ProWorkflow CEO – 10 Random Facts

ProActive Software’s CEO, Julian Stone designed the www.proworkflow.com solution about 5-6 years ago with help from Co-founder Alan Barlow (his surf blog). I (Julian) tend to keep a fairly low profile commercially although can be occasionally found being social on Twitter, LinkedIn, FaceBook the ProWorkflow blog and of course my personal blog Julian101.

Here’s a few random facts you’d never have known about me.

1. I’m a ‘Workshop Guy‘ and spend many hours a week tinkering in my shed building awesome toys and gadgets! I built this years Christmas presents, a rechargeable paddock stereo for Sarah and boat/trailer for Jackson as well as Cookie cutters for the family!
2. Fly fishing is my real passion and I love nothing more than stalking a fat trout up a back country river or lake!
3. My background is 15 years as a creative in advertising, design, 3d and multimedia. This is where I originally saw the need to the ProWorkflow solution.
4. As a fussy creative, I still to this day do ALL of the creative and branding work for www.ProWorkflow.com and always plan to.
5. My dog ‘Daisy’ is a Golden Retriever (fat and blind) and she spends most of the day keeping us company in the office.
6. I’m an avid boatie and last week nearly landed my first 360 on the wakeboard out in the harbour last week. I vow to land one soon!
7. I’m a handyman and have done all renovations to our rural property (fences, kitchen, bathroom, french doors, decks etc) as well as built the single-handedly built and fitted out the ProWorkflow office (including building building all desks and an outdoor area)!
8. I’m very blunt when giving advice – I tend to just tell it as it is.
9. I never start anything unless I am prepared to see it through and never give up once started.
10. I love my wife Sarah and boy Jackson (2yo) and we live on a few acres in the country just outside Christchurch with 2 horses, 6 peacocks, 7 chickens, a dog, a cat and as of last week a pet magpie that adopted us!

So you can safely say that as a CEO of a high tech global software company, I don’t fit the ’standard assumed profile’ as such of an inner city, slick, tradeshow and network attending, VC chasing whiteboard sketching, high profile entrepreneur, however, we are doing well and the fairly relaxed life I lead allows me to spend time coming up with smart solutions and investing in customer relationships.

————-
About the author:
Julian Stone, CEO – Project Management Software visionary for:
ProActive Software, ProWorkflow, ProWorkflow Blog & Julian101
————-

I’m a fisherman and I think this looks awesome!! I think I’ll have to make one for the fishing kit. Cool name too…

This is a great vid about how little the culture and people of today appreciate technology and the amazing world we live in. The comedian describes youth today as “The crappiest generation of spoiled idiots!”  ha ha…

————-
About the author:
Julian Stone, CEO – Project Management Software visionary for:
ProActive Software, ProWorkflow, ProWorkflow Blog & Julian101
————-

Kick-start your motivation with these great quotes!

I’ve talked to many people recently that are letting all the negative media spin get to them. They’ve starting to think the glass is half empty rather than opening their minds to the possibilities and opportunities on the current market. Sure it’s a little tight, but that just means it’s a good chance to optimize, systemize and prioritize!

Few sales? Just focus on other areas of business… Go sow some seeds with marketing, get the accounts done, take a holiday, re-evaluate your focus and products. Just realize that the market is moving and the best approach is not to stand still.

You need to make some changes to succeed in business in these times, but that’s a good thing as it means you’ll build a leaner, more focussed company. When it all picks up, you’ll just have a better, slicker business model to scale.

My Twitter account: http://www.twitter.com/julian101 has nearly 1000 followers and many are hard working, smart techos and creatives so I asked them for a quote that motivates them. I figured we could all share our favorite quotes and get motivated.

These are just some of the many responses that came through:
(Click their Twitter URL to find out who they are..)

