The journey ain’t easy. Get used to it

This entrepreneurship stuff is not easy. Doors will be closed in your face. Money will run out. Money will be hard to find. People will talk behind your back. Some will undermine you and your hustle. Expectations are extremely high. Failure is even higher. You’re forced to learn many skills yesterday so you can deal with today. You learn to comfort hunger. Working hours are 24/7. When you sleep the brain

continues working. You will get doubted. You will doubt yourself. Deals get made and also get dropped faster than the hectic process you went through to get them approved.

 

“Stop whining, start hustling.” – Gary Vaynerchuk

It’s not easy. It’s worse for young upcoming entrepreneurs like us. We learn that our ideas are just that, ideas!!!

JUST DO IT

As challenging as it may get JUST DO IT. Have a reason for doing it. When all fails let your drive push you through. Let your hunger push you through. Always remember why you started. Believe in yourself. Believe in your idea. Believe in your team.

FOCUS
The journey isn’t straight but remain focused. The distractions are plenty. STAY FOCUSED.

FAIL. LEARN. FAIL. LEARN. LEARN. FAIL. LEARN. APPLY. SUCCEED. REPEAT!!!

Dynamites do come in small, slim, powerful, well-designed ASUS packages

There are slim laptops and then there is the Asus ZenBook 3 Deluxe, also known as the UX490. A well designed and high performance laptop from Asus. It follows after the ZenBook 3 which was slightly much smaller in length, screen size and weighed around 910g as compared to the 1.1kg of the ZenBook 3 Deluxe.

I had the opportunity to unbox it and must say I’m pretty impressed by the packaging. It kind makes you feel special and makes you feel like you’re about to unwrap an amazing designer product, which is exactly what you get. Once unboxed you are met with this beautiful super slim royal blue aluminum laptop which has a touch of gold trimming. It comes with the Type-C USB port. It also has a very nicely designed stylish pocket case for the laptop. No one would guess that you’re carrying a laptop

 

What I like about the newly launched ZenBook 3 Deluxe is its amazing performance. Under the UX490 hood you will find the Intel 8^th Generation Core i7 (some laptops have the Intel 8^th Generation Core i5) processor with 16GB 2133MHz LPDDR3 RAM and a spacious high performance 1TB PCI Express SSD for storing all your important stuff. The battery will last you a good 9 hours after charging depending on your usage. I’m a heavy consumer so it was a bit less. Luckily the Type-C battery charger allows the ZenBook to charge a lot faster. I found the keypads to be very nice and comfortable to use with a nice good feel to the fingers. I had to test the sound and must admit that the quad-audio sound system is good.

The Asus ZenBook 3 Deluxe laptop is a great laptop. I was however not so impressed by the following:

1. The quality of the webcam isn’t so good
2. The  surface of the laptop kept heating up fast when placed on my lap
3. I wish it had a touch screen. It really looks like it has a touch screen but exactly doesnt

The ZenBook 3 Deluxe laptop is a great laptop for that snazzy professional who wants to not only do their everyday work with ease but also with style while multitasking without experiencing any lags on performance. The asking prices range from R20 000 to R40 000 so YES most students won’t afford such a laptop.

 

Great Apps for Transport and Accommodation

List of some #Apps to use for travel

#Uber and #taxify are great for when you don’t want to use your car. Long distance become costly. Uber now has #UberEats so you can order food and get it ubered to you

#Waze is great for finding alternative routes and shortcuts. It can also help identify areas where there is traffic and accidents so you can avoid them

#Gautrain app is good for checking schedules. They says that they are working on a feature that will allow you to top your card on the go. If you prefer taking the MetroRail then #GoMetro

Flapp ( used to be called Travelstart) is great for finding flights on different airlines. Can also help you get cheaper flights

Airbnb is great for finding accommodation at lower costs. You can use the app to find accommodation for your next

The nice thing about Uber and Airbnb is that you can share your code with people that are in your circle so they can get a discount when they sign-up for the very first time.

What are your favorite transport apps?

Thoughts to text…

Shuuuuuu haven’t been blogging in like forever. While I was away from my blog a lot of things have happened in my life. There have been a few downs here and there and plenty of ups here and there…and there. There has also been a lot of learning and growth within my life. I can not ignore all the failures that I was experienced. Kinda. Greatful for everything that has been happening 

  

Geekulcha has grown. It has been amazing times within the GK world. We have managed to reach new levels, seriously hoping that we can keep up with our own growth and expansion. At the end of the day the heart beat of Geekulcha will also be the community. You can join the Geek movement and be part of the havoc by signing up here join.geekulcha.com. Apparently Geekulcha is still warming up. Havoc and disruption is about to happen

It’s amazing what TV and media attention can do to the growth of an individual and also for a team. We have been all over the news in the past few months. “Fame and exposure is great but it’s always key to never lose focus on the main goal” she said

I would like to believe that I’m back to blogging. Hope I can keep up. Don’t expect scheduled blog posts. I plan on blogging as I feel and when time allows. I’ll focus on things that interest me. Things like entrepreneurship, technology and gadgets, life and the world of running your own business. I will also feature now and again some of the cool people that I come across each and everyday.   

Do subscribe to my blog if you like it. Share it on social media if you see fit and let’s connect on Twitter. I’m here @4otune and my crew is here @geekulcha

WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH YOUR LIFE? let me know

Geekulcha, the tech platform for IT students

The Geekulcha crew after the Ericsson Working Life Hackathon

There has been a few articles written about Geekulcha with the aim of explaining what it does and also to give it some spotlight to shine(everyone needs some little bit of fame). However there still remains a lot of questions about this Geekulcha thingy. People want to know what it is, what it does and my favourite questions HOW DO WE JOIN GEEKULCHA? Take a seat and let me break it down (sips coffee from the cool Geekulcha mug)

The name Geekulcha is a fusion of Geek and Culture. Yes you got it right, we turned Culture into KULCHA, pretty cool don’t you think?. Why did we do that? Well why not? Let’s practice, Geek Culture, Geek Culture, Geek Kulcha, Geek Kulcha, Geekulcha, Geekulcha. There you go. Practice makes perfect, so they said in class.

Geekulcha is dynamic and vibrant tech startup that focuses mainly on IT students, young IT professionals and basically anyone who is interested in the exciting world of Technology. We want to establish ourselves as the tech hub that the youth can call their own and use to learn more about IT, connect with other students, share knowledge through our platform, collaborate on projects, attended varies tech events to see what the tech world is about and also get training & exposure from industry leaders and the different tech companies that we work with and plan to work with. Shoooo, that was a mouth full

The young do not know enough to be prudent, and therefore they attempt the impossible, and achieve it, generation after generation.
— Pearl S. Buck

All of the above are just a build up to our main goal which is seeing our Geekulcha community put their skills to work. We all know the reality within our country. There is a huge unemployment rate. Students get to graduate but end up sitting at home with the right skills but not enough opportunities to test and improve their skills by putting them to work. Not cool at all. Companies are complaining that the graduates are not up to industry standards, who is fooling who?. That’s a debate we prefer to leave between the different academic institutions and the ICT industry. Back to classs…

Awesome tech minds during the Random Hacks Of Kindness (RHOK) hackathon

We have over the past year introduced a reasonable number of students to the mobile world and interesting a good number of them end up getting hired. We intended to increase that number with the help of different partners and organizations in the mobile space. Our focus has been been mostly on mobile development but as we know mobile development is just a small piece of the bigger IT pie and we plan on catering more pieces of the pie to our tech community. Some of those areas we intend on focusing on are in robotics, electronics, gaming, networking, web development, Business Analysis and entrepreneurship

We see ourselves as young tech professionals who are students of life. We believe that we have already made some small impact, even the World Bank through Infodev has noticed by sending a team to do a case study on Geekulcha.  We attend a lot of the cool and big tech events in the country. If we are not there “disturbing the peace” then we are behind the scenes helping run the events. Yes we are part of the social media revolution. Just check us on twitter (@Geekulcha) and Facebook you will see. You really are missing out. What do you think about our numbers? Go on, go check them.

