HESTER STREET FAIR 8/21-8/22
Come visit us this weekend at the Hester Street Fair! Also, come participate this Saturday in the Ping Pong Tournament as seen in TimeOut NY!
NYC STREET FAIRS SWEET SUMMER SALE 8/7-8/8
Come find us this weekend 8/7-8/8 if you’re in Manhattan. On Saturday 8/7, you can find us at the Market on 268 Mulberry Street. On Sunday 8/8, you can find us at the Hester Street Fair. We have new tanks and pocket tees that you can get your hands on!
Hester Street Fair 7/31
If you’re in the New York City area, come stop by at our booth at the Hester Street Fair to say hi! Come experience the unique vibe of the Lower East Side and your friendly neighbor ToyNinja.
Abundance and Art
We live in a world of abundance. If we chose to not buy anything anymore we could. Especially in the US, we could live very richly for very little.
What happens in a life that we don’t shop anymore? We don’t constantly read blogs on the newest coolest gadget. We don’t strive to buy the Lamborghini. We don’t strive to buy a big house with a white picket fence.
What happens to us then? What is the point of creating anything new? Anything remotely good already exists in the world. We don’t need to make or buy stuff anymore. What do we do then?
What is the point for all the things like t-shirts, computers, and shoes that are constantly made each season?
We can live a life in isolation as a hermit. Or we can live a life that we contribute to the society. Does the world really need another t-shirt? I don’t see the whole point why anyone needs anything from us. This is a selfish point of view. The world needs our stuff because it is art. It has the ability to make someone’s day better. It can bring a smile to someone. It can lead to that ‘aha’ moment that inspires them to do something greater.
As an artist, as a ninja, it’s necessary to share your art with the world because it needs it. The world is already full of abundance and the thing it really needs now is art that can touch their lives. You may not know what impact it has but understand that it makes a difference nonetheless.
It’s a way to build community. A way to start conversation. A beginning point to a long friendship.
HORSE
You don’t play 5 on 5 against the big boys in their own arena, but instead you force them to play H-O-R-S-E with you. You give yourself a better chance to win when you simplify the game and its rules. You force your bigger competitors to compete on your home court.
Your speed and quickness are advantages in the marketplace. Use that ability to prototype your idea and launch quicker into the public. You can make quick decisions without having to go through any bureaucracy for approval. Instead of only attempting to appeal the gatekeepers with your product, you can appeal to the people directly with the internet and online communication tools like Twitter and Facebook. More people are wired to the internet than ever before.
Threadless is a great example of a t-shirt company that is taking advantage of the new economy. They changed the game to their benefit. They sell directly to their community of customers without going through any retailers. They don’t design any t-shirts, which is left up to the community. They don’t choose which t-shirts are printed, that is also left to the community. They have built a platform that is run by the community for the community. They take the traditional model of designer to retail stores to customers and turned it upside down. Threadless is designer directly to other designers and friends.
You don’t have to invent a new idea from scratch, you can modify what’s existing and make it better.
For example, there are plenty of great designs on Threadless with high ratings that for one reason or another have not been turned into t-shirts.
You could start a company based on Threadless castaways. They were good enough to be voted by a majority of people to be excellent designs and you can leverage the same community to talk about your products. You are helping a group of designers who want their product made in real life actually get it done. Their friends and people all around the globe can enjoy their art on a t-shirt.
You can start off with the Top 100 designs that were castaways and then offer print each design in limited quantities of 100. There is no rule that says that Threadless designs that haven’t been printed aren’t good enough for the public.
This is just one way you can spin off an existing idea. There are many ways you can provide value to people, you just have to look for ways to explore ideas differently.
Narrow your focus, simplify the rules and communicate with your users directly.
Narrow Your Focus
The best time to be an entrepreneur is now. The opportunities are boundless.
Entrepreneurs can learn a lot by running their company through the sports framework to create something that customers cannot live without.
Choosing what product you want to create and in what industry is like deciding which sport to play in. Each sport has it’s own intricacies for you to understand. Once you understand the rules, you can learn how to change it to your advantage.