 

http://www.twitter.com/clarkkaren
“If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.”
- Milton Berle.

http://www.twitter.com/segdeha
“It is the tremble of risk which shakes the spirit, confirms courage and reinstates daring.”
- M.A.Hershey, 1994

http://www.twitter.com/marclehmann
“If you can, help others; if you cannot do that, at least do not harm them.”
- Dalai lama

http://www.twitter.com/lmckeogh
“Only Thing We Have to Fear Is Fear Itself”
- Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1st inaugural address Still true today!

http://www.twitter.com/stevenkempton
“The older I get the less I pay attention to what people say and the more I watch what they do.”

http://www.twitter.com/paulq
“Unreasonablemen attempt to change their environment to suit themselves. Therefore all progress is the work of unreasonable men”

http://www.twitter.com/andreawong_nz
“Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.”
Albert Einstein

http://www.twitter.com/dunrie
“Be the change you want to see in the world.”
- Mahatma Gandhi

http://www.twitter.com/discounderworld
My dad always told me: “if you can’t be good, be good at it.”

http://www.twitter.com/paulq
“Live your imagination not your history”
- Stephen Covey

http://www.twitter.com/bethmrogers
“The most important things are the hardest to say…words diminish them-words shrink things that seemed limitless.”
- Stephen King

“Some folks go through life pleased that the glass is half full. Others spend a lifetime lamenting that it’s half-empty…The truth is: There is a glass with a certain volume of liquid in it. From there, it’s up to you!”

http://www.twitter.com/wombleton
“When on deadly ground, fight.”
- Sun Tzu

http://www.twitter.com/inspiresuccess
“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.”
- Arthur Ashe, Tennis Player

http://www.twitter.com/mishon8
“may you live every day of your life”
- Jonathon Swift

http://www.twitter.com/danfowlie
“My Name is George, I’m unemployed and I live with my parents”
- George Costanza

http://www.twitter.com/zuno
“Out of intense complexities intense simplicities emerge”

http://www.twitter.com/wigsgiw
“Tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today.”

http://www.twitter.com/stickifrog
“It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.”
- Theodore Roosevelt

“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.”
- Helen Keller

“Do not wait to strike till the iron is hot; but make it hot by striking.”
- William B. Sprague

http://www.twitter.com/pamelaaa
“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”
- Albert Einstein

http://www.twitter.com/itgetsmeso
“good better best, may you never rest, until your good is better, and your better best.”

http://www.twitter.com/audaciousgloop
“Make no small plans”

http://www.twitter.com/benkepes
“A journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step…”

http://www.twitter.com/lookadod
“All we are given are possibilities – to make ourselves one thing or another.”
- Jose Ortega y Gasset

http://www.twitter.com/bwagy
“…and If you can dream it you can do it”

http://www.twitter.com/marclehmann
“A good plan violently executed right now is far better than a perfect plan executed next week”
- George Patton for biz inspiration

http://www.twitter.com/achievers_lite
“You can have everything in life that you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.”
- Zig Ziglar

http://www.twitter.com/farmgeek
“Learn to garden – NOW!”

 

And here is a pile of my personal favorite quotes I keep on my desktop to inspire me. Feel welcome to add  more in the comments section on this post. I’d love to find more great quotes!

Julian Stone, (CEO – www.proworkflow.com):
My Twitter account: http://www.twitter.com/julian101

 

“As long as you’re going to be thinking anyway, think big.”
- Donald Trump

“We haven’t got the money, so we’ve got to think!”
- Ernest Rutherford

“Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration!”
- Thomas Edison

 “You can’t do today’s job with yesterday’s methods and be in business tomorrow”

“Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.”
- Henry Ford

“Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision”
- Peter Drucker

“To succeed in life, you need two things: ignorance and confidence.”
- Mark Twain

“Life is 10% of what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it.”
- John Maxwell

“If A equals success, then the formula is A equals X plus Y and Z, with X being work, Y play, and Z keeping your mouth shut.”
- Albert Einstein

“The greatest mistake we make is living in constant fear that we will make one.”
- John Maxwell

 

————-
About the author:
Julian Stone, CEO – Project Management Software visionary for:
ProActive Software, ProWorkflow, ProWorkflow Blog & Julian101
————-

