[elliott20]

Ishn Review: Elliott's journey of self-discovery about his career and himself

So, I'm sure many of you have noticed that some of my posts have been featuring me talking about the various projects I'm undertaking, things I want to learn, etc, etc ,etc. The only thing they have in common is the complete and utter lack of consistency in the course of action I wanted to take. (What no learning C++ after all?)

A lot of this has been the result of a rather long journey that I've been taking in an attempt to really figure out what to do with myself and where to go next. I've been doing a lot of soul searching as a result of this. (Which is why I'm up 2 am in the morning typing this little journal)

It all started with a little book called "Rich Dad, Poor Dad". (I'm sure many of you have heard of/read it) The contents not withstanding, it was an inspirational read that got me all pumped about earning my financial freedom. I suddenly realize that I wanted more than just to be maybe project manager or some such. I wanted to do more than just work for somebody else. I wanted to do my own thing. In addition, I would also like to be financially independent.

All of these things have caused the tiny wheels in my head to start shifting. After much thought and tribulation, I made two goals for myself:

1. break into the gaming industry, even if I have to create my own company to be in it
2. begin to invest more actively so god forbid if it doesn't work out, at least by the time I'm old I'll still have something to retire on.

The problem? I don't know how to do it.

The "Rich Dad Poor Dad" book made financial success sound really easy, and for a while, I believed that all it took is just getting into the right places, and just getting a little bit of skill enough to weasel my way into the works. Success seemed so easy.

It all sounded too good to be true. (It later turns out that it was)

I had my doubts. But there was one important thing from that book that I took away: Knowledge is power, and confidence is crucial. I realized that in order for me to do this, I need to believe in myself, but I also need to learn more. I need to learn like crazy.

This started off with me wanting to learn C++. (As you all can remember from the thread a while back)

This, however, did not last, as I soon realized that learning C++ would just have me restart myself as another low level inexperienced programmer who quite frankly hates coding with a passion. (yeah, ironic that an IT guy would hate coding) Besides, if I were to start my own company and start on my road to entrepreneurship, I need a lot more than just rudimentary coding skills you learn from a book. I need to know more.

I need to know how to manage people/projects/sales/marketing/finance/etc.

There is a whole list of things I do not understand. I've decided that it is high time I started to invest in my own education very seriously. At least, as best as I could whilst in Indonesia.

I spending my time reading various books on project management, finance, marketing, etc. The thing is, the more I read, the more I realize I don't know shit. Sure, I've already done a bit of project management related work, but really, to do it on my own? I need more. And forget about the rest of it, I don't know how to do ANY of that.

The more I read, the more I realize, success is not an easy road. Running your own business is hard work, and nothing like that junk company I held in B'more. (Which was basically useless anyway)

The more I learn, that more I came understand how horribly naive I was about the world and my prospects. I am trying to break into a field that occupied by financial giants, and fickle markets. And yet, in this same process, I suddenly finding myself with even more resolve than before to gut it all out and take an honest shot at it. I am, for once, feeling good about my career, even though I have no idea where I will go or if I will ever get there.

Then I realized that all this stuff I'm doing is without any rhyme or reason. I'm just diving my head into the books without really considering what I'm doing.

What I need is a syllabus, a plan of action.

With that, I wrote down a bunch of skills that I felt I would need to be able to competently run my own company, things I need to learn about, and research I need to do. This syllabus is not carved in stone, obviously. But it will be my road map to what I need to do.

I submit this syllabus to you guys for 2 reasons:

1. so you can be witness to it, and so that if I fail, I fail before all of you.
2. so that I can get feedback from you guys, or at least have someone to double-check my ideas.

so anyway, here I go:

In order to succeed in making this shift, I felt I have several major areas that I need to improve on. Without it, I doubt I would have any chance of success.

1. personal core competency skills
2. market knowledge
3. network relations within the industry to call on for help

item 1 is later split into the following skills:
1. project management
2. finance/accounting skills
3. people management skills
4. marketing skills

item 2 relates to skill 4 in item 1, and gives the rest a context that of which to function. I believe doing so will require several more to-dos:
1. figure out where is the best market best suited for what I want to do
2. figure out barrier entries
3. figure out possible legal/logistical/strategic issues that would be relevant

item 3 is perhaps one that I am most clueless about (which is saying a lot, considering how little I know about the rest). I know only a handful of people who work in the industry, and so far, the advice I've been given all revolves around quitting my job and working for a gaming company for 2 years to learn. Unfortunately, I have a family to support and I don't think $7/hour job as a beta tester is going to teach me enough. I need something more concrete.

I have considered the following options for item 3
1. start joining game development associations and events, like IGDA (international gaming development association), indie game development festivals, etc.
2. look for books on the subject so I can try to educate myself a little while on my own.
3. look for classes/seminars that I can attend on my off-time
4. start trying to make ties with people in the communities and learn from the veteran advices

this is all I have so far. And yet every time I look at this list, I can't help but feel excited and both humbled at the same time. Maybe I won't make it in the end, or maybe I will. All I know is, this is going to be a fun ride.

[Hans]

This is something similar, if not that same, that I've been contemplating heavily Big E. After community college, I'll have an associate's degree in Computer Engineering. Entry level IT, if that.

The more I take classes in it, I find myself asking the question "Is this where I want to go into? A field where I put in eight or more hours and not really do anything?"

I like electronics, and a cybernetic / nanotech / robotics or related degree is highly appealing to me. But I also find myself questioning for a career that is more practical, like med school.

I can ace the school part without a doubt.

So I commend you on your expectations, and give the advice to aim high. Aim really high. Good luck.

[elliott20]

the thing is, for me it's hard for me to say for certain that I don't want to do XYZ, simply because, how can you know until you've put in some good time into it? but by then, it could be too late.

But still, that's part of growing up, I suppose.

Anyway, more journal items:

I read this book this week called "Three Moves Ahead" by Bob Rice. it's a book that talks about what Chess can teach us in the field of business. A good read for anyone who does company strategic work. But for me, the most important part is learning how to do a start ups and how to do product positioning. I recommend it.

[chai-ta]

Potentially to make things a little easier / achievable you can divide the personal skills into different people.

I went pretty far down the path of starting my own company, and found that it was easier to find a small group (2 or 3) of people you trust that have the skills that you are lacking - like corporate finance, marketing, business contacts. If your idea is good, finding a few people shouldn't be that hard.

For learning about making a game - try downloading a MUD or other open source game with some complexity. It will help you see what needs to be done, and sometimes there is good documentation to help discuss why a particular approach was taken. Contributing to the open source game will also help you learn a little about the market of games, and also start finding people who are good at coding and interested in the gaming market. This is something that can be done in 'spare time' so you don't have to quit your day job and still get some experience in the industry.

Heck maybe even try running a MUD, just to see the cost perspective.

From a business perspective - look for groups locally. I know in San Jose CA there are groups dedicated to helping individuals learn about the business side. Often these are people who are retired, or work for venture capitalists. They have gone done the path, and have very good ideas (cleaning up business plans, structuring the company properly, ideas for the company's exit strategy). The group I worked with were great. They really helped me figure out what I should worry about and what to let other people worry about.


To be on the positive side - you are a lot closer than most people ever get. Creating a plan to work towards is a huge first step. One that many people never take. Congrats on taking the first step to being a new force in the world.

[elliott20]

Thanks Chai-Ta. That is precisely what I was hoping for. And really, the way I see it, having a plan makes doing something that is seemingly so large and impossible tremendously easier. Unfortunately, San Jose CA is a little bit too far for me to consider them a local group, what with me living in Jakarta and all. :P

I've been wondering about going the venture capitalist groups route, especially those specialized in electronic entertainment. From my understanding, such groups do exist here in the southeast asia region. (I believe most of them are based in singapore, if I'm not mistaken. But I won't know until I do more research)

This post has been edited by elliott20: 13 October 2008 - 09:40 PM

[elliott20]

I just discovered a book called "The indy game development survival guide" by a guy whose name escapes me. (I think it's something horribly generic like Michael Davis or such)

anyway, I only got to read the sample pages that were available on google books but it seems like it could be interesting read. A quick browse on Amazon shows that it received some decent reviews and serves as a good primer into the industry. Seems promising. I think I'll pick it up and see where it goes.

[elliott20]

a new problem has come up constantly in my mind: my company's revenue generation method. One of the ultimate goals of this project is so that I know what kind of company I want to create and what kind of games I would make/sell.

the thing is though, I want to get around the traditional revenue generation methods. traditional retail methods are simply too unreliable and the barrier of entry is pretty great, what with there being MILLIONS of games on there of which maybe 1/4 of them are worth touching.

This led me to look for alternative revenue generation models.

internet distribution: seems to be fairly common now a days with indy game development companies. for a price, you get the unlocking code, and a download. this skips over the retail method.
content based charges: the game itself might be free or very cheap. But in order to get the rest of the content, you have to shell out some more dough. If done right, this can work very well as you can pretty much segment out your market based purely on their own consumption desires. done wrong though, and you'll end up with cases where people are basically spending money to skip over large parts of the game.
monthly charges: basically every MMO in the universe runs off of this.
ad revenue: "monetarize the eyeballs", so to speak. your revenue is based off of ad views and such that you get from players. It COULD work, but that means you need a fairly ridiculous large number of users first, and secondly, this means that your per user cost can't be too large or else you'll have a hard time breaking even.

potential pitfalls
internet distribution: bandwidth dependent, and still cannot escape the traditional marketing and sales model.
content based: the Korean problem, if you will, where you have players spending large amounts of money to buy content. Also, this brings in the question of Real Money Trade, which can get really sticky. (Second Life embraced this completely by allow players to spend their hard earned cash and convert it into Second Life fun bucks)
monthly charges: can work. creates a standard barrier of entry and would not necessarily be worth it if utility is not high enough for player. however, financially speaking this is my favorite method as it guarantees a fairly regular revenue stream if your user-base is stable.
ad revenue: ad revenue, from my understanding, is not that substantial per user. And ads can annoy and turn off users from the game if they're too obnoxious. plus, a lot of websites barely generate enough ad views to pay for itself, let alone earn a profit. so, while I'm sure I can utilize this to HELP the revenue generation, I will probably need other methods to keep it running.