First things first: This is a summary post. If this is the first article you’re reading on AQFI, I’d suggest heading back to the homepage☝️ and checking out a few profiles that pique your curiosity. Here’s a short summary of where I was and what I wanted to accomplish when I started this blog.
Well, here I am. A year later and waaaaay more inspired. It’d be selfish to keep all this dearly-collected wisdom for myself, so I’m sharing what I’ve learned from the quest, and some great lessons from each individual interview. Many of these projects have changed, and some of the people have moved on to different things, but the discussions and tips remain as helpful as ever.
What have I learned from the Quest?
- First of all, we have this preconception of the born entrepreneur, or the “lightbulb moment”, but I’ve found that’s only the case with a fraction of entrepreneurs. Often, it’ll be a question of circumstance – people wanting to start something because they see a need for it, or because they’re good at it, or even just because they’re curious to see what’ll happen.
- In our lives, we plan, and plan and plan some more. Many of us have been up on the diving board, looking down, too afraid to get wet. Jump off and figure out how to dive on the way down! A lot of the people I met started by saying “I’m doing this”, and then they started doing it, got better, learned lessons and “made it”.
- Learn from your past jobs and gigs: figure out what you’ve been good at, and what you’ve hated doing. Cherry-pick the best and ditch the worst!
- Iterate, iterate, iterate! No one gets it right the first time. Gather feedback, get people talking and make it a bit better each and every time.
- Research your meetings! Don’t waste time by having people explain what they do.
- Think global, act local: get traction and quick feedback. Once you’ve got something “sticky”, then you can start scaling your project.
- Don’t do interviews at lunch, as the interviewee can’t talk. (For you writers out there 😉 )
- This one really hits home: You won’t always have free time for projects, so stay disciplined and make the most of that time.
- Finally: be kind, be generous. You’ll feel better about yourself, and people will enjoy working with you.
What have I learned from each person?
And now for *some* of the lessons in reverse chronological order. I encourage you to check out the full interviews for more in-depth wisdom and inspiration.
- La simplicité du produit face au client.
- L’importance d’une composante service kick-ass.
Alexandrine Lemaire & Hannah Palmer – 3/4 oz.
- Ça peut être utile de se mettre dans le trouble pour nous obliger à livrer un produit à une certaine date.
- Maximiser les compétences de base de notre équipe et de notre entourage.
Yvan Delia-Lavictoire – LAVICTOIRE Mag
- Fais un petit effort de plus – ça te distinguera de la compétition.
Nicolas Guillotte – Piscines et spas Poseidon
- Concentre-toi sur ton marché primaire avant d’essayer de croître.
- L’importance du cash flow.
Megan Cohoe-Kenney – Le lion et la souris
- Ne pas se sentir obligé de participer à TOUTES les initiatives dans son domaine si ça nous prend trop de temps – on n’est pas que sa job.
- Crée ta propre job – comme ça elle sera faite sur mesure!
Alex Fredo – Les petites anecdotes
- L’importance d’écouter et de donner de la place à la personne en face de toi – elle a quelque chose à dire!
Guila Moyal – L’avant Goût Invitations
- Be flexible – so many companies and initiatives get caught up in their own way of doing things, but you’re allowed to do things the way you want!
Benoît Archambault – Succès scolaire
- Hire for fit, not performance.
- There still are “simple” ideas… if you find a need that’s underserved, especially one where the human component can be difficult to outsource.
Clara Quintela – Le Textile Lab
- Find your element. What could you do all day every day? What are you daydreaming about? Even if you don’t think there might be a job there, how will you know if you don’t try to do something?
- Don’t wear pyjamas all day! Go outside, carve out some time for you and your loved ones.
Carine Valleau – Stories For Humanity
- There’s value in building something beautiful, don’t underestimate that!
Samuel Gobeille-Kaufman – Les ateliers Thirsty Workshops
- Leverage your network to create value: his project brought people he knew together to learn from an expert he was introduced to. He was simply acting as an intermediary!
- Not everything needs to be a frickin’ app. There’s value in a great experience!
Vincent Chapdelaine – Espaces temps
- Consensus is important, make sure your engage everyone that comes in contact with what you’re doing. You can’t please everyone, but you can make sure no one feels left out.
- The importance of free public places to work, especially in winter or in poor weather, when parks aren’t an option.
Zev Moses – Museum of Jewish Montreal
- Be kind to others. A lot of workplaces have people who are angry, belligerent and who just take themselves too seriously. If you can build a culture that embraces kindness, you’ll build a great team.
Elizabeth Pearce – Drink and Learn
- Sometimes, you become the expert, and it’s hard to “scale” yourself. Embrace the expertness to make the experience better and better.
Liza Charbel & Joey Khoury – Jardins sans frontières
- Don’t compare yourself to others – compare yourself to yourself yesterday.
- Make sure to set expectations so that the people you work with and your clients don’t get a bad surprise on account of poorly communicated expectations.
Olivier Benchetrit – Les Gâteaux de Madame Fhal
- Be a man of your word. If you are dishonest, you won’t work a second time with people.
Jake Greenberg – Ruined Rep pins
- Don’t get high off your own supply! Don’t give free shit to your biggest fans, ie your friends and family – they should be your first customers!
Marcello Barsalou – Barsalou /s/ Traiteurs / L’Époque
- Trust in your abilities. If you’re always doubting yourself, you won’t be able to deliver on what you do well.
- Rest! If you can get someone who can take enough workload off you to allow you to rest and refuel, even if it’s just for one day, that person is worth their weight in gold. There’s no point in working yourself to death.
Kat Romanow – The Wandering Chew / Fletchers / Beyond the Bagel
- Don’t blanch walnuts! I used this as an example of a lesson learned when doing my interviews. She meant don’t expend disproportionate efforts on something that won’t significantly impact your clients (in this case, a blanched walnut sauce for a Mexican dish).
- Ask your clients and fans to participate: it’s not work to them – it helps you out and gives them a better experience!
Catherine Ouellet-Dupuis – Comité pour entrepreneurs / Startup Open House
- Le plan de transition! Sometimes, when you do everything, you become impossible to replace, and it makes for a precarious project.
Thierry Rassam – Le Burger Week / La Poutine Week
- Ideas are cheap. You have a great idea? Execute it, otherwise it’s just talk!
- Listen to your body: eat, sleep and work when it’s best for you, not because it happens to fit in your schedule.
David Gobeille-Kaufman – Les Soirées Mangrove
- Feedback is soooo important! You won’t be perfect right off the bat, so ask your audience how you can improve, and you’ll be rewarded twice over: once by improving, and a second time by making your audience feel involved with the project.
Sarah Sklash – The Sportsman Motel (now The June)
- The tide raises all ships! Make your industry more relevant, more interesting and you’ll benefit directly.
And what’s next for me? Well, I’ve definitely found my element: I’m now plugging away on a fantastic project, building up the soccer department at SPORTLOGiQ. I’ve also gotten married, with twins on the way, so it’s been a very grown-up year for me!
I want to thank everyone who encouraged me on this project, and who took the time to share their wisdom with me (and you!). It was such a blast. I can definitely say I’ll miss saying “I’m on a quest for inspiration”.
Until next time! ✌️
Daniel