1. You have 250 projects, 2000 tasks assigned to 25 staff (With 150 projects overdue). The Excel doc you keep track of everything in is 400mb and takes a month to update after getting manual printed reports from the team. The Manager walks in and says “Budget meeting with team leaders in 10 minutes, bring your summaries” – Your heart breaks, you shed a tear and working at a laundrette now sounds appealing.
   .
2. Your entire project management process hinges on the availability and stock numbers of yellow, green and orange hilighter pens and A2 cardboard sheets in the office. If you run out, chaos reigns.
   .
3. The new Creative Director comes from the school of ‘Web2.0′ thinking. He tries to instil in you the value of having your project management software run on every wired device possible. He wants your project list available on your Laptop, browser, iPhone, BlackBerry, Car GPS, Bedroom TV, Boat’s Fish Finder and Watch. He also brags about how he can access project data when on a plane, in the car, or on a toilet. Then he asks you to “Go find that piece of software”.
   .
4. You save important info about a $100,000 project on a $0.05 sticky note because it’s ‘efficient’ and makes good ‘business sense’.
   .
5. It’s nearly Christmas and the client gives you 6 months work to do in 2 weeks. Then he decides to head to the Caribbean to spend time with family but insists on having direct access to his projects. You cancel your holiday plans as you need to manage the team and projects. You think “If only I had some web based project management software, I could head to the Bahamas with my family and still manage this project remotely”.
   .
6. Your 4 year old son is managing his kindergarten homework on the home PC, using a web based application.
   .
7. Your wallet contains scribbled lists for work, people to contact, personal, shopping, and your monitor is covered head to toe with Post-it notes.
   .
8. You keep a basic notepad on your desk. You list all your work to do and where it’s all at. Your management style is to hilight different projects on the list using different borders, color pens and font sizes. When the page is no longer readable, you rewrite the list on a new page.
   .
9. You work for an Ice research team, and have staff in the Arctic, Antarctica, Siberia and other places around the globe. The old method of mailing lists of projects to people just isn’t working…
   .
10. “Where’s that memo so-and-so sent me? I knew I had it somewhere on my computer. Bob, can you fix my computer – it’s virused my floppy and I can’t find my memo…”
    .
11. Your desk, keyboard and monitor become covered in sticky notes. The sticky notes become invisible and never get removed. One day the office cleaner comes in and tidies up all the stickies. As a result of losing that info, the company goes bankrupt. 
    .
12. You take a flash new high paying job at a design company as a project manager. On the first day you ask the team to put the project summaries on your desk so you can start to get sorted. You head out to lunch and when back are greeted with:
    1. A filing cabinet full of project files
    2. 200+ Sticky notes
    3. 75 big brown job bags (full of material)
    4. 3 hand written job books with no logic to the numbering
    5. 29 printouts of email conversations
    6. 65 flowcharts of various work
    7. Some old pieces of paper with important contact details
    8. A staff list showing that all staff are ‘jack of all trades’
    9. 15 messages from disgruntled clients about deadlines
    10. 12 new project quotes to write
        .
13. You are the CEO of a large company. The current project manager was a legend he knew everything going on. Where deadlines were at, and who’s doing what. You had about 500 projects on the go and it was all in his head. You get a call one morning and it’s the project managers Deer hunting buddy. He informs you that he died in the weekend from a freak shooting accident. He put on the Christmas reindeer antler headpiece as a joke whilst away hunting, but unfortunately was mistaken for the real thing. About now (after feeling some grief) you realize nothing was written down. It was ALL in his head.
    .
14. “Did you get that email?” “what email?” “oh, i only send it to so-and-so and what-his-name and not you…” ” Can you ask the new guy to get the old guys permission to approve the, um big projects budget.” ” What project – we have heaps on!” ” Do we? You know the one, um… thingy was doing stuff on the tasks, but I’m not sure ‘cos we got a fax asking to stop the project” ” What bloody project are you talking about?” “You know, the red one. Ask the new guy”
    .
15. You manage projects… ;-)
    .

Feel welcome to add more comments to this post!!
It’d love to here other people’s thoughts!

————-
About the author:
Julian Stone, CEO – Project Management Software visionary for:
ProActive Software, ProWorkflow, ProWorkflow Blog & Julian101
————-