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The Friday Shoutout: Pineapple

Warning: this is a blog about an amazing experience with an insurance company🍍. I know that sounds weird, but bear with me. You’re about to be blown away

On Tuesday this week my phone fell off the table and the screen smashed. It looked like this:

Not such a happy looking phone. I took it down to the WeFix at the Waterfront at about 1pm and they had it fixed by 4pm. And the replacement cost was R750

When I got home, I opened up my Pineapple app. And within 15min I had already been paid my insurance claim. It blew my mind.

What’s a Pineapple?

So for context, Pineapple is a tech startup that’s aimed at disrupting the insurance industry. I’ve been following them online for about a year, but got much closer to the team when my brother joined the company as a programmer last month. And a friend of mine, Sizwe, is also working there.

Pineapple’s story goes like this:

The Pineapple founding team (Matthew Elan Smith, Ndabenhle Junior Ngulube and Marnus van Heerden) got together as part of an innovation competition run by Hannover-Re, during 2016, in an effort to find disruptive models to the reinsurance/insurance space. The competition ran for 6 months and it was out of our little innovation spot in Rosebank, Johannesburg where the Pineapple story begins.

They set out to reinvent the way insurance is done with an entirely new business model that aims to achieve affinity, fairness and simplicity to decrease costs, cap profits and deter fraud in an effort to create more value from an insurance policy than the traditional model.

(For more of the story, visit the Pineapple site)

So they’ve recently started doing demos of their app and I’ve been fortunate enough to be one of the testers. And it has been awesome.

To set up insurance on any item (I’ve insured my headphones, iPad and iPhone), all you do is take a picture of it and state the insured amount. The app detects what kind of device it is, gives you an insurance quote and then BAM… you’re covered.

And the insurance claim process was just as simple. I uploaded a picture of my phone on the app, sent a voice note to describe what happened, ticked a few boxes and next thing I’d been paid out.

The entire process of setting up my insurance was nearly instant. And my claim was paid out in 15min without having to sit on the phone once.

#FirstClaimSwag

I also now hold the title of first claimant on the Pineapple system. Which is like being the best clumsy kid. It’s a title I hold with pride.

I don’t think I’ve ever said this, but I really really love my insurance. And this team are going to completely revolutionize the industry.

The app is set to launch in the next few months, and I’ll be sure to write a blog about it when it does. For now, you can follow them on social media (Facebook, Instagram)

Thanks again to Pineapple, you’re all so awesome 🍍

#Number1Fan

Image is of the team, taken on my brother’s first day 🙂

Song of the day: Freedom - Akon

Blog: 214/365. Read more about my #365of25 journey here

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Published by rspazzoli on June 8, 2018 | Permalink

Wheels

After 7 weeks, countless phone calls and massive logistical exercises, I finally have my car back.

My only set of keys had been stolen in the break in. And so there was no way to get the car moving again.

On the day of the robbery, a locksmith opened the car up. Under instruction from insurance, a tow truck brought it to the nearest Merc dealership. Which ended up being in Malmesbury.

To order a replacement key from Germany, I needed a massive amount of documentation. And this wasn’t on hand because my parents had moved and we couldn’t find some of the paperwork (turns out I had it). And then, it would have taken around 10 weeks to get a key from Germany.

So we were able to find a locksmith (thanks Jared) who could get it done much quicker. And I ordered it last week, and got it sorted today.

A big thank you to NK Locksmiths and Malmesbury Motors for being so great.

I finally have wheels again

Image was taken while at a stop and go on the way to our Orange river trip in 2015 🙂

Blog: 213/365

Song of the day: Getaway Car – Taylor Swift

Published by rspazzoli on June 7, 2018 | Permalink

Bookdash and MySchool

A close friend of mine, Julia, runs an incredible organisation called Bookdash. I’ve been wanting to do a Friday Shoutout about them for a while and will do so soon.But in the meantime, I received an urgent email from her, which I’ve included below. If you shop at Woolworths, please please sign up!

Email from Julia

Book Dash (the non-profit publishing organisation I manage, find out more here) has been approved as a provisional beneficiary of the MySchool loyalty programme, but to prove that we have adequate support, we need to submit 50 completed sign up forms by the end of June (we’re sitting on 20!). To be part of the programme would mean passive income for us, and that’s invaluable to any organisation trying to make an impact.

The form to fill in is available here (it’s an editable PDF):

• If you are an existing member of MySchool, you still need to fill in the form but can just add Book Dash as a beneficiary, because you are allowed to have up to three beneficiaries (tick “Change beneficiary” at the top and then fill in your details).

• If you don’t yet have a MySchool account, please consider signing up for one and indicating Book Dash as a beneficiary (tick “New Card” or “Link to Woolworths” if you have a Woolworths card and then fill in your details).

