A Day in London And Some Really, Really, Really Fast Internet

In a room in the bunker

I’ve spent most my day totally awestruck by two things, the first was London and simply just how incredibly busy the city actually is, secondly I was blown away by Virgin Media’s New Super Hub. In layman’s terms it provides really, really, really, really fast internet.

I got into London at 6:40 am this morning and, as usual, the first port of call was Starbucks,of course. It was mainly for the free Wifi instead of the caffeine fix, from there I went pretty much straight to the event. When we all turned up we were taken down to Virgin’s ‘Bunker’ in London. It’s an amazing space, kitted out with all the latest tech, filled with at least 30 devices, all of which run off the New Super Hub, at the same time. I want to live there, it was incredible. We were then plonked down on a sofa and the amazement began.

The Directors of Innovation at Virgin Media explained the story of the Super Hub, told us the ins an outs of the hub and Virgin’s network. So, here’s the importants stuff. They demonstrated that when you were connected to the hub via an Ethernet cable the Download speed was 122mb, then they used the WiFi, the speed was 111 mb! I’m used to my BT Home Hub crying every time I mention the word download.

Also, the Super Hub runs on both 2.4GHz and 5GHz at the same time which is great, it means that depending on your device you can choose to have around a 60mb speed or a 120mb speed, devices such as the iPad mini and the Samsung Galaxy range (except from Tab II) can run on 5GHz, but you have to set the default on your device on what one you want.

It’s not just the speed that amazed me, the range was incredible also. In true Virgin style they wanted to show this in an extreme

Some Cloud Gaming Going On!

way. They opened up the curtains and there was a guy on the roof of another building on the other side of the garden, which was 80 metres away. They then decided to Skype him, using only that one Super Hub. It was amazing! This proved that the range was over 80 metres! I’m having a great day when my WiFi reaches the kitchen. We then decided to take it one step further, we all got some Kindle Fire HDs and started streaming and playing online games on the cloud whilst watching a programme on the BBC iPlayer, and monitoring the Bunker with 8 WiFi enabled security monitors and cameras, and getting a speed test. The test came back showing that the speed was 60mb, which I couldn’t believe. My BT Broadband can have about one and a half laptops connected before it decides that it has had enough.

I actually left the Bunker rather annoyed, knowing that I will be heading home to my terrible BT Broadband that will most likely make a massive deal when I try and sync some songs on Spotify, never mind run all my devices. Although on a positive note, I’m moving out in September and if all goes well I’ll remain out, then I could get my Virgin Super Hub and control the world’s devices from one place.

Why Didn’t We Do This In School?

Over the past couple of weeks now I have been learning more and more useful skills in life and in particular they relate to Ignited Minds, and I can’t help but ask why didn’t we do this in school? 

I have managed to teach myself the key fundamentals behind research, business structure, marketing, social media, networking and more. I am even attempting to teach myself how to code (we’ll talk about that later). More importantly however I keep on learning about every single one of the things that I mentioned. I wake up in the morning excited by the thought that I will be reading a report written by RBS or a book on Board Structure and Trademarking (Sad I know, but I love it). So why didn’t we learn about this in school? Why didn’t we get the choice? Unemployment in the UK for 16-24 year olds is currently 20.7% So why don’t we teach our pupils what they need to learn and truly prepare them for the future?

I wish I was taught about what I need to do for networking and how to use Social Media at your advantage instead of being taught Pythagoras’ Theorem (sorry to pick on you maths, but you know, you suck) or Hyperobole for that matter. We should of been taught about entrepreneurialism and how to code your way into a successful future. If you read my blog every so often you’ll see that I do rant about the education system and now that i’m out of it, it is still bugging me! School’s meant to prepare you for the future, I guess over the past few weeks I’ve realised that there was a lot I could of been taught at school that would of truly prepared me for the real world. For instance, if I was taught how to code from a much younger age then there would of been so many other open doors, that would of been invaluable. Gove you better be listening.

A Night On The Red Carpet – Made of Stone World Premiere

The Golden Ticket!

First things first, I am not a film critic; I’m not pretending to be either. I mean, I can barely write, never mind criticize someone else’s work.

Last night was the premiere of Shane Meadow’s – The Stone Roses: Made of Stone and firstly I have to say, what a night! It was an astounding event. The venue was incredible the fans were superb the atmosphere was electric, and when The Roses ruptured onto stage their was this concurrent amazement around the whole room and at once the audience jumped to their feet applauding, screaming and bouncing. It felt like I was at one of The Stone Roses gigs! It was outstanding.

The venue was an old warehouse all dressed up in with a red carpet (of which I walked down, man was that such a weird experience with cameras all around you filming and taking photos),  one side had a titanic poster of The Made of Stone advert, we then entered this dark room with the bar and into this massive, smoky, dark room filled with chairs and with a fantastic light display which really captured what we were going to feel for the rest of the night – sheer excitement.

