Reinvent yourself and thrive in the digital economy!

BE YOURBEST

THINKLIKE ASTARTUP

STEVE SAMMARTINO

Get Agile and Unleash Your Inner Entrepreneur

The days of being locked into a single career for life are long gone. It’s time to reinvent yourself, transform your life and work the new economy for everything it’s worth.

With the industrial age quickly vanishing in the rearview mirror, Think Like a Startup is your instruction manual for hacking your mind and acquiring the skills to take control of your life and fortunes in the digital age.

Inspirational, subversive, and with a wealth of insightful guidance, Think Like a Startup will help you to break from a lifetime of legacy programming and take full advantage of the technology revolution.

Reboot your entrepreneurial spirit and excel in the digital age

Cover Design: Wiley Cover Image: maglyvi/shutterstock.com

Previously published as The Lessons School Forgot

Steve Sammartino is a renowned futurist, technologist and a born entrepreneur with an uncanny ability to make sense of how emerging technology applies to any industry.

AUS$19.95 / NZ$22.99 / USA$15.00 / CAN$15.00

SUCCESS

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THINKLIKE ASTARTUP

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BE YOURBEST

THINKLIKE ASTARTUPGet Agile and UnleashYour Inner Entrepreneur

STEVE SAMMARTINO

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First published as The Lessons School Forgot in 2017 by John Wiley & SonsAustralia, Ltd

42 McDougall St, Milton Qld 4064

Office also in Melbourne

This edition first published in 2020 by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd

Typeset in 12.5/14.5pt Arno Pro

© Start Up Squad Pty Ltd 2017

The moral rights of the author have been asserted

ISBN: 978-0-730-38196-9

All rights reserved. Except as permitted under theAustralian Copyright Act 1968(for example, a fair dealing for the purposes of study, research, criticism orreview), no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,communicatedor transmitted in any formorby anymeanswithout priorwrittenpermission. All inquiries should be made to the publisher at the address above.

Cover design by Wiley

Printed in Singapore by C.O.S. Printers Pte Ltd

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DisclaimerThe material in this publication is of the nature of general comment only, anddoes not represent professional advice. It is not intended to provide specificguidance for particular circumstances and it should not be relied on as thebasis for any decision to take action or not take action on any matter whichit covers. Readers should obtain professional advice where appropriate, beforemaking any such decision. To themaximum extent permitted by law, the authorand publisher disclaim all responsibility and liability to any person, arisingdirectly or indirectly from any person taking or not taking action based on theinformation in this publication.

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Contents

About the author viiPreface ix

Part I: Revolution 11 A lesson about school 52 A proxy for happiness 153 The future is informal 294 The future of work 49

Part II: Revenue 715 The truth about money 736 Money isn’t money 857 The seeds of greatness 998 The future of money 1199 The best way to invest money 127

Part III: Reinvention 14910 Portfolio living 15311 Freelancing is rad 17312 Upskilling 18313 Instant startup entrepreneur 19914 DNA is DESTINY 213

Notes 221

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About the author

Steve wrote his first lines of computer code at age 10, and is oneof Australia’s most respected business minds. While the schoolsystem didn’t really suit his learning style, he has an incredibleability to make sense of how emerging technology is changingthe way we work, live and earn. He’s a born entrepreneur, andhad his first startup at age 10—an organic egg farm. Whileholding down a daytime corporate gig, in his spare time hestarted and eventually sold a successful a clothing business. (Heused to start work at 5 am, sell to customers at lunch time anddo the administration at night.)

After graduating from university majoring in Economics, heworked in multiple Fortune 500 companies and held manysenior positions culminating in directorships, before answeringhis true calling for independence from The System. Curiousabout why some people seemed to get richer, regardless ofeducation and income, he delved deeply into the study ofpersonal finance, informally.His experiencemeanshe intimatelyunderstands small and big business and how to play the game toget ahead and design your own future.

Steve has had multiple technology startups, includinglaunching rentoid.com, one of the first ‘sharing economy’startups, before Uber or Airbnb. Steve had a successful exit

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selling the startup to a public company. He now investsin emerging technologies and has multiple advisory boardpositions in a variety of disruptive technologies across theairline, automotive, real estate and co-working industries, andthe internet of things, quantified self, mobile applications, and3D printing technologies.

