I learnt about improve the quality of your life immediately:
Financial awareness & financial management
Time management
Health and productivity
Stress management
Identifying positive role models and mentors
Earning income by living a jet setter lifestyle
What really matters
Watch this video of serial entrepreneur GaryVee giving the ultimate advice to anyone who feels that other people have accomplished more than you have.
Watch this video to learn the key factors to being motivated and driven to succeed, and to learn how to make smart choices based on logical analysis.
Assignment
Create a list of the areas in your life that you hope to improve from among those taught in this unit:
Financial responsibility
Time management
Health
Productivity
Stress management
Identifying role models and/or mentors
Enjoying the process of "working" to earn income
The list may be long or short; what matters most is that you include what is important to you, things that you really wish you could improve.
Important: only list information that you are comfortable sharing publicly and with the Techie Youth staff; do NOT include any personal or private information, and do NOT include your contact info with this list.
Put the list into a sharable document, such as a Google Document, generate a "share URL" and set the document permissions to "anyone with the link can view". Share the link to your document with us.
This is an ungraded assignment; whatever is important to you to include on the list is sufficient for completing this unit. Techie Youth may review the document to learn about your needs and possibly offer suggestions how we can help, but your submission will not impact your performance in this course.
When you have completed the entire Techie Youth Learn to E-Earn program and become eligible to graduate, look back at the list that you have created in this assignment, and analyze which areas you have already made improvements
I learnt that Throughout our education and career journey, it is important to have someone to look up to. Dedicating some time to identifying positive role models is beneficial not only in the short-term but also might provide you with long-term inspiration and motivation.
The main quantities that you may want to consider while identifying a role model are:
Inspirational - are you inspired by this person and their achievements?
Positive ethics - do you respect the person’s moral beliefs and consider their values important?
Watch this Ted Talk explaining the importance of having someone to look up to and the different ways that people pick out role models to inspire and motivate them.
Mentors
Complimenting role models are mentors, people who offer to teach or give help, advice and support to those less experienced. For a mentorship to be successful and beneficial, the mentor and mentee must form a personal connection be able to openly discuss topics of significance, such as applying to university, looking for a job and deciding on your career path. If you identify someone whom you would like to have as a mentor then take the initiative and begin correspondence.
Read this article that explains how to go about finding a mentor and maintaining a beneficial and positive relationship with someone who agreed to mentor you in the long term.
Once you have identified a potential mentor then you will need to take the initiative to begin correspondence with them. Read this article that teaches how to email someone pitching them to mentor you and watch this video for tips on how to find a mentor.
There are professional mentorship arrangements that you may consider applying for:
IET Mentorship is dedicated to young people beginning their work in the engineering field
WiSER Mentorship Program for women in STEM operates in its unique "trio structure," where an undergraduate student is matched with a graduate student or an early-career professional, along with an experienced professional.
CoalitionWILD Global Mentorship Programme is focused on emerging environmental leaders and aims to teach them skills necessary to carry out action projects effecting environment, cultures and communities
SCORE mentors is for beginner entrepreneurs seeking help starting or growing their business
Remember that having a mentor will also require time and effort on your part. Here are the most important things you should remember while participating in a mentoring scheme:
Don’t be afraid to ask questions - your mentor is here to help you and guide you.
Be open-minded and willing to not only share your experiences and expectations but also listen to your mentor stories and advice.
Mentors are usually professionals and you should respect their time by always coming to your scheduled meetings prepared and on time.
Don’t expect your mentor to spoon-feed you knowledge or skills. Be ready to work individually following your mentor’s advice to achieve your goals.
I learnt that Laser Cutting is quite simple in theory, a laser is used to precisely cut out shapes from various materials. Lasers can engrave or cut into all sorts of materials, cardstock being a common inexpensive material to start with. With the addition of glue or adhesive, you can create 3D objects using 2D laser-cut parts, such as creating a cube from six squares. Read this guide for a more detailed understanding of how laser cutting works.
What should you make?
Laser cutters are very precise and detailed; they are ideal for smaller objects that have low manufacturing costs and sell for a premium such as earrings and small figurines. Read this guide for a list of laser cut product ideas to inspire you.
Before modeling
Before you start modeling in software, try to draw and cut out the design that you plan to make on a piece of paper or card-stock and glue it together. That way you can get a feel for the shapes that you want to make, where you want to cut and the size of everything once assembled.
