Andrew Amann once did too, but he decided to do something about it. He brought a startup mindset to his career.
He didn’t look for another job or ask for a promotion. Instead, he started a side business that had nothing to do with this work.
It’s a new business card app called Inigo that he hopes will one day replace traditional paper business cards. The most liberating aspect of his side business was having the freedom to test his ideas with customers without having to go through a chain of command.
By day Andrew works at a factory that manufactures nuclear values in Ipswich, MA that are used in nuclear power plants and such. The manufacturing process is very traditional, but he has a vision for reinventing it.
He recently got promoted to divisional technology lead to help his company rethink how new technologies can help make their supply chain more efficient. Now he’s super passionate about his day job because he’s bringing a startup mindset to manufacturing.
He believes his side business Inigo had a lot to do with his promotion.
Life Skills That Matter In This Episode
- Proudly tell your story.
- Create your own work.
- Self-directed learning.
- Freedom to experiment.
- Grow a startup mindset.
How Andrew Works and Thinks
- Wake up time: 7:30am
- 3 core work habits: 1) works after his family goes to sleep until 2am, about 4 to 5 hours a night 2) answers customer emails throughout the day and 3) creates something new every week
- Definition of success: The number of people that have become customers. Currently, he has 200,000 customers!
- Superpower: Communication
- Book recommendation: Zero to One by Peter Thiel.
- Wants to meet: Seth Godin and Gary Vaynerchuk.
- Favorite productivity tools: Trello, Asana and Google Analytics.
- Regains focus: Communication from his developers, which gives him a new challenge.
- 90-day goal: Wants his side business to be self-sustaining by the end of this year, so he can start spending money on marketing.
Inspirational Quotes
“When you start a side gig you can’t focus on money because then you are going to be chasing money, instead of passion.”
“If you have a side project, it’s not something to hide. You should gloat about it and be proud of it.”
Coaching Advice
Andrew believes the life skill that has had the biggest impact on his work is the ability to learn on your own.
There is so much content freely available online now, there’s more opportunity than ever to teach yourself about almost any industry you are curious about. He offers 4 key pieces of advice for motivating yourself to learn on your own:
1) Focus on your curiosities. Unfortunately, many of us haven’t found joy in learning, but Andrew believes you’ll enjoy learning when it’s something you are passionate about.
2) Focus on your best skills. You are also generally more passionate about skills you already know, so focus on developing them further to make your skills even more marketable.
3) Focus on tasks and activities you enjoy most in your job. Identify the aspects of your current work you enjoy, even if your job is making you miserable. Find ways to spend more time working on those aspects. Make those aspects a priority as you seek your next work opportunity.
4) Focus your social media feed only on stuff you want to learn about. Take a break from all the noise and mindless content by focusing on material that can have a lasting impact on your life.
Resources + Bonus Materials
Boston Globe article about Inigo
Special Offer for Life Skills That Matter Listeners
Get unlimited users for 3 months for free with Inigo! The usual rate is $5/month per user. Have your entire team try Inigo now and discover the impact it will have on your sales!
To get the offer, send this hashtag #lifeskillsthatmatter to @iniggoapp on Twitter.