Extreme projects are something Steve loves doing todemonstrate what is possible. Crowdfunded via Twitter, hehelped build a full-size driveable car made from 500 000 Legopieces, complete with an engine made completely from Legothat runs on air. This project has over 9 million views onYouTube and was a global news story. He also put a toy spaceship into earth orbit for under $2000 to prove how cheappowerful technology has become.

A media commentator on technology and the future, Steveis a regular on the ABC and provides expert assessmenton the rapidly evolving technology sector. He has also beenfeatured on the BBC,The Smithsonian Institute,TheDiscoveryChannel, Mashable, Wired, and has even had documentariesmade about his projects. Steve wants to share a life of hackingthe system with you, so you can use emerging technology toyour advantage, to live the life you deserve.

Get in touch with him at stevesammartino.com.

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Preface

The first job I ever had was in a factory. I was pretty excitedabout it at the time. The job would leave a permanent imprinton my life. There was something about it I’ve never forgotten;it changed me in a way. Maybe it was to do with all thoseroutines, procedures and outputs, or maybe it was the waypeople behaved inside this closed system. In hindsight it allseemed a little strange, unnatural, even a little inhuman, butI didn’t really question it when I was starting out— I just tookit as the way things were.

Factories arewithoutdoubt among themost interestingkindsof workplace humans have created. Most of us have at somepoint had the opportunity to at least visit one and see it inaction from close up. Maybe you were sent to the factory of acompany you worked with, so you could get an understandingof how things were done there. Maybe you’ve partaken in abit of industrial tourism—aviation and chocolate factories arefavourites. If you haven’t had such an experience, let me recallmy factory job for you.

Most people would arrive for their shift at the last moment.Clad in uniform with the company logo emblazoned on it,we streamed through the factory gate, which was set into aneight-foot-high chain-link fence— I’m still not sure if it was

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designed to keep outsiders out or insiders in. The plant wasbroken up into sections, clearly delineated by yellow linesso everyone knew where to go and how to get there. Moreexperienced workers took on more advanced tasks on thefactory floor.

Right on 8.50 am a loud electronic bell heralded the startof the shift. In the next 10 minutes we’d all file inside to ourworkstations.Once the head count had been takenwewould beallocated our tasks for the day. The work week, month and yearwere planned bymanagement, our work clearly set out for us inadvance.

Some of the day-to-day procedures took me a while to getused to. I had to work independently in semi-isolation yet ina large, crowded room. We had to memorise certain tasks andcalculations, which was important so each of us maximised ouroutput and the whole system worked efficiently. Conversationwas generally discouraged, as was helping others on the shift,which we were told would end up slowing down two peopleinstead of one. When we got stuck or needed help with a task,the shift manager was to be informed. But we soon understoodit was important not to make mistakes, because it slowed downeveryone on the production line.

To remind us of the policies (there were quite a few toremember), the walls were festooned with notices covering‘how-to’ instructions, work-based targets, efficiency measuresand reminders of what was required for success. Also displayedwere photographs of star workers who had been recognised forperforming above expectation on particular measures. And inevery room a clock hung front and centre so we could all keepabreast of the timeandmeetourdeadlines, completing specifiedoutputs before each break.Whilemany of the tasks were boringand repetitive, we were reminded of the benefits of doing thingswell and in a timely fashion. In fact, everything seemed to beabout time.x

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Management generally had a vantage point from which theycould observe and assess the workers’ progress. They’d walkthe floor looking over our shoulders to ensure everything washumming along efficiently and we would meet the productiontargets set for the day.

I was told little about what was going on outside my sectionof the factory, but was encouraged simply to focus on thejob in front of me and doing it well. So long as I displayed abasic amount of competence, I could expect to be promotedto a higher position, like most of those who came beforeme, a position where the work was more demanding yet alsomore rewarding. No one got promoted if their performancereview wasn’t up to scratch, so it was vital that I master andmemorise by rote the more rudimentary procedures. Quarterlyinterim performance audits, and an annual review at year’send, determined our rate of advancement both at the plantand, eventually, to something bigger and better beyond it. Theperformance reviews noted the areas of improvement requiredby each individual. Doing well in one area and neglectinganother wasn’t good enough; management demanded thatworkers both followed procedures effectively and were wellrounded.