Think about the game of basketball, normal professional rules require that each team put five players on the court for a 5 on 5 game. In life, you can choose to play basketball too but you can decide you want to compete on a different level. You don’t need to play 5 on 5 full court. You can choose to play a 3 on 3 game or just play a game of H-O-R-S-E.
Your idea exists in one sport or industry, but you can choose to focus on a smaller subset. If you decided to challenge LeBron James to a one-on-one game you would likely lose most of your games, but your chances increase dramatically when the rules are changed. If you competed against him only in a game of H-O-R-S-E you would have a better chance to win. Change the rules so you don’t have to compete directly the way the competitors want.
The Game
You are the owner and you get to decide where your idea exists in the marketplace and what form it will take.
What problem do you want to solve? According to Guy Kawasaki in the Art of the Start, the goal any organization is to make meaning. How does one go about changing the world?
Focus on creating great art that people want. Our definition of “art” means any product, physical or virtual, that provides value to people. Art can be a basketball player playing the game in front of millions. Art can be great online software that helps people organize their time. Art can be graphic t-shirts that are sold to help support the local economy.
Anything that combines your output with an audience is art. There is an intersection in creating something that you enjoy and something that people want and that is art.
The most important thing is to get going and start by getting your product to the market as soon as possible. The faster you release your prototype, the faster you will discover the right business model on how to make money.
Your original idea may not be the one that generates money for your business in the beginning. Apple started off selling components back in the 1970’s and now makes its money selling computers.
The best way to create value is by running your company and product through the lens of sports. Look around and you can see the power and influence of sports in all cultures. Sports are part of our everyday lives. It’s something we can’t ignore.
Sports help to tie, unite and bring together cities, countries and cultures.
The Superbowl is the most watched show in all of the United States. Commercials cost millions for 30 seconds because they can reach millions of households in minutes. Friends and family all gather to watch this event together.
This power in sports lies in its simplicity. Anyone can understand the goal of sports in one sentence. In basketball, the team that scores the most baskets wins. In baseball, the team that reaches home plate most wins. In hockey, the team that puts the puck through the net most wins.
How will you be able to make your product easily understood and easy to enjoy? Your product needs to be able to solve a problem and needs to be easily explained in one sentence.
Hopes and Dreams
You only have a limited amount of time on this earth. How do you love what you do?
How many more days until you turn 30? How many more days until you turn 40? Time is short. Your time is your most precious resource.
When you understand that life is short and that you only have a limited amount of days left, you will suddenly feel the urge to do what you have always wanted to do in life.
You start the company you have been waiting to start. You write the book that’s been dormant in your mind. You travel to that exotic country you’ve been planning to visit.
The best time is not tomorrow. It’s now.
As kids we thought anything was possible. We could be a professional basketball player or be a professional baseball player. Somewhere along the road, it just became hopes and dreams. There are people that actually managed through dedication and commitment to make their dreams a reality, and so can you.
What is yet unfulfilled in your mind? It’s not too late. It’s necessary to take back control of your life and be 100% responsible for yourself.
If you had all the money in the world, would you still be doing what you are doing now?
Having the opportunity to focus on your goals is the greatest freedom.
Your worse case scenario if you give up is that you go back to a 9-5 job and you go back to being a cog in the machine in your office cubicle.
When you do take that leap, you find that there are many new things to learn.
It is like being unplugged from the Matrix and suddenly you are given the chance to live again in the real world. You need time to learn how to use all your bodily parts that have been dormant for years. Taking that leap is like learning how to walk again. It’s scary. Baby steps.
In a job, you were being told what to do and how to do it. Being an entrepreneur is not for the light hearted. But if you don’t give up, you will succeed.
Do whatever it takes to accomplish your goal. It’s a scary concept.
Do you want to look back in your life and say that you pushed hard towards your dreams? That you did everything you could in your power to make it come true? Can you be content to be another cog in a machine?
Play the game. Don’t let the game play you.
Spoils of Victory
Times have changed quickly. Great ideas made real by people like you and me are succeeding and succeeding big. It is possible for anyone to easily start a company in this new economy with the widespread growth of tools available online and the ease of local manufacturing in the country. Read more