“We all benefit by having young people exposed to the ‘way things are done’ in a democratic society. Isn’t it time… to ‘tap the power of youth?”
— Hans Bernard

We seriously love being geeks and do what we love. Some of our crew members have enjoyed the spotlight as speakers during TedxPretoria and Tech4Africa. We build things within 24-48 hours through hackathons. We also enjoy experimenting. We once placed a geek poet with beat-boxer and here is the end product.

So where are we based? Well mlab at the Innovation Hub is where we do all the tactics and brainstorming sessions but we reside all over the country. There are 26 Academic institutions in South Africa. Imagine how many geeks we have in our army. Imagine how much (positive) damage we can do. Curious to findout? then email us at info@geekulcha.com. We don’t mind having a cup of coffee with you. Please add some chocolate muffins too. We love muffins

The GK crew having a brainstorming session

If you’re a student and interested in joining our army of developers, designers, bloggers, engineers, gamers and mobile ninjas then show us what you’re made off and we will show you a different world outside your academic environment that will get you all pumped up for some serious action. Ever heard of a hackathon? Nope? Then checkout our Geektionary. Geekstars know their terms and vocab. But first go get Geekulchad here (@Geekulcha, Geekulcha page )

Every good army needs a few generals to lead and advice it. We believe that the same applies to Geekulcha. That’s why we are assembling a strong team of mentors and Board of Advisers with industry knowledge and expertise to guide our Geekulcha crew, community and ambassadors.

Maybe you’re sitting there and wondering how you can be part of this community if you’re not a student but want to be friends with the cool geeks. Well you can actually be part of The Friends Of The Geeks. It’s a great way to show your support towards us and towards the future of tech in our country. Let’s be friends, reach us here, info@geekulcha.com.

Gabriel and Mixo hanging out with Aki from Talk Radio 702

So what’s next? Well we are busy working on this and that, here and there with so and so. Stay tuned for more details. While you patiently wait checkout our cool Youtube video’s on our Geekulcha.tv

Young, Talented, Skilled, Creative and Ambitious. That’s who and what we are

Public Announcement: Attention IT students

Good day family. Let me share some of my plans with you. I am trying to build a company, Geekulcha that will challenge big IT companies, work with them, hire students, get students hired, build great products that the people actually need, will help with skills development in the country and eventually be a force within Africa. If you think that maybe im too ambitious then you are probably right. But i prefer trying over not trying

I want Geekulcha to have networks across the country so we can also do cool stuff in your province, not just in Pretoria. But to do that we will need your support. The best way to get things going for you to tell your chomies about Geekulcha and let them know about our Facebook page. We are also on twitter and you can check our youtube vids

Expect lots of events on the ground so you can polish your skills. Expect lots of opportunities for those that grab them.

I would love to help launch a new company this year that will come out of the Geekulcha community which is you guys.

All this will only happen when you’re onboard. To my sisters out there no more excuses. It’s 2014. You gotta step your game up and show what you’re really made of

We are young, talented, skilled, creative and should be ambitious. The time for disruption is now. DONT BE LEFT BEHIND

Make sure you check out all the Geekulcha social media outlets:
https://www.facebook.com/Geekulcha

https://twitter.com/Geekulcha (NB follow)

http://www.youtube.com/user/Geekulcha (check out the interviews we do)
http://www.geekulcha.com/

Dear startups,

I think it is time someone spelled out a few truths. There are many ideas floating about. Some are really good, others not so much. Not every idea warrants a company and not everyone can run a good business.

Before deciding to turn an idea into a business, approaching investors or squandering the family fortunes, it is important ask yourself some very serious questions about what you are about to build and the company you intend to start.

