Brandon Croke

What Happened in 2011?

by Brandon Croke on 31/12/11 at 8:31 pm

Wow. What a year. Typically talks about new years, resolutions and predictions get on my nerves, but this year (against my own good judgement) I decided to take a look back at 2011 and share some milestones and life lessons learned.

Looking back, a lot has happened the past year. I kicked off 2011 celebrating in Denver, stayed 5 months in Toledo, spent a month in Austin Texas and finally ended up moving to San Francisco where I currently reside happily in the Mission.

11 Major Milestones

1. Started my own marketing company and had my first series of client engagements.
2. Found out there was no ROI for most Social Media initiatives and the hype is misguided.
3. Left a company I didn’t believe in and spent the next few months following passions and creating
4. Started a Why Not Let’s Jam with the incredibly talented Daniel Isaac and brought a new flavor of live music to bars and venues across Ohio.
5. Founded Start-up Toledo a small network of forward thinking entrepreneurs, designers and developers.
6. Started writing my first non-fiction book Social Media Madness (see #2) but had to put it on hold (see #12)
7. Introduced a pair of Toledo entrepreneurs who created Whisper Labs to build sexy websites, apps and startups.
8. Also, introduced two long time friends who together developed the (soon to be) breakout product of 2012 – Lazershirts.
9. Read Alone Together, The Shallows, Reality is Broken and Steve Jobs Bio which were a major inspiration to my thinking and view of how technology and people are merging.
10. Attended SXSW 11 and was far less inspired by the spectacle and industry than I was a year earlier (see #9)
11. Took my first ever trip to California and fell in love with San Francisco after meeting Michael Staton at SXSW
12. Went full-time with my 5^th startup, Inigral creators of the Schools App and saw the company double in size, and found myself inspired and thankful to be working with a worthwhile company in the ed-tech space.

11 Lessons Learned

1. Don’t work at a place that isn’t fulfilling your potential. It will kill your soul.
2. Exploring into the unknown isn’t easy (that’s why most people don’t do it and you must do it)
3. If you’re scared sh*tless, it’s probably a good sign. The only way to grow, is to do things you haven’t done before.
4. Working for yourself can be lonely, and it can be worse when you have to work for clients that are “eh”
5. Talent doesn’t mean much. Hard work and execution is everything. Similarly ideas without priorities only create confusion.
6. Leadership is everything, but means nothing to people who don’t get it.
7. Technology and tools can’t solve problems, only people can.
8. Big brands or companies don’t matter, what matters is having a team and a mission.
9. Everything is easier said than done.
10. Bikes are awesome and living without a car is key (especially in San Francisco)
11. No place, job, or thing will make you happy. Focus on giving, creating and surrounding yourself with people you care about.

Cheers to what’s in store for 2012.

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