Obedience mattered too. Suggesting a better way to dosomething, or questioningwhywedid certain things,was totallyfrowned on. I found it annoying that sometimes the mostrewarded workers weren’t the best, but rather the best behaved.Sometimes it felt like following rules and wearing the rightuniform were considered more important than the work itself,and the managers always had their favourites.

To be honest, I didn’t like this job very much, but whileI sensed the lack of freedom and humanity from day one, Isomehow stuck it out for the next 13 years. If you’re wonderingwhy, it’s because I didn’t have much choice. I started this job

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when I was five years old, and my employer was the publicschooling system.

While all the tasks and expectations weremade exceptionallyclear at this factory, there was one important thing I didn’trealise until much later— the product I wasmakingwasmyself.I was a raw material being processed into something that couldbe sold in the marketplace. The factory of school was teachingme to be a successful participant in the industrial economy.I was being prepared to be marketed to the industrialists whoowned and controlled the factors of production. They wouldeventually take on a form of quasi-ownership of this ‘humanresource’, otherwise known as Steve Sammartino. Perhaps theyowned you too—maybe they still do?

Together in this book,we’ll be undertaking a journey towardsindependence. Because I believe something was stolen frommany of us through subterfuge. In the course of the book we’llexplore this system that shaped you, and I’ll help you unlearn itsmode of thinking and relearn the lost art of self-reliance. Alongthe way I’ll introduce you to some cool tools, new rules andgeneral life hacks thatwill enable you todesign your own systemfor living. One designed by you, for you. And you’re goingto love it.

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Part IRevolution

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There’s a lot of material in the market these days on thetechnology revolution. Disruptive technology is very much themanagement focus du jour. The impact it has on the economy,industry and established industrialised companies has beenwelldocumented. And it makes sense to seek insights into howcompanies facing it might be able to respond. What’s less clearis how the heck an individual with a skill set that is about toexpire might cope with the impending changes. If companies,industries and economies are worried about what might comenext, and their potential displacement, then the people whomakeup theseorganisationshave reason for their ownconcerns.I hope that this book will become a timeless future-proofingmanifesto for your own economic survival. The techniquesand ideas in here mash up economic ideas that have survivedmillennia with a new set of technological tools with which toimplement them. To make this work, I’ve split the book intothree discrete sections that give context, structure and strategyunder the headings Revolution, Revenue and Reinvention.

Part I, ‘Revolution’, outlines how we got here, why most ofus believe what we do and act the way we do, and why as aresult so many of us struggle financially and in our careers. Thisbackground helps makes sense of how we have been shapedto think in certain ways, even when this runs counter to ourown interests. It describes the obsolete mindset we need toescape from and sets out a new philosophy to help us reframeour thinking and to reinvent ourselves. It points towards theaha moment when we can finally say, screw the system, I canchange—and now I know what’s possible. I believe the linksbetween the traditional institutions of the school and industrialeconomic model are really important and can’t be overstated.Understanding why systems and thinking developed in the waythey did very often reveals the fork in the road we need. It’scathartic, lifting a weight off our shoulders and encouraging us

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Revolution

to take anewdirectionwithout confusionor fear. It’s an essentialprecondition for cutting new ground.

The revolution we are living through is redesigning howmoney moves around and what is valued in our world. You’lllearn about the exponential growth of the technologies behindthe changes, but also that, surprisingly, the power skills ofthe emerging era are not purely technological, but human andcreative too; they are skills anyone can learn if they makethe effort. This revolution is for everyone who chooses toparticipate. I hope you’ll be inspired to unlearn some of theupside-down thinking youwere taught at school and relearn thatyou were born an entrepreneur brimming with creativity. Thefirst chapters will expose the myth that we are all headed foreconomic hardship. Some surely are, but it is really a choicethey make; you need not do so. Economic hardship today is aresult of personal stagnation, becausewehavenever knownsuchopportunity, and it is at the same time so affordable (free is apretty compelling price point). This revolution we’ve all beengifted to participate in is made possible by a level of prosperityunmatched in human history, a time of great abundance forthose who recognise the shift and decide to take advantage ofit. You’ll soon know that this revolution was actually designedwith you in mind, but it requires you to be active and shape itfor yourself.

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CHAPTER 1A lesson about

schoolIt’s time to launch the Startup of you!

We are in the midst of a technological revolution. There isno doubt that our world is changing at a pace never beforewitnessed in human history. This is no longer controversial,or even debatable; it’s a mere fact. We’ve seen it in our ownlives. Innovations that would have seemed unimaginable even10 years ago are now widely available, affordable and so mucha part of our daily life that we imagine we couldn’t live withoutthem. But it’s still early days. We’re only 20 years into this, andlet’s not forget that the automobile didn’t arrive until 150 yearsafter the start of the industrial revolution.

This technological shift is impacting us all at a societal andeconomic level, changing the very nature of the lives we live,including of course how we earn a living. No one is immune.Incredible changes are being introduced in every industry, everybusiness model, every job. This is because everyone is sharingthe same core digital technologies.

This revolution is open to everyone who chooses toparticipate. But we need to reboot the entrepreneurial spirit

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every one of us was born with, because school, with all its goodintentions, has not prepared us for this.

STEM is not enoughAs the birth child of the industrial revolution, school taughtus survival skills for a bygone era. Educators and governmentshave deftly moved to ensure the graduates of tomorrow arriveprepared for the technological era by focusing on what theycall STEM subjects— Science, Technology, Engineering andMaths. The problem is that STEM is not enough. In fact, thisre-emphasis, on its own, really won’t help much at all, becauseit is just more of what we’ve been taught historically, with adifferent angle of approach. What we need to do is add thetwo missing E’s of Economics and Entrepreneurship, so STEMbecomes ESTEEM.

By adding the missing E’s, we have a chance to build people’sesteem.We give people an opportunity to becomemore humanand to live an adventure as modern-day economic explorerscarvingoutanewpathforthemselves.Whenwesharethelostartsof entrepreneurship and self-reliance, a sparkwe all had as kids isreignited so brightly that it becomes a beacon to guide others.

ESTEEM recognises that we need each other, that somenon-technical skills, as you’ll see, create value that makespreviously invisible STEM visible. They create more value thanis offeredbyanythingelseweattempt, becausewithout the spiritof exploration, even in an economic sense, we’d all still be livingin caves. Building an economy around the idea of ESTEEMmeans appreciating the wide variety of viewpoints and naturalfaculties we have to offer. Tech Hackers, Design Hipsters andSales Hustlers meet in the middle and make something greattogether. When we add the missing E’s we give everyone whobelieves they have a chance a tilt at an independent future. If wewant future-proof kids, and grown-ups, we all need ESTEEM.

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A lesson about school

For too long science and maths have been largely ignored inwider society. We glorify celebrity and sporting achievement,but technologists are rarely recognised. I’ve lost count of howmany sports people have been named Australian of the Year;it really is ‘fall of Rome’ stuff. But it does feel like the tideis turning. As end users of technology, society is starting tovalue science on a personal level, and it’s about time. More andmore kids are learning to code, to hack, to experiment withrobotics— it feels like an exciting shift. But if we reconfiguretheir minds only to science, without addressing economics andentrepreneurship, we are still just teaching them to participatein someone else’s game, and we all deserve more than that.

We need to be able to take what we know and convert itinto income, to participate in the market not only to get agood job but also to create jobs for ourselves and others.Even better, we can look towards inventing new industries thatdon’t even exist yet, and all the technology in the world can’tdo that, because technology without practical application, inthe form of customers and a market, is just a discovery. Thepeople developing the wizardry of tomorrow deserve to be thebeneficiaries of what they create. In fact, anyone doing anythingdeserves the dignity of knowing how to manage their ownfuture, and this is what Think Like a Startup is all about.

Time to unlearnFor the sake of collective progress, let’s assume we’re all late tothe party. We probably should have started a little earlier on allthis. Yes, there’s always someone who knows more and startedbefore us— so what? Let’s agree that the second best time tostart is now. And the first thing we have to do before anythingelse is unlearn the way we think. In order to reinvent ourselves,we need to wipe our human hard drive clean of all the uselessfiles we’ve been carrying around since school. Some of them

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are heavy and slowing us down. We need to remember that ourtraining to follow a linear path is obsolete. With some simpleknowledge hacks, we can reframe what looks risky and pursue anew path.

Today’s playbook can be learned relatively quickly, once wefree ourmind fromwhat we have been told. It’s low cost and hasa high return on time invested. The least anyone willing to havea crack at reinventing themselves can expect is that they’ll get avery nice ROH (return on humanity). Sometimes the havingis in the doing, and by doing more than you’ve done in thepast, you’ll become more than you were and will feel pride athaving had the guts to try. And some strange things happenwhen we invest in ourselves. We gain a great deal of self-esteem,and our own economics improves because we know, and otherssense, we are the kind of person to make an effort. It’s thesame feeling you get when you’ve prepared well for anything:suddenly the outcome doesn’t seem as important, although weare often happy with it.

You’ve already got the skills you need. If you can read, youcan do it. I reallymean that.This revolution is one that connectsskills and people, and we all need each other. But if you can digup some deeply buried desire for risk, some courage and a bit ofthe creative spirit you had as a five-year-old, then I know you’llseize the opportunity that being connected to everyone in theworld can bring. It’s an opportunity no generation before oursever had.

The history of the presentBefore we can unlearn anything, we need to know why wesometimes think the way we do. We need to be able to seethrough the system that shaped us. School is a good place tostart.

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A lesson about school

The first thing you need to know about school is this:

SCHOOL WAS NOT DESIGNED WITH YOU IN MIND.

They designed it for them. You might be wondering who‘they’ actually are. Well, ‘they’, in the developed world at least,are the governments and the industrialists and business leaderswho own and control the factors of production. School as weknow it was designed to create competent, compliant workerswho could fit into the rapidly industrialising world.

Before the industrial revolution there was a very highprobability that people would simply do what their parents did,especially if it involved agriculture or a craft. They would followfamily tradition, the required skills usually handed down fromparents or close relatives. Or they’d work in the family business,most oftenekingout a livingwith theprimary focusof providingfor the food, clothing and lodging to sustain their family. Therewasn’t much excess for the working classes, but there was a fairamount of freedom.

Why change hurtsIf you’re wondering why change is so hard for us to cope with,it’s because we’ve been programmed for stability, indoctrinatedfrom the age of innocence to believe in a system that is nowobsolete. From the moment we are capable of comprehension,we are shaped into little industrialised robots awaitinginstructions from the corporate or governmental algorithm. It’snot our fault that change is so uncomfortable. The 200 years ofthe industrial era, despite its world wars and depressions, ledto a long period of systemic stability and unsurpassed materialprosperity. For many generations we have had the formulafor living an increasingly prosperous life, and the industrialrevolution delivered against this promise big time.

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As I wrote in my first book, The Great Fragmentation, we nowlive better than royalty did before this revolution, and anythingthat threatens to upend that comfort is fearsome. We fret atthe possibility of change not only because we’ve never had itso good, but because we’ve been told all our lives to leave thebig important stuff to the people in charge of the systems inwhich we obediently participate. Economically we have beencoddled, so much so that we have come to believe our systemwas designed to serve us in perpetuity. It’s now clear that is notgoing to be the case. The system is changing dramatically, andwe need to change our personal business models to recognisethis. We have a choice:

We can wait for the system to get better.

Or we can reinvent ourselves, redesigning our lives and in theprocess helping reshape the system (which I go into in detail inPart III, ‘Reinvention’).

We’ve been treated like economic outpatients waiting for thegovernment and our once reliable institutions to provide for us,believing they will provide us with the opportunities we need,and all our social and economic needs, so long as we work hard.It’s not surprising we think like this— they trained us to thinkthey would continue to provide jobs and security. Well, they’renot going to. The incentive structure of management tells thesimple tale of why it can’t and won’t happen.

Incentives shape behaviourNothing indicates what people will do more clearly thantheir incentives. These days our economic lives, which can beloosely equated to ‘themarket’, are an aggregation of short-terminterests. Government and corporate leaders simply aren’taround long enough to care about the impact of the majordecisions they make. In Australia, where I live, the federal

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