I think it's important to have one person that says the final 'yes' to all the decisions in a start-up.

That one person should be the visionary leader because they can see how their 'yes' will set off a chain of other opportunities for the company in the future.

Some of these decisions may be perceived to be risky, or stupid.  But risky or stupid is better than boring, banal, copy-cat compromise that other companies are doing.

It's important though, that the visionary leader listens, and is able to give up their ego if someone has a better idea than them.  Because the leader isn't the only one with good ideas.

At the end of the day though, if a start-up wants to be a lean, mean, fighting machine to achieve its goals, all parties in a team have to stay the course with the agreed-upon plan.  Otherwise, rather than streamlining through the water, you'll be floating along with the waves.

What makes Andy Warhol's work unique is that he was the first to bring that kind of art to the world.

You might look at his art and say that it's simplistic, that a 4-year-old could have done it, that you could have done it, or that it's not original.

But Andy Warhol was the first to do his art his way.

Even though you could have done it, you didn't.

So do your own unique kind of art and bring that to the world.

During my time at Robogals, towards the end of every year, I would lose focus.

Why?  All my major projects for the year would have been wound up.  My goals were usually annual goals, so by December, I'd either have got there, or I wouldn't have.  And there usually wasn't much more I could do to change that by then.  So I'd be unmotivated and slow down.

But then I realised that I just needed new goals and plans for the upcoming year to motivate me and make me burst with excitement.  So I would create new goals that were challenging for me, things that were a step above things that I'd done before, so that I could learn many new skills.  This would make me super motivated and I would leap into action again.

In my final year of Robogals, I deliberately didn't sit down and do this, because I didn't want to get distracted creating new programmes.  Instead, I focused all my goals on succession, because I realised that the best thing I could do for Robogals in my last year was to set it up for the future so that many more people could create their own challenges and learn new skills from the organisation.

Andy Warhol had an IQ of 86, Richard Branson has an IQ of 92, Muhammed Ali has an IQ of 78, and David Ogilvy had an IQ of 96.  They are all below the conventional intellectual spectrum, yet they became an artistic legend, a multi-national billionaire entrepreneur, the greatest boxer ever, and the founder of an international ad agency.

Brains only take you so far.  Time and focus take you much farther.

There comes a point when it's time to move on and seek out new challenges.

On 31 December 2012, after a year of transition process, I handed over my role as the Executive Director of Robogals Global to a successor.

Read my farewell letter here.