It is also important to determine in advance which laser cutting service you intend to use because the specifications for how to create the modeling file will change between services. For example, if you plan to cut via Ponoko then your model should not have anything filled in and use different color outlines for the areas that should be cut or engraved, and the files should be saved as an Adobe Illustrator AI, EPS, Inkscape SVG or AutoCAD DXF file.
Design tips
Read this guide to learn about tolerances and how to design to print the highest quality object.
Read this guide to learn how to design to achieve low printing costs.
How to get objects laser cut
Outsource to a laser cutting service
There are companies that will print your laser cut objects for a fee. Some are based online and ship anywhere, but there are also small businesses that have their own laser cutters. Try googling your location and "laser cutter" to see if there are any nearby companies that are selling print services or offering to let you have access to their laser cutters. Examples of online services include:
Ponoko
Read this guide to get an idea how to format files for Ponoko.
Sculpteo
Sculpteo specifies that files should be in .SVG format
Got to a makerspace
Makerspaces enable you to print things on shared equipment. There are makerspaces in many urban areas around the world. Most require starting with a mandatory safety class, and then paying for membership.
Makerspace NYC is an example. An "associate membership" gives you access to use the laser cutter once per month with options for additional usage for a fee.
Buy your own laser cutter
Even entry level laser cutters are still quite expensive, and probably not economical for your project until you exceed a substantial profit point. The units including required safety equipment can cost over $3,000 USD, plus additional periodic maintenance costs.
Software packages for laser cutting
Adobe Illustrator
The industry standard for vector drawings in 2D. If you succeed to get contracts for commissioned digital art, then this is the software that you will be expected to use.
Free trial, after which there is a monthly subscription fee.
Watch this complete tutorial to learn Adobe Illustrator techniques.
AutoCad
The industry standard for 3D renderings. AutoCad has been used to design everything from toys to airplanes; works for both 3D and 2D drawings.
Free trial, substantial subscription fee thereafter.
Watch this comprehensive tutorial:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Inkscape
Inkscape is a free vector drawing software. In Inkscape, you draw with a series of lines and curves and then print it out by cutting along those lines and curves.
Watch this video to learn how to create simple line art designs with Inkscape
Watch this video for an example of using Inkscape to design for laser cutting
LibreCad
Free open source 2D CAD software
Watch this video to learn the basics of drawing with LibreCad
Watch this video to learn how to create a basic object in LibreCad
CorelDraw
Popular suite of graphical applications
Free trial, subscription or flat-rate fee afterward
Watch this beginner tutorial video to learn the basics of CorelDraw
Watch this video to learn how to use CorelDraw for laser and vinyl cutting
I learnt that Throughout our education and career journey, it is important to have someone to look up to. Dedicating some time to identifying positive role models is beneficial not only in the short-term but also might provide you with long-term inspiration and motivation.
The main quantities that you may want to consider while identifying a role model are:
Inspirational - are you inspired by this person and their achievements?
Positive ethics - do you respect the person’s moral beliefs and consider their values important?
Watch this Ted Talk explaining the importance of having someone to look up to and the different ways that people pick out role models to inspire and motivate them.
Mentors
Complimenting role models are mentors, people who offer to teach or give help, advice and support to those less experienced. For a mentorship to be successful and beneficial, the mentor and mentee must form a personal connection be able to openly discuss topics of significance, such as applying to university, looking for a job and deciding on your career path. If you identify someone whom you would like to have as a mentor then take the initiative and begin correspondence.
Read this article that explains how to go about finding a mentor and maintaining a beneficial and positive relationship with someone who agreed to mentor you in the long term.
Once you have identified a potential mentor then you will need to take the initiative to begin correspondence with them. Read this article that teaches how to email someone pitching them to mentor you and watch this video for tips on how to find a mentor.
There are professional mentorship arrangements that you may consider applying for:
IET Mentorship is dedicated to young people beginning their work in the engineering field
WiSER Mentorship Program for women in STEM operates in its unique "trio structure," where an undergraduate student is matched with a graduate student or an early-career professional, along with an experienced professional.
CoalitionWILD Global Mentorship Programme is focused on emerging environmental leaders and aims to teach them skills necessary to carry out action projects effecting environment, cultures and communities
SCORE mentors is for beginner entrepreneurs seeking help starting or growing their business
Remember that having a mentor will also require time and effort on your part. Here are the most important things you should remember while participating in a mentoring scheme:
Don’t be afraid to ask questions - your mentor is here to help you and guide you.
