The first step to success is not to depend on everyone else.

For those who know, I have a little website called "OneForTen" (http://www.oneforten.info) it was based on an idea from the Six Month MBA team. It was good excuse to build a quick Ruby On Rails app to get used to the language etc.

Over the weekend a few folk had been adding some new ideas, which is great. So I put a little post on Twitter to mention the existance of the site.

This arrived in my replies:
@jasebell ideas are bountiful, funding sources are impossible ;P should make a variant for that

My reply was
Why is it that the first step to success is to depend on everyone else? You don't always need funding. Bootstrapping does work.

I find it interesting that in order to succeed in this digital world we have this desire for other people to put the money in first. The initial stumbling block is not money, it's the motivation to see the idea through to a concept. I'm hazarding a guess that a good 50% of startups never get past the "in my head" phase because of this notion that you'll never find money. I admit if it's a production facility you are setting up you will need investment capital of some form, or a bank loan, or money from somewhere. For a software startup.... no. It needs you, your time and your commitment to do something.

Case in point, my own, I'm in the middle of coding a startup project together. I've run it past a number of people who've said it's definately a go-er. Do I need the money, I suppose I do (need a Mac but can't afford a Mac) but I want to get something out to prove that I've put my heart, soul and passion into the project from the outset. It won't show good to investors when I roll up on their doorstep with a pencil sketch ("It's a go-er but I haven't started it yet"). The webkit demo will do in the first instance until the revenue is there to work on a native iPhone app. The idea doesn't just stretch to an iPhone app, it's mobile devices, set top boxes, web.... you name it.

Bootstrapping does work, once you are at the point you have something out there then look for funding, even then keep it to friends and family. VC's are out there but need some convincing that your idea is, essentially, going to make them money. Plus in these troubled times the equity stakes are usually higher. Less money going around and more risk.

If there's one simple question it's, with hand on heart ask yourself, "Would I invest in me?".

Aura Leisure: The internet is wealth of information until you need some information.

We can order books, they arrive the next day. We can keep in touch in just about realtime with anyone around the world. Get the price and information to a swimming pool? No.

So I know I'm going to Letterkenny, my wife has plans for the afternoon so it leaves me and my daughter to find something to do. Go swimming seems like a perfect choice as I've promised it during the week. My quicky look at the Aura Leisure website gives me opening times, that's a start, at least I won't show up at 1pm and not be able to get in.

First problem, there's no pricing so I have no idea what I'm paying to get in. I have ten Euro in my pocket and need 11.20, fine but I then get stung on their Sterling £1 for 1EUR rule. Fair enough, we get in and get changed, we head for the water. We get in the water. Next thing I know the lifeguard is behind me, "where's your headgear?". "Didn't realise we needed any, there's no signage to say so in reception". "Hold on a second.....". So we sit in the water with my daughter eager for her Dad to show her how to use her new board.

"You buy the caps for 2.50 each, we don't have any", "I've just got stung on getting in, I'm only here for the day". And this is where policy and problem come in. Their rule is (and I quote), "kick 'em out and give 'em a freebie pass."

"I'm here for the day, I ain't coming back. How am I supposed to tell a seven year old she's going to get kicked out of the pool?". I then have a good conversation with the lifeguard who then tells me the power struggle between front office, the lack of customer information, and the lifeguard (back office) who usually are left to sort it all out.

My result: leave, child in tears and get my money back. Money then used to good effect on ice cream and a Dora DVD.

And to Aura Leisure: two simple things for your website. Pricing and swimmers information. Would have made my life a lot easier and my daughters' life a lot happier. As it stands, you just lost a couple of customers.

The three simple rules of software development.

For anyone who doesn't really know, I'm a bass player. Not a bad one to boot according to others who want to use me on the odd album, tour or session. In 1987, or there abouts, I read an interview in Guitarist magazine. I'd not heard of the guy up until that point but he was just compelling to read about, the bassist was Doug Wimbish.

At the end of the article there's the usual end of article cop out of, "Doug do you have any advice to other bass players?". The response was pretty what I considered off the wall. "Share anything about your playing to anyone and don't go around thinking that your sh*t doesn't stink!".

In photography we now have the likes of Dave Hobby, Joe McNally and Chase Jarvis and a legion of other great photogs willing to share. They'll give you the whole nine yards on lighting techniques, shooting techniques the lot.

Lastly I've been busy organising the first Open Coffee Coleraine meeting. There's no real forum for businesses to get together and just share, so I created one and Starbucks willingly offered a venue. Networking never used to be an issue to me, my network was pretty much online but that technique has reduced vastly over the years. Showing your face and personality has become important again. It's not about programming, it's about branding, the brand called You!

So, the three rules of software development:

1. You are only as good as your network says you are.
2. Be willing to share anything with anyone.
3. Don't go around thinking that your sh*t doesn't stink! :)

JTwitter free download, last day today.

Just got a tweet from Anton Hutton at EyespyFX, their Twitter client for J2ME is available for free today. Point your mobile to http://www.jtwitter.com/wap and you can download it from there.

Twitter is not a newswire but the most wonderful idea virus.

The evening (I'm in the UK) when Michael Jackson died uncovered some startling truths about realtime shouting/twittering.

Everyone is happy to jump on a story whether it's true or not, without a smidgen of regard for following up the facts. When I logged on to Twitter at 11.50pm and I saw a handful of tweets telling me that MJ was dead, first things first check the valid news sources. Since the story was from TMZ and I'd never heard of TMZ, the site only half worked and looked like a bag of onions I was a little wary of it's content. Reuters were reporting nothing, PA and AP newswires had nothing, only reports that the emergency services had been called.

Back on Twitter though, if TMZ says it's true then it's worth saying he's dead anyway. Then that spilled over to Facebook and the same pre-news news had the same wildfire effect. It took another twenty minutes before the real confirmation in the LA Times came through, a trusted source, I can live with that. Poor chap RIP.

No matter, but in the same timeframe we learn of Jeff Goldblum's demise while filming in New Zealand. The Twitter sneezing army went to work just as quick and Jeff's death and it became a trending topic. All very well except he wasn't dead, or in New Zealand. Stephen Colbert summed led the tributes nicely on the Colbert Report with Jeff Goldblum paying tribute to himself on the same show.

Twitter is the perfect idea virus, put something out there and get some sneezers to shout about it even more. All very well when it's something like a cool website, a product or a hot boy/girl for example. Twitter is not a news feed, well certainly not a trusted one. It's an immediate news source which is great but the danger is that it's crowdsource and unchecked. Spells danger to me in every sense of the word.