The film opened with their last Manchester gig at Heaton park which had an attendance of 75,000. It opened with an awe-inspiring clip of Ian Brown (the lead singer) engaging with the crowd, with the best moment being when he takes a fans phone and starts filming himself and the stage. I have to say now that I am not a Roses fan, I had never listened to them before the premiere, but in that moment of the opening of the film I instantly connected with them and I finally realized why people say what they say about them.

As the film progressed and we started to learn about the Roses, the ups, the downs and the beautiful sound that is their music, I

The Massive Screen

started to realize what they were about and why people loved them. There was an interview with fans at one point and one said that: “The Roses are the reason I have this haircut, they’re the reason why 20 years later I don’t wear a tie”. It showed me that they connected with a nation that just didn’t want to put up with anything else, they just wanted to go against the status quo so to speak. It seemed like they themselves didn’t care either, in their interview about their debut album (The Stone Rose’s, 1989) and I have to say they seemed to act like the most difficult band in history, they didn’t respond to questions, they took ages to answer, and just made the journalists life absolute hell. To put that in the film was sheer brilliance, it instantly connected with audience and boy did we love it! Everyone was in stitches, what made it that little bit better as well was that the band were in attendance in the crowd.

The Stone Roses!

Made of Stone really captured the essence and spirituality of the band brilliantly, it showed their friendships, the good, the bad and the ugly – such as the incident in Amsterdam when Reni left before the encore which caused a massive uproar. Made of Stone managed to really exhibit the love that the band felt towards Manchester and the love that Manchester felt back, like I said before, I was a never a Stone Roses fan, I didn’t even know who they were. But now, now I am in love with them, I’m in love with their genius, with their love for their fans and I am in love with their music, in fact I am listening to them right now. I’m amazed at how one film can have that kind of impact, it was well and truly mind blowing.

Oh yes, and I attended the VIP party. It’s going to be hard to top that night!

Here’s the Q&A with Shane Meadows after the premiere:

“Education is about inspiring one’s mind not just filling their head”

It frustrates me knowing that there are so many people out their that are looking to change the we that we learn and the way that the school system is run and yet nothing is ever done, people don’t listen, it’s as if people have lost what the real meaning of education is, or what it should be.

If I many quote Suli Breaks:

“If there were a family tree hard work and education would be related but school would be a distant cousin. As is education is the key then school is the lock. Because it rarely ever develops your mind to the point where it perceives red as green and continue to go when someone else says stop…Education is about inspiring one’s mind not just filling their head”

The definition of education should be: The process of engaging, inspring and encouraging people to build their own ideas, construct their own view and their own thought processes.

We should not solely be learning about other people’s perspectives on a subject and then regurgitating them in an exam, we should be learning about our own perspectives and what that means, how that defines us and then what we can bring to the table. I’m not saying that school is wrong, it’s not, the idea is good. However, the way that we approach it is wrong.

School should be about the individual, inspiring people to strive for the best in anything that they do, it should be showing them new skills and opportunities not closing them off in a grey room teaching them about hyperbole and convincing them that knowing this literary technique will bring a better life and that university solves all of your problems.

Education is about experiences, it’s about building yourself, it’s about learning something great, in fact it’s about showing you how to unleash your hidden potential so that you can be and feel great. School does not provide this. How do you expect young adults who are about to venture into the world with no real life skills to actually succeed. We are told day in day out about getting jobs, getting into college and university, but at no point where we told about building our own future, about creating our own jobs. Once again, education is about inspiring minds.

We are told about other people’s ideas in school, we are told just how great other people have been, we are told where we should be heading next. We never learn about what we can really do, what ideas we have and how we can contribute, how great we are and that it doesn’t matter where you head next, you need to follow what you want to do.

As I’ve said before, we don’t need small changes to the school system, we need a revolution.

Encouraging Entrepreneurship – Ignited Minds

Why is it that in schools we are never asked; ‘do you want to have your own business?’ ‘Do you want to create your own future?’ ‘Do you see yourself becoming an entrepreneur?’ and ‘what can we as a school do to help you in that?’. Instead we are asked about what university we want to attend, what college we want to go to and how we see our selves in ten years time.

I have realised over the past month or so, just how little schools help spark creativity that may well lead to people starting their own business or building their own idea. There is so much support out there for young budding entrepreneurs, but they never find it until it is too late. We are stuck in an economic rut, people complain that the government aren’t doing enough, why don’t we change that? Why don’t we provide pupils the necessary tools and skills that will allow them to venture into an enterprising future, expanding themselves and benefitting many others as they go.

I think that there are a few things we need to think about. Firstly the word ‘entrepreneur’ needs to be abolished. It has connotations of suits, briefcases and closed off offices were it feels like the walls are creeping in on you, we need to explain and share it in a way that encourages 14-24 year olds to look into it! Plus, the only reason I can spell it is due to spell check. There are over 400,000 14-24 year olds in Scotland, why are they sitting exams and doing nothing that’s overly productive? I was recently talking to someone who said that:

“once you get to university no one looks at your exam results, once you get your first job no one looks at your degree, it’s about who you know.”

