Your browser (Internet Explorer 7 or lower) is out of date. It has known security flaws and may not display all features of this and other websites. Learn how to update your browser.

X

Navigate / search

What is the Right Amount of Introspection?

I consider myself deeply introspective. I always find myself asking myself (or friends, mentors, and peers) tough questions, like “Why spend my time on this?”, “What makes me so sure that this is the right path?”, and “Am I living out my vision?“. 

Sometimes I have good answers to these questions; most of the time, I am stumped or torn between several answers or choices. I have so many interests that it is difficult to reconciliate everything within one path. This probably explains why I feel paradoxical — I juggle my decision-making frequently and yet consider myself a hustler. 

When I look at my personal timeline, I definitely feel more aligned with my values, philosophical frameworks, and vision than 6 months ