes years

It’s really easy to stop here

We didn’t make a business plan – we got talked into college, then “sensible jobs” – which earnt significantly more than the business initially

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ianvisits/5458806574/

Can I have some advice please?

Stop worrying what others’ think. Things don’t always work out great for the cool kids

Hang out with people who are smarter than you: you will come to resemble the people you hang out with

Business friends rock – you don’t get a network at “networking events”. Just like you don’t make friends at “friend events”

No, you can’t have a pony – you aren’t owed anything. Make your own way. Lead without permission

Idea unashamedly from: http://media.b-list.org/presentations/2008/djangocon/reusable_apps.pdf

Not yours

Curiosity is your best asset – I learnt Python and Django to (help) build our video store. It made $15,000 in its first month

NBED How to get hired – example of EdAnyone can get hired – don’t scatter-gun CVs. Choose where you want to work and impress the hell out of them

A guy younger than you lot made this to

impress us

“For everyone who comes in here

talking about the team they are going

to hire, there are three others out

there that did hire people”http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2011/01/28/on-leadership-teams-success-happiness/

Read these books: http://dis.tl/j53cJg http://dis.tl/kgbEqr http://dis.tl/mqxG0j

“You need to make cold calls every

single day otherwise your business will wither and die”.

We didn’t. It didn’t.

Once you leave college, it’s not cheating any more – attribute sources, but copy away. Give yourself unfair advantages

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2011/05/whats-high-school-for.html

From here on out, do something you love – if you don’t, you’re “doing it wrong”

I hope I’ve given you some useful advice. Remember as you make your way into the world that most people don’t know what they’re doing

“Never compare your inside to

someone else’s outside”

Director> will.critchlow@distilled.co.uk> twitter.com/WillCritchlowDistilled

> www.distilled.co.uk

Will Critchlow, Head of R&D

Feel free to give me a shout with any questions or for any further advice you need.

Credits

Bothsidesofthetable.comFailblog.orgmedia.b-list.org/presentations/2008/djangocon/reusable_apps.pdfSethgodin.typepad.comwww.flickr.com/photos/ianvisits/5458806574/