Any journalism student will tell you that the first rule of new writing is understanding the five Ws and one H. It is the Bible of news writing and without it the story makes no sense. When applying the same rules to starting a company, there are six questions you should be able to answer before starting your business.

So for those ideas that are good, that can be a business and for those of you think you can run a business, it’s time we chatted about the Ws and H.

What, why, who, where, when and how:

What am I building?

A clear idea of your product is incredibly important. You have to be able tell people exactly what it is your company does, builds or provides. The big “what is it?” is a question buyers will ask, investors need to know and consumers need to be clear on. If you can’t give a straight simple answer to this question, then perhaps it is time rethink that great idea.

Why am I building this?

It’s all good and well to have an idea that you believe in and think will make billions and billions in revenue but why? Does this product or service fill a gap in the market? Have you identified a specific need for it and the most important of all, is it solving a real problem?

Innovation comes in many forms. It can be a new idea that targets a need that consumers didn’t know they had. Henry Ford said that if he had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses so he built them a car instead. Other forms of innovation take something that already exists and improve on it dramatically. Think about what Mark Zuckerberg did with Facebook. He took Friendster, Hi5 and MySpace and created a social network that capitalised on individuals’ personal networks. Why are you building this? Are you innovating? So what?

Who am I building it for?

You know what you are building and why you doing it but who is it for? Who is your target audience? Are they willing to pay for your product or service? Can they afford to? Are you business to consumer (B2C) or business to business (B2B)? Understanding your audience helps you understand the type of business you’re building and how to sell it to your target market.

Where will I distribute this?

Global or local? Very important. Nobody wants a schizophrenic business that isn’t sure what its market is. Building for international markets means taking a lot of things into consideration, especially in the tech space, where it is becoming more and more important to protect your idea and technology. Also the way you present your product might need to change for different markets depending on what your competition is.

When am I going to market?

Do you have a plan of action for this business venture of yours? Too many people underestimate the power of a well set out Excel document with tasks and timelines. Giving yourself actionable deadlines tells investors you are ready and serious. It builds expectations with your target market and most importantly it gives you drive. It says this is a real business and there are plans in place to make it work.

How am I going to build and sell this?

All the Ws have been answered, and you are pretty certain your family fortune isn’t about to go waste. Great. How are you going to build the billion dollar revenue product? Are you building hardware, a web service, a software product? Have you made plans for marketing? Knowing how you are going to build your business is vital but more so is how you are going to market once it is out there. Also keep in mind how much this will sell for. How much are you going to ask people to pay? Is it free?

Credits

This was a word document that I found inside my pc. It had no details of the author or origin of the article. I will just call the author Unknown. Great article though

I am an unemployed youth…IS THERE A FUTURE FOR ME?

One of the greatest challenges facing our beloved country is the rate of unemployement. Let’s face it, it’s not going to end anytime soon.There is a growing debate on whether the government is doing enough to create jobs for the youth and also for the general public.Another challenge that comes to mind, even though some see it as an excuse by big corporates, is that we are in an economic crisis and instead companies are letting people go than hiring them.

As a young South African I must admit that’s its a mission to get a job,even a simple internship and I have seen a lot of my friends get frustrated and close to giving up because there just seems to be no opportunities for them. Take a simple government internship post where they are looking for just 3 people yet over a thousand have applied.

It’s easy to sit and blame the government and the huge corporates . Okay maybe they can and should do just a little bit extra but question is what are you the individual doing to better your own life?

I’m a huge admirer of street vendors and those standing on the roads selling things in the blazing heat all day.Yes,maybe that’s not the route I would take but I like how they refuse to sit at home and do nothing with their lives while constantly complaining about what they lack. Instead they wake up and go hustle hard

Release your potential

“This is a time for bold measures. This is the country, and you are the generation.” – Bono

Most of the guys doing IT in tertiary have amazing skills in developing systems, apps and almost anything that is required. Sometimes I wish I had the skills they have. Yet they sit at home and majority will never take the bold step and do something for themselves with their skills because they have a mentality that the only way to make money is to have a boss. What if no boss decides to hire you?

