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Cape Town – The talks took place and the ideas were shared. Now TedXCapeTown 2014 is online, ready to be shared around the globe. One talk, by Dave Duarte, focused on the idea of side projects, which he believes could replace the CV.
In this story:
- AUDIO: Matthew le Cordeur interviews Dave Duarte
- VIDEO: Listen to Dave Duarte’s talk at TedXCapeTown
- VIDEO: See the playlist to all the TedXCapeTown talks
- GALLERY: The full photo gallery from TedXCapeTown
Side Projects
Duarte is the CEO of Treeshake, which provides a range of learning solutions for companies to respond to the latest digital opportunities and trends.
He said he found many people who had worked for him in the past had impressive CVs, but they were not able to deliver sufficiently and were ineffectual.
“Jobs and skills are progressing at a pace that is faster than the education system is able to keep up,” he said. “People need to learn by doing these days.”
The most dynamic form of certification is producing your own badge, he said, so that after you have produced a side project, you have evidence of what you have created.
Overcoming obstacles
He said people often use the excuse that they don’t have time for a side project. “We encourage pupils on our courses to adapt side projects to show they have learnt the material,” he said.
“What we have found is that if you evaluate people’s schedules, there is so much time wasted on things that are not nearly as effective as that,” he said. “You have to evaluate your leisure time.”
Duarte recommended scrapping watching TV so you can focus on a creative side project. “It might actually reinvigorate your creativity and might break through any professional apathy you’re feeling," he said. "Very few people are sitting around, waiting for something to happen.
“When I see people who have gone out and done a side project that has launched into something successful, I see people who have got their head around the idea of prioritising time.”
Listen:
* View the gallery below while listening to the interview.
How Treeshake uses side projects
Fast-growing small business owners often said they don’t have time for side projects, because they’re too busy putting out fires and operating in what Duarte calls white space. “This is where roles are undefined, strategy is unclear and budgets non-existent,” he said.
“That is an inside project territory: whenever you create something new in a small business that you potentially turn into a new system … you’re constantly creating these experiments that have a high chance of failure.
“All the side projects that I am currently doing are what Treeshake is,” he said. “We now have five independent business units that are generating their own streams of income. The business continues to grow as long as we continue to experiment.
“We have a very high rate of failure as a lot of small businesses do in our side project,” he said. “But we’re able to grow faster than the norm because we’re able to learn faster than the norm from those experiments.”
Watch:
Twigging on
Duarte’s side project, Twig, is in fact a tool to assist people in developing their own side project. “It’s a low risk, low pressure labour of love,” he said.
“It’s a product that will inspire and encourage people to go ahead with their small idea,” he said. “It’s essentially inspiration and support for people who have small ideas.
“I’m so delighted with the concept and the name – I have bought the URL and the name – that I really would like to turn it into something enduring,” he said.
Gallery:
* Scroll through the gallery by using the arrows on the photo.
Side, side project
Duarte is working on a further side project to help corporates communicate more effectively on social media.
“The way that most corporates and many agencies approach their social media is really boring,” he said.
This drove him to develop the Social Content Canvass, which he has developed with two corporates. “It’s a way to help people plan their social media marketing more effectively than they currently do,” he said.
They are planning on giving the system away for free.
Watch:
- Fin24.
* Do you have a side project idea or one that has succeeded? Tell us - it could get published.