Please then send the completed form back to me (juliaclairenorrish@gmail.com) before June 20th. You can even print it, fill in by hand and Whatsapp a photo to me on 0744645588 if that’s easier!

Keep up the great work Julia! And to everyone else, please make sure you sign up as soon as possible!

Image is Julia,myself and Elisabeth (from left to right) 🙂

Blog: 212/365

Song of the day: The Jetsons Theme Song

Published by rspazzoli on June 6, 2018 | Permalink

Taking it in my stride

My iPhone smashed today. I was sleepily making my morning coffee when I bumped it off the counter. It landed on the corner and, despite having a cover, it smashed into tiny fragments.

I’d fished this phone out of my cupboard after the robbery and, although it has been a little slow, it’s been great. But now it had turned into a little glass kaleidoscope. And it had completely lost touch sensitivity.

I picked it up, gave it as test and realised that I needed to replace the screen.

It technically went against all the plans I had for the day.

But I grabbed my diary and added it on to the to-do list. I shuffled my plans slightly and, next thing, everything fitted.

Into your stride

Once the phone had been broken, being angry at myself would have accomplished close to nothing. I’ve experienced this sort of admin before and it is hardly a blip on the radar now.

I’ve come to realise that you can expect these sort of things to happen at least once a year. One theft, one device breakage, one important document being lost, one car accident. And so this is part of every day life.

I got my phone fixed at weFix and returned by 4pm. It now works like new 🙂

P.s. I had the most incredible experience with my insurance \but I’ll save that for the Friday Shoutout 😉 🍍

Images is of my broken phone this morning. It shattered completely. It no longer looks like this though 🙂

Blog: 211/365

Song of the day:Muse – Resistance

Published by rspazzoli on June 5, 2018 | Permalink

Spending Money

Ever since I can remember I’ve had an odd feeling towards spending money. I’m not talking about the day to day items such as food or transport. My oddity has been around spending bigger sums of money: buying myself clothes, purchasing new tech or even buying big household goods.

I remember in 2003 I’d saved up all my money for almost a year to buy a new speaker/radio. I researched the one I wanted for ages. I’d chosen one that had CD/MP3 Disk and radio capability, as well as an alarm setting. While we were in Australia I finally bought it.

And the next day I was really upset.

Not that I didn’t love the device. I used it every day for nearly 4 years after that. I was upset because I felt like I shouldn’t be spending money. That I should rather hoard it and save as much as I can.

Part of this may have been a fear around whether I would get more money, which is something that lingers to this day. And part of it is that money is fungible. In theory, I could have spent my money in many ways, and I got to imagine that. But as soon as I bought the radio, I was locked in.

I’ve since tried to begin adapting this mindset. The idea isn’t to spend more money or be more irrational around spending it. And it doesn’t mean buying everything I want.

Instead, I’ve started to look at my needs and the utility of a purchase.

For example, I went shopping for comfy pants the other day (mine were stolen in the robbery… I mean, who steals a guys pants? That’s just rude. And they took my nachos. And Amarula. And my freaking keys… okay let’s move on).

I found two pairs of pants, both of which I really liked and both of which were on sale.

I initially thought to myself “I should only buy one of these, otherwise I’m wasting money”

But on second thought, I recognized that I would probably wear both of them really often. And when one was in the wash, I’d have the other to wear. It wasn’t a reckless decision, I was fulfilling a need.

Shifting

Recognising these in built quirks about ourselves is important, especially for managing the way we make decisions. I’m trying to learn to look at money differently, and understand that I’m allowed to use it to meet my needs. And I’ll slowly unpack this, one purchase at a time.

Image was taken today in the Greenpoint park while on my run 🙂

Blog: 210/365

Song of the day: Vengaboys – We’re going to Ibiza

Published by rspazzoli on June 4, 2018 | Permalink

The Friday Shoutout: FemWash

Today’s shout out goes to an amazing team of social entrepreneurs who are representing UCT at Oxford this weekend. They’ve done research and development work on a menstrual health and sanitation product for low-income African women, called FemWash.

They’re travelling to Oxford for the Map the System competition, which is for social entrepreneurs looking to make systemic changes in society. Myself and two friends were finalists in the competition last year and were given the opportunity to mentor FemWash before they headed out to England

A bit more background on Nyasha and FemWash can be found on recent Mail and Guardian article, which reads:

The multiskilled Nyasha Chimhandamba began her studies in Genetics and Biochemistry, earning an Honours Degree in Molecular and Cell Biology, and is currently pursuing a Masters Degree in Inclusive Innovation at the University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business.

This graduate entrepreneur is the co-owner of FemWash, a feminine hygiene management product which she co-developed.

If you’d like to follow the competition, watch the live-stream or attend the final (if you’re in Oxford this weekend) you can do so on the Skoll Facebook page.