We lack Entrepreneurs “The young do not know enough to be prudent, and therefore they attempt the impossible, and achieve it, generation after generation. ” – Pearl S. Buck

I have taken lots of risk with the little money got my hands on and 6/10 times the risk paid of.I am not yet where I want to be but I believe I have a business mentality and I will keep digging my gold mine.I know the challenges that face one in starting something with financial backing being one of them but that alone shouldn’t stop you as long as you believe in your idea A lot of countries out do us in a lot of areas but one that stands out is in the entrepreneur department.

A lot of people,especially young guys are making a killing financially all over the world especially in America and it’s not that they have a strong financial muscle but because they are constantly looking for ideas, opportunities and are not afraid of taking the risk. Lots of names spring to mind when I think of guys who made it from nothing to being filthy rich. One of my favorite local guys is Dj Sbu. Those who know Sbu will tell you he started from nothing but is now making it big as a musician, radio DJ and has now ventured into the clothing industry all because he took a risk,believed in himself and worked his pants off.

So to those still looking for jobs your time will come if you remain patient and have faith.Just don’t sit around doing nothing with your life and becoming a human tv guide while waiting for companies to call you or opportunities dropping from the sky. Go out there and volunteer,develop a new skill, polish your current skill,hustle hard,take a chance and create a need where there is a lack

“There is no obstacle in the path of young people who are poor or members of minority groups that hard work and preparation cannot cure.”  – Barbara Jordan

Tech names gone Craaaaaaazy

Whatsapp, 8.ta, Yello, Ekse, awe,sho, Hello?

I recently found a blog post that I wrote on the 4th of May 2012. I was just having a bit of fun playing around with names of companies and thinks that gadgets. Some of the things are no longer relevant but decided to keep the post unedited. Have fun reading it, I did.

Interesting how people come up with names in the technology dominated world we live in today.Some of these words you ask yourself what on earth were they thinking or doing to come up with such words. Some of them are just brilliant while some of them no longer represent the company but have become words that describe certain actions and activities. Some are almost dead and buried so I can’t add them on MySpace. I am sure there are plenty of such words out there that you know of that I probably didn’t cover so please share them. Click on the highlighted word to find out more about its origin. Let’s have fun.

Sumtyms iThink IT ppl r js plain lzy 2 txt in ful. We ratha js ctrl C then Ctrl V or if its dat much info den Ctrl A, Ctrl C ,Alt Tab, Ctrl V usually duz da trik.  @ tymswi Ctrl  X n Ctrl V tho wi hv a habit of 4gttin 2 Ctrl S b4 wi Ctrl Alt F4. Lol, if u rily nid F1 2 rid dis den wi knw u r studying HR or medicine. Wi js hope u knw ur tablets frm Tablets

Speaking of tablets its interesting how Tablets are no longer representing medical prescriptions but computer devices. There are plenty of brands of Tablets but it seems everybody refers to them as iPads. We also have ThinkPads…Pads Pads Pads!!! I bet Androids from another Galaxy will also want to dominate and be a Nexus.  HP and Playbook take Note

For those new to IT let me school you about the Cloud, aka Cloud Computingwhich is a new common word. And no I azure you, it doesn’t refer to sitting on the cloud and working from there and the chances of seeing any clouds when referring to Cloud computing are slim unless you actually look into the sky. Your information can be mobile, no need for USB’s, location is no longer an issue. So whether you are in Nairobi, Lesotho or the Amazon you can work and save you information without the need for extra hardware. Its like bing in your Office 365. There is iCloud, SkyDrive, Gdrive and Dropbox

We are having less educated people and more Smartphones.  What is this world coming to? The Rand still struggles while apps seem like the new economy

Apple and Blackberry no longer represent fruits but massive Technology brands; well at least one of them is massive while the other fruit is a major hit in South Africa. Did the late Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak love apples that much?The person who came up with the name Siri for the iPhone 4S surely doesn’t know Japanese (iBurst with laughter). Thanks to the OTHER fruit phone we have less “Please call Me’s” going around. My lecturer used to warm me about worms, Hackers, Trojans and about giving away my passwords. Now we giving away our PINS so we can chat. Black Berry Madness (BBM) has taken over!!! It’s the new South African revolution

Searching for information on the internet is no longer browsing but goggling. The word Google refers to a major player in the IT sector but more people use it as a doing word more than describing the company. Interesting to know that the name Google was actually a spelling mistake that was accidently registered as a company name. It was supposed to have been called Googol. True story. You can Bing it if you have doubts

I would really love to know how Microsoft came up with the word Bing…sounds like someone hit a bright idea then went Bing. And its seems the word Zunealmost landed Microsoft in hot waters with certain fractions of the Jewish community. But thank you Microsoft for the Mango, I love it. Now I can do theTango while I wait for Apollo(Windows Phone 8) to land. I’m sure it warm up things in Finland

Wikipedia…portmanteau(fancy way of saying that we are going to take 2 words, mashed them together and pray a new concept will pop up that people will love). Let’s test it out: The sum of portmanteau of wiki and encyclopedia = Wikipedia.Now there you go kids, you can start doing your homework. If all fails just Google it. Information is free but give credit to the publishers

TWITTER, TWEET, TWIT, TWEEPS, TWEETING. Let me RETWEET that, I mean retype that. TWITTER, TWEET, TWIT, TWEEPS, TWEETING.  Nobody should ever say birds have never contributed to society. Here is a tip: You might just as well tag along, join my circle and follow me in my Hangout place on Facebook. I will follow back if I like .I’m sure we can get LinkedIn and do business privately or just BranchOut depending on what is on Your Mind that you are willing to share with the Public

Bluetooth!!! I just can’t imagine Blue teeth but it seems King Herald 1 of Denmark and parts of Norway had massive influence in the name.

Gijima? Is it really a Zulu name for girls? I always thought it meant run. Anyway Mr Robert Gumede I would love a share of your Business Connexions

Microsoft chose the lucky number 7 for their Windows 7 OS and codenamed it as Vienna, while Apple has an obsession with code naming most of their OS after big cats:

Cheetah- Mac OS x 10.0

Puma – Mac OS X 10.1

Jaguar- Mac OS X 10.2

Panther- Mac OS X 10.3

Tiger – Mac OS X 10.4

Leopard – Mac OS X 10.5

Snow Leopard – Mac OS X 10.6

Do I hear a Lion roaring somewhere out there? I’m sure cougar and Lynx are the next endangered big cats

Our friends from Google seem to have a love for pastries and desserts. TheirAndroid code names suggest someone there has a sweet tooth.

Cupcake, Donut, Éclair, FroYo ,Gingerbread,Honeycomb, Ice Cream Sandwich

Initially I thought the guys from Yahoo (Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle) were probably very excited when they came up with that name. Apparently it originates from the book Gulliver’s Travels and was coined byJonathan Swift. It represented repulsive, filthy creatures that resembled humans. It seems Jerry Yang and David Filo saw themselves as yahoos

Skype? Its initial name was “Sky-Peer-to-Peer” then “Skyper”. I guess just like Puff Daddy, P.Diddy, Diddy, Puff or Puu they kept shedding their name. Well the names lose gained them 8.5 Billion dollars. Perfect Kodak moment

Another company which shed a name is Asus. It was taken from the winged horse of Greek mythology called PegASUS. The guys at Asus didn’t like wasting so they created another company called Pegatron to make use of the omitted words

The most recent name that I came up with is Geekulcha, the name of my startup which is a tech platform for IT students. Its a fusing of Geek and Culture with culture being spelled as Kulcha. Share your names