Be open-minded and willing to not only share your experiences and expectations but also listen to your mentor stories and advice.
Mentors are usually professionals and you should respect their time by always coming to your scheduled meetings prepared and on time.
Don’t expect your mentor to spoon-feed you knowledge or skills. Be ready to work individually following your mentor’s advice to achieve your goals
I learnt about how It is totally normal for people to be stressed , but it is not conducive to your mental wellbeing. There are many techniques to break out of these feelings. The most important thing to remember is that while the life-pressures that you feel are indeed real, your emotions remain your own - you control them.
Happiness is a choice
It is common to hear people say "you are making me mad," but indeed this is never true - nobody can make you mad - only you can choose to get mad, and it is a choice. People can do things that you do not like and you may wish they would not do, but it is you who controls your own emotions and how you respond to these undesirable situations.
You don't have to believe this right now; you can go prove this theory to yourself first. The next time that someone or something is stimulating your feelings of anger, stop whatever you are doing immediately, go look in the mirror (or into your selfie-camera on your phone) and smile as wide of a smile as you can make. Hold that smile for at least 10-seconds while looking at yourself. Your emotions will immediately change; you may still be unhappy about what took place, but you will not be able to maintain the same feelings of anger - this is because you really do control your own emotions, and can choose to be happy even in the middle of a frustrating situation. Try it for yourself.
Watch this video to learn techniques for handling stress and improving your happiness.
Don't let other people control you!
When you get mad in response to someone else's actions, that person is essentially controlling you. For example, how would you react if someone whom you did not know would pass you in the street and blurt out an offensive remark to you such as "you are ugly" or fat, or stupid, or smelly, or something that really pushes your buttons like mentioning your mother/family, your race/religion or your disability - how would you react to that?
Whatever your answer, it is a "reaction" to that person, so that person controlled you and manipulated your emotions to generate your reaction. In reality, that person is probably very unhappy, if not psychologically unwell - so why do you care what they said? Their words are mere sound-waves emanating from their mouths that have no power, except the power that you give them in your reaction.
A very emotionally-strong person would be logical and not answer at all, because what this person said has absolutely no relevance or impact to you or the world. Those words simply don't matter, and don't deserve your attention.
Watch this video to learn the techniques that great leaders use to remain calm and level-headed even when bad things happen to them.
Power of speech
In reality, most people do struggle with having enough self-control to have zero-reaction in response to negative speech. This is because it is human nature to want to be liked by others, and negative-words can be very impactful, and feel like a rejection.
Watch this video to learn more about the power of speech, both your own words and those spoken to you.
Lower your expectations
Life is hard. It is not supposed to be this hard, but it is. Life is unfair; assets and positive-traits of human beings are not distributed equally - some people are better-looking than others, some people are stronger, healthier, smarter, wealthier, more-talented, etc. Some people have beautiful spouses, caring parents and loving families, while other people are all alone in the world. This is the reality and it will not help you to focus on what you don't have. It is important to have dreams and aspirations, and to aim to achieve greatness, but it is also important to expect that things will not always work out, and that it is okay when there are setbacks, life-challenges are to be expected and are totally normal.
Every person has positive traits and something to be grateful for. Every person is capable of achieving something within the context of your situation and abilities. It is important to have realistic dreams based on your reality, otherwise you will set yourself up for disappointment. Every human being has a unique set of abilities, and inabilities. Someone very-short will never play professional basketball, someone very-tall will never be a competitive horse-jockey and someone blind will not become a commercial airplane pilot; but those same people can achieve many other great things that fit their role in this world. Many people with great disadvantages have achieved enormous things, and you can too.
World-renown therapist and TV-host Ruth Westheimer was orphaned at age 10, her entire family was murdered. Despite being just 4' 7" tall (140cm), as a teenager she was in the military as a sniper, fighting for the independence of her country.