We should be teaching children and people my age about entrepreneurship (without using the word),teaching them about the doors that it opens and the support network that is out there. There are so many likeminded and inventive people out there and all schools and institutions are doing is killing this creativity off, if you kill their creativity you may as well say good bye to them, because they will slip into a 9-5 life building someone else’s dream.

Secondly, we need to teach it. I don’t mean in the Curriculum for Excellence where you get so many ours per week or Enterprising Class or something similar. No. It needs to be taught deeply, we need to teach them for hours per day, allowing them to build their own ideas and create something great, and to create their own future. As well as being thoroughly taught schools need to provide a support network for anybody who is wanting to venture into entrepreneurship, they need to be told that UCAS is not the only option! We also need to tell them that everybody that has their own business is an entrepreneur! If you have a beauticians, joinery services, if you’re a mechanic, if you own a florists, if you own a law firm, you are an entrepreneur and great one at that.

Thirdly, we need to give them space. You cannot expect people to come up with amazing or even simple, yet great ideas the closed environment of a classroom. You have to let them venture, find a space where they can work clearly and get the job done.

Fourthly, we need to support and encourage failure. 1 in 3 businesses fail in the first three years, if you don’t show them failure, the likelihood is that they won’t try again.

And remember “If you don’t build your dream, someone will hire you to help you build theirs”.

 

If you’re interested check out ‘Ignited Minds’ – Lewis Phillips’ and I’s new platform and service will change this, we will encourage creativity and teach people the skills to speak beautiful business. Allowing people to build and share their great ideas.

www.ignitedminds.co or check us out on Twitter @BeIgnited.

 

 

Well, It’s been a surreal few weeks.

Power of Youth

If anybody reading this follows me on Twitter (if you’re not you should be!) they may have seen what a surreal few weeks it has been for me! Firstly I found out about Power of Youth through Columba 1400, PoY is a fantastic organisation that wants to create a real life community of entrepreneurs - you should check them out! (www.power-of-youth.org). I then went up to Ardoch with them to take part in one of the days in their residential programme, meeting some of the most amazing, inspirational entrepreneurs from all corners of the globe! We then went to their Naked Entrepreneur event at RBS Gogarburn, which was a fantastic networking event and another chance to meet some of the most amazing and ridiculous business people!

While I was at the Ardoch event I met Lewis Phillips (@LewisPhillips) and we came up with the idea that is Ignited Minds, this idea has since developed into a full blown business idea and will be fully revealed later but for now you can check it out on Twitter at @BeIgnited or sign up for more information at ignitedminds.co. So we have grown this little baby over the past few weeks and it is looking great, so keep your eyes peeled! (that’s such a strange phrase).

I then got invited down to the Made of Stone premiere in Machester (You’ll hear about this later) and unfortunately I don’t think that I can tell you much about it! But you’ll find out more on the 30th of May, so once again keep your eyes peeled!

And just a few days ago I was up at Ardoch again with the fantastic organisation that is Columba 1400, having lunch and chatting with no-one else other than The Lord High Commissioner and Lady Selkirk, meeting up with some other great people from the organisation. Meeting the Lord High Commissioner was an incredible experience! Especially to be having lunch with him and his wife! We then met up with a Swiss maketing group and had a wee chat and some dinner before I had to go home back to reality.

You-olo Reception

And to take me out of reality once more I was at the Parliament for You-olo.com’s reception, it was a pretty sweet night, and once again I met some incredible people all doing their own thing!

And I’ve just been for an amazing meal and meeting with the Power of Youth!

I wonder how long this will keep up!

Exams

I recently watched this video by Suli Breaks and instantly connected with it, what is the real point in exams? In what way do we benefit from them? What do they actually prove? All that I can see that they prove is that I can write continuously for about 2 hours on a subject that I only partly understand and will most likely forget about it all immediately after.

So what’s the point? Why do we use exams to gauge success?

I have read countless articles and watched countless TED Talks that will all prove that all learners are individual, we all learn in our own way, so why are we tested in the same way? Now, I understand that a university may need you to achieve certain grades in order to gain access but why? In our society, in our schools we see the person who achieved the ‘A’ as a better person, a better student and more successful than the person with the ‘B’? In my opinion all exams do is achieve segregation and devastation. Some of the smartest, most amazing people I know never made it beyond 4th year, so why is it that these extraordinary people can’t supposedly progress in our society unless you have that particular grade?

In my opinion exams should be abolished, we should teach people real life skills and values that will push them to the forefront of whatever they want to do, not how to find ‘x’. People excel in life everyday without exams, if that’s in business, social work, volunteering, running restaurants, traveling the world and making a difference, and some of them making the beautiful music that we listen to everyday, such as: Eminem, Kurt Cobain and Avril Lavign. I think that we need to stop promoting the idea that exams equal success, we need to stop being obsessed with exams and the number of ‘A  Grades’ a school gets, in my head that’s not what really counts. What counts is the values, the skills, the perspective and knowledge from past experience that someone can share with you.

In the words of Suli Breaks “I will not let an exam result decide my fate”.