Email: An Emotional Roller Coaster

We've all done it and it must stop.  Constantly checking our email on a smartphone will be the death of us.  Don't we have anything better to do?  Seriously, we know better.  We know how to be productive.

We just checked it 5 minutes ago and there was nothing.  Why do it again?

Here's why we must stop the madness:

Each email we receive causes some type of good or bad emotion.  I've received encouraging and discouraging work emails when I was at home with the family that affected my mood.  So email is basically controlling our emotional life and we must take back control.

So what do we do instead of check out emails constantly?  Anything.  Memorize a poem or scripture or song.  Meditate.  Have a book handy.  I'm about the finish Outliers and have really enjoyed it.  

Ideas Come From....

The WSJ ran a piece yesterday called "How to Come Up with a Great Idea."  My favorite was....

You Can't Rush the Brain

I don't know where great ideas come from. I am not sure anyone does. I am not even sure how I come up with my ideas. The brain does its thing, and out pops an idea.

While you are waiting for the brain to get its act together, do what you can do. Do the doable. Meet with people, schmooze, have a laugh or two. Build mock-ups and prototypes. At the very least, collect other people's problems. That's always a guaranteed doable.

The deep idea here is that action has a creative aspect distinct from thinking. And thinking need not come first. Mostly it doesn't.

Saras D. Sarasvathy 

Isidore Horween research associate professor of business administration, University of Virginia's Darden School of Business

Students Must Lead on Campus

I've spent the last year working in Innovation & Entrepreneurship at Duke (specifically helping InCube) and have finally realized that students that must lead entrepreneurship efforts.

As hard as we administrators attempt to lead efforts, they usually fall flat if students are not at the helm.  Just like Brad Feld explains in his Startup Communities book, we as "feeders" need to understand our place in the world and not attempt to drive the bus.

So what should university administrators be doing?  In the startup world, entrepreneurs would say "feeders" (CED, Government, Chamber of Commerce, etc) should simply buy the beer and get out of the way.

Translation for the university:  Buy the pizza and get out of the way of student leaders.

If we DO, we will LEARN

Recently my church made an amazing change to the way we teach our youth (see Come Follow Me) by encouraging our young people to do most of their learning during the week (scripture study, choosing good friends, Family Home Evening) and then encouraging them to share what they learned when they get to church on Sunday.  I'm so excited to have my 3 little ones to learn this way.

This principle resonated this morning as I was studying John 7:17, "If any will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself."  Learning by doing has always been the secret formula.  

Two examples from the secular world:

1.  I love playing and watching basketball.  Just imagine if all your learning in basketball came in a classroom.  Then you were expected to go out a play a big game with no practice time on the court.

2.  Teaching entrepreneurship has become a passion and too often high schools and universities spend the majority of their time in the classroom.  For example, to grow entrepreneurial thinking on a college campus we can't simply hire an army of academics to teach more classes.  Hackathons, competitions, pro-bono projects, and independent studies are how students will learn.

More Dan Kimbergs & less Scott Kellys

I'm 36 years old and would not trade my experiences for anything.  I do however want my children to take a different path than I did.  I want them to align their passions, profit, and purpose faster than I did.  When I was choosing a career in college I believe I remember someone saying, "Go into computers because you can get a job there."  So I did and thought I reached my goal when I began a career at IBM.  The dream was short lived as I spent many hours in a factory type environment where I basically reviewed online forms all day to see if all the blanks were filled in.

Now I've finally realized that I'm going to solve education problems after 15 years of wandering in the wilderness.  Now I believe I can help my children get to this point faster through things like Gap Years, Missionary Service, Military Service, Time Away From School, etc.  I see many young people itching to go to college and hurry to get out so they can begin their career.  My advice to them, "Slow Down!"  Your investment in a gap year or year off will deliver at least 10x returns since the ability to change careers is sometimes difficult once you start that investment banking job right out of Duke.

Where does Dan Kimberg fit in here?  For those of you who don't know him, he's an amazing guy who created StudentU right out of college (or a short time after college).  His time floundering to find his alignment of purpose, passions, and profits seems to have been short.  (By the way, one definition of profits is the ability to earn a decent living since I know he is not paying himself big bucks.)  Unlinke, my 15 year journey of pivoting to find my purpose, Dan immediately began his mission after college.

Let us all challenge the traditional 16 year plan (12 years of elementary, middle, high school + 4 years of college) and better understand that we have not reached our end goal if we simply focus on graduating more individuals from college.

Generative Generation

Yesterday two things happened that inspired this post.  First I met with my good friend and startup soulmate Carl Nordgren, also know as the Creative Populist.  By the way, if you haven't supported his Kickstarter Campaign yet, now is the time.  As we, the community, support visionaries like Carl, our young people will be armed with the tools they need.  Second, I watched "What Most Schools Don't Teach" which every parent should watch.
In our meeting Carl used the word "generative."  I've heard the word before but not in the context of how young people should be thinking about their future.  Plus, get this:  Generative comes from a root word also meaning "generous."  The short message:  Our youth must be generating or producing or creating or adding value or growing something to be fulfilled and to enjoy life.  In this process, hopefully their generosity will be the added X factor to the formula for success.

Why A Gap?

While some may figure out what they will do while they are in high school and college, I am finally figuring out what problems I will solve in the world.  Most young people simply don't understand the options for careers until they've been in the world for some time.  However, there are ways to decrease the time it takes to figure it out.  

In learning to counsel my own 3 children in the career decision process, I've read books such as Creating Innovators, spent many hours with Duke students and high school students, and spoken with other parents and education leaders.  One decision I've made is to high encourage my children to pursue a Gap Year.  

Here's why:

• Better Choice of Majors - Why did I choose information systems as a major?  I think someone told me I could get a job there and I wanted a job when I graduated.  If young people spend a year in the world before college, they will make a more educated decision on their major.  
• Higher Probability of Right Career - Imagine reaching the peak of the mountain and realizing you just climbed the wrong mountain.  This reminds me of a conversation I had with an attorney that was switching careers.  I think he would agree that he wishes he would have spent more time investigating the details of the mountains before he reached the peak of the wrong one.
• Be Student Leader as a 1st Year - Recently I spent time with several 1st year students at Duke and I was so impressed with what they had experienced even before college.  Experiences such as harvesting plants to make fuel and building water filters in Cambodia.  These will be the leaders at Duke in a couple years.
• Get More Out of Classes - A lot of grad schools require students to have work experience before they come mainly so they can both add to the class discussions and get better handle on the material presented.  What would happen if a student who had worked a year in marketing then went to school and sat in a marketing class?  

There are many Gap Programs that are valuable.  Here's one I am launching in the Fall:  Startup High GAP Program.