Congratulations to Nyasha, Ru and the FemWash team. We’re super proud of you and wish you the best of luck! 😀

Image is of Nyasha and I after her last practice pitch on Wednesday

Blog: 207/354

Song of the day: Muse-Starlight

Published by rspazzoli on June 1, 2018 | Permalink

Some thoughts on Self-Sabotage

Looking up pictures of an ex-girlfriend when you know it’s going to hurt.

Leaving assignments to the last minute when you know it’ll affect your grade.

Not writing up your CV in time to apply for a job that’s perfect for you.

Self sabotage is a behaviour that interferes with our own long term goals, ultimately keeping us from achieve them. It’s us getting in our own way.

Weird hey?

It’s something that, at face value, makes very little sense. You’re literally stopping yourself from doing what you want to do.

But if you dig beneath the surface, there are many things that might promote this kind of behaviour. These might include fear of rejection, a low self esteem, impostor syndrome and sometimes just plain old anxiety.

How can we fix it?

In the short-term, it’s difficult to completely correct self-sabotaging behaviour. But some things can help. Firstly, be aware that you’re doing it. Simply recognizing it gives you a good grounding from which to operate. Next, and most importantly, have someone that can pull you out of that behaviour.

This might be a parent that calls you to make sure you’ve done the thing.

Or a friend who shouts at you to get your damn CV in.

Whatever it is, ask someone else to keep you accountable.

In the long term, a proper understanding and treatment of the underlying problem would be necessary. This might involve psychotherapy, psychiatric help or even spending time researching and unpacking it yourself.

It’s true that sometimes you can be your own worst enemy. But it doesn’t have to stay like that

Image is of a fire fighting helicopter in Newlands forest, taken in 2014 🙂

Blog: 206/365

Song of the day: Jonas Blue – Rise ft Jack & Jack

Published by rspazzoli on May 31, 2018 | Permalink

Planning with the monkey

One of my favourite blog posts of all time is Why Procrastinators Procrastinate by Tim Urban. In it, he describes two different “brains”, one of the procrastinator, which looks like this:

And the brain of the non-procrastinator, which looks like this:

As you can see, the main difference between the two is the instant gratification monkey. This monkey derails the rational decision maker constantly. He directs the procrastinator to seek food (even if he’s not hungry), meander through the internet, take naps and clean the house. All of this instead of working.

My brain looks like the procrastinators brain. Except the monkey is not a cute, innocent looking creature. I have an instant gratification gorilla called Dave and he is very prepared to beat the daylights out of my rational decision making side as often as possible.

Actual picture of Dave, ready to ruin my day (Photo by Pixabay)

So Dave is regularly able to derail my day. But it’s okay, I’m usually able to recover some productivity. And on deadline days, Dave lets me have an extra bit of time as long as I feed him properly.

A week with no Dave

Dave and I have gotten quite good at living together. However, I have a major problem:

I never take into account that Dave will still be around tomorrow, next week or next month

For example, I’ve said to myself that next week I have no appointments for anything. So I’ll be able to put in at least 50 hours of work. Which would be fine, if Dave didn’t exist.

But he does.

And so I will get some work done.

And Dave will take his share of time too.

I did the same thing with this week. I estimated the amount of time I would have to work based on the idea that I would be completely rational and able to stay focused for an outrageous amount of time. And I do the same with most of my work.

When I then get to the time that has been planned, I realise that Dave is still around. And I’m sent into a panic when I try and achieve maximum output when, in fact, I have a giant gorilla distracting me.

What are you on about Rowan?

Hold your horses (and monkeys), there’s a point to this.

When I plan my life and time, I do so with the maximum objectives in mind. As if all my time is spent optimally and there are no hiccups along the way. And 99 times out of 100, there will be something that sets me off course. Whether it’s internal, with my instant gratification gorilla distracting me, or external, with my stuff being stolen

This makes me feel like I’m consistently not living up to my expectations. As if I’m failing, again and again.

But I’m not.

I’m actually just plodding along at normal Rowan pace. Though my expectations are set way above that. So I feel as if they are constantly being missed.

I try to plan my life as if there is no Dave. But I should plan it with the active recognition that he is around. That he will be here tomorrow, next week and next month. Therefore I can continue to fight him (and lose) or I can accept that he is going to be here and make room for him.

I should plan for a distraction. For tiredness. For unexpected events.

I need to plan with Dave. Set up time to drift off, allow for naps and the odd derailment.

And in doing this, I’ll set more reasonable and achievable expectations for myself. Allowing me to be less on edge and allowing Dave the play time he needs.

Image was taken at Cape Point a few weeks ago. I’ve uploaded a different picture of this guy before, but I’m still upset he stole our Doritos

Blog: 204/365

Song of the day: Fin Evans – Never Forget You (Feat. Alex Foster)

Published by rspazzoli on May 29, 2018 | Permalink