Rob Thomas is the Founder of Bondi Buddha.
From his humble beginnings in Manchester, England, Rob started globe-trotting at an early age in search of a life he loved. He lives by the mantra “all things come to those who never give up” and continues to build the Bondi Buddha brand from his Naples where he currently resides.
What is life without passion? A question Rob asked himself right before selling everything, reducing his life to backpack and taking off on a year-long adventure though Asia. The search for inspiration and living a meaningful life whilst never forgetting to have fun is the message behind the brand. Currently a line of eye-catching illustrated T-shirts and caps sport surf, Zen and adventure inspired designs.
What are you working on right now?
Currently working on building a social media following and gaining retail distribution channels.
3 Trends that excite you?
- The spreading of democracy around the world.
- Global outsourcing and a chance to work with creative people from different cultures.
- Technology integration and what it will mean to entrepreneurs in the future.
How do you bring ideas to life?
I love to collaborate. Very often I have great ideas that become brilliant ideas once someone else gets involved. As an entrepreneur running a business, I’m good at steering the ship and perhaps being the inspiration, but I owe most of the credit and tangible results to the people I work with.
What inspires you?
People that overcome seemingly insurmountable odds to achieve greatness.
What is one mistake you made and what did you learn from it?
This is a great question! I am constantly making mistakes. Unfortunately, there is no real blueprint for starting a clothing company and even if there was, I would probably still want to do things my way. Often I moved too quickly on an idea, without really thinking it through and now I am learning to involve trusted friends in my decision making process.
What is one business idea you are willing to give away to our readers?
The world is getting smaller and there is more of a need for translation services to clearly communicate between languages. One idea I had was to use Skype and a virtual switchboard to offer online, real time translation. There is a huge potential market if you can solve the software issues.
What is one book and one tool that helps you bring your ideas to life?
The book would definitely be “The 4 Hour Work Week” as it sets out great ideas for leveraging your time and outsourcing to save money. As far as tools go, I use various software applications, but one great free one for graphic design is GIMP. If you need to save money by doing a certain amount of design work yourself, I highly recommend downloading and using this program – you can find tons of tutorials on Youtube.com
Who would you love to see interviewed on Ideamensch?
Richard Branson.
What is the best reason to start a company?
I think I would have to say that you have something that the world can’t live with out or that you can’t live without sharing.
Why is it that people generally avoid to talking others in an elevator?
It’s the perfect time to make a new friend, brighten up someone’s day, or have a laugh.
Connect:
Bondi Buddha: www.BondiBuddha.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/bondibuddha
Twitter: www.twitter.com/bondibuddha
Mario Schulzke is the Founder of ideamensch, which he started a decade ago to learn from entrepreneurs and give them a platform for their ideas.