Stephen Hawking, one of the most well-known physicists in the world, had a disease that left his entire body paralyzed
The great musician Stevie Wonder became blind as a child
Former U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt was wheelchair-bound
Actor Tom Cruise was functionally-illiterate until adulthood
Political activist Helen Keller was deaf and blind, and earned a college degree and was a published author
Albert Einstein was the world's most-brilliant physicist/scientist, he also did not speak until age 3 and failed math in school
Muhammad Ali is known as the "greatest boxer of all time", he is also dyslexic and struggles to read
Itzhak Perlman is one of the most talented violinists of all time, he is wheelchair-bound and cannot walk
Set your goals to advance yourself and better the world
The most soul-crushing feeling is to feel unwanted. Every human being wants to feel like they matter. If you have not yet found your purpose in life, then try exploring ways to help other people and you may find meaning in that. Wherever you are, you can help someone else. Often, when you help others you establish a purpose and meaning to your life, and this makes you feel better about yourself. Some ideas to volunteer in ways that you are capable:
Visit someone elderly or handicap who may be lonely and bored, and simply appreciates your company
Help a charity raise funds
Serve food at a community soup kitchen or meal center for the disadvantaged
Offer to go shopping or run errands for someone who is mobility-impaired or homebound due to disability
Teach your language to someone in another country via video-chat
Babysit for the children of your family members, or offer to help them with their homework
Contribute your personal insight to answer questions on Quora
I learnt about Create a list of the areas in your life that you hope to improve from among those taught in this unit:
Financial responsibility
Time management
Health
Productivity
Stress management
Identifying role models and/or mentors
Enjoying the process of "working" to earn income
The list may be long or short; what matters most is that you include what is important to you, things that you really wish you could improve.
Important: only list information that you are comfortable sharing publicly and with the Techie Youth staff; do NOT include any personal or private information, and do NOT include your contact info with this list.
Put the list into a sharable document, such as a Google Document, generate a "share URL" and set the document permissions to "anyone with the link can view". Share the link to your document with us.
This is an ungraded assignment; whatever is important to you to include on the list is sufficient for completing this unit. Techie Youth may review the document to learn about your needs and possibly offer suggestions how we can help, but your submission will not impact your performance in this course.
When you have completed the entire Techie Youth Learn to E-Earn program and become eligible to graduate, look back at the list that you have created in this assignment, and analyze which areas you have already made improvements.
I learnt about Identifying need
With modern technology you can make virtually anything from scratch that you can think up of. To help stimulate ideas of what to create, ask yourself the following questions:
What things do people buy a lot of?
What things do people want a lot of?
What things do people talk a lot about?
What thing do you think the world would benefit from having invented?
What is a popular trend that you can make products for right now?
What is a common problem in the world that can be solved with a new object or invention?
Is there an advertisement that you were tempted to look at recently? What drew you in? What kind of product was it for?
If someone gave you a large amount of money and required you to spend it on something non-essential, what luxury-item might you buy?
Risk analysis
Once you have your idea, now you should be the "devil's advocate" to identify any weak areas that may jeopardize your ability to earn income with this idea. Right now it is just an idea, do not get too attached to it - if you determine that there is not a strong likelihood of success than change your idea now while you have nothing invested yet; you can always think up of more ideas. Later, once you have invested time and income in producing the product, changing the idea can be expensive and incur loss.
Analyze your product by asking yourself the following questions:
Is this idea already being mass produced by a large company? If yes, then how are you going to differentiate your product so that it can compete against a product that is already established?
Can you find someone already selling something similar online? If so, how much are they selling it for? What does their item look like? What did they make it out of? How much would you estimate their per-product costs to be? Is there room to compete on profit margins? Are you able to see their quantity of sales? If so, are there enough sales to imply the market is large enough to add a competing product?
Who would you sell this product to? What is your target audience?
Are you confident that you could figure out how to produce this item?
For a reasonably lucrative product you may only need a few small customers who pay a lot per unit, or for inexpensive items you may need a massive audience. Identify which demographic of person buys your product, how many people there are in that demographic and how much money they would typically spend on this type of product over the course of a year. It is okay if what you are making is for a very-niche industry, but if your product has a lot of competition then you may consider that the market may be too saturated to capture enough customers. That being said, a saturated market is an indicator of healthy product demand.
Inspiration
You are free to create whatever type of item that you envision; to fuel your thoughts, we will cover in this unit the skills needed to create the following types of products:
Clothing, jewelry and fashion items
3D printed or laser cut jewelry made from plastic, such as earring ends or necklace clasps. For inspiration, search the Internet for "laser cut jewelry" or "3D printed jewelry."
Clothes that light up when you walk or use sensors that alert you upon certain actions, such as touching your face. Explore this project hub to see some of the potential wearable items that can be created.
Furniture and lighting, both functional like LED-chandeliers and purely decorative like neon decorations.
Accessories for gaming, such as chairs that vibrate in response to actions within a video game.
Light up jewelry, desk perimeters, clothes, shoes, etc. Anything that you can attach an LED, some circuitry and a battery can be made to light up.
Art, sculpture and conversation-pieces
You can produce virtually any art piece that you can imagine using a combination of 3D printing, laser cutting, digital art printing and related tools.
Vintage-new items - converted antique items to have new functionality or just unique aesthetics
Vintage radios that play music via Bluetooth
Functional devices disguised within antique or deprecated objects, such as a toaster housed within the shell of a VCR
Functional, useful or artistic objects made with electronic circuitry
Custom doorbells
A planter-pot that waters itself automatically
A door lock that unlocks with a contactless RFID tag.
Items customized for the customer
Laser-etch a customer's name onto commodity items like cell phone-cases and wooden bookmarks
Turn peoples drawings into 3D prints
I learnt about Deploying
Once your business is sufficiently planned out, it is time to launch it! The next steps are going to vary depending on your specific business, but by this stage you should also have a good idea how you are going to implement the initial phases of your business, based on the ideas and plans set forth in your executive summary. Nearly every business will need to create a formal business entity and the branding for it.
How to set up a legal business entity
Branding
This program focuses on remote computer-based businesses that can be performed from anywhere that you are. As a well-rounded entrepreneur, it is important that you also know what is involved in having a physical presence, such as an office, warehouse, factory or store. Watch this video to learn how to rent a commercial property, and what you need to consider when selecting a property.
Common foundational milestones that apply to most ventures, albeit not all, include financing, creating your product, getting sales/clients and hiring your team.
Financing
How to obtain funding to support the operations of your business until reaching the break-even point (where your business earns more than it spends.)
Creating your product
Create your product or an MVP version of it
Regardless of whether your services/products can be formed/built solely by you or if you need to have a team in order to reach MVP, it is always important to maintain a hands-on understanding of your business. Watch this video to gain a deeper understand of the reasons for being hands-on with your business
Getting sales/clients
Get sales, clients, buyers, contracts or letters of intent
Watch this video to learn psychological and interhuman tactics to win people over and get them to like you so they want to do business with you (instead of the competition.)
Watch this video to learn methods of using silence to gain the upper-hand in client negotiations
Watch this video to learn key factors of successful sales and marketing.
Watch this video to learn how brevity and having a concise pitch will improve your sales success.
Watch this video to understand how inventory purchasing can effect your profit margins, and what you can do to maximize profits at the time of buying inventory.
Watch this video to learn how to maximize profit earned from selling product.
Hiring
Hire your team of employees
Managing employees effectively to maximize productivity and your return-on-investment is a skill that every business-leader needs to learn. The first step is to identify what management style best suits you; watch this video to learn about the implications of different leadership styles so that you can decide what approach best-matches your personality.
Watch this video to learn what to expect from employees you hire, and how human psychology impacts how you should be managing your human-resources.
Sometimes employees do not work out as expected, watch this video to learn how to fire, terminate or lay-off employees, and what are the protocols to follow in order to minimize your liability when ending their employment.
Getting paid
Refer back to the introduction section on getting paid, everything in that section remains the same except that you can now open your bank checking and other accounts in the name of your company, so your clients can send you checks and payments written to the name of the company.
I learned that Entrepreneurship & Business Leadership is An individual who has a vision of a better future, is willing to take personal risk to pursue that vision, and works through and with people to pursue their vision. The main initial steps are to identify your: (click the links on each)
Business model
Profit models and revenue streams
Customer and market
Contingency planning: watch this video about creating alternative plans so that you are prepared for facets of your business not proceeding as expected.
Cofounders
Partnerships: watch this video on forming partnerships with other organizations and strategic alliances that are supportive or beneficial to your business.
Exit strategy
Executive summary
Everything in the planning section above needs to get documented in an executive summary, learn more about creating one.
Deploying
Once your business is sufficiently planned out, it is time to launch it! The next steps are going to vary depending on your specific business, but by this stage you should also have a good idea how you are going to implement the initial phases of your business, based on the ideas and plans set forth in your executive summary. Nearly every business will need to create a formal business entity and the branding for it.
I learned that Just as everyone has their own definition of success, we all have slightly different ideas of what constitutes a high-quality life. However, there are some steps everyone can take to make life more enjoyable. Just taking these few steps can boost your personal well-being and make each day more meaningful, without drastic change.
Make money online through websites such as Upwork, Fiverr and Freelancer.com. These sites offer opportunities to do a variety of freelance jobs, such as writing, programming, design, marketing, data entry and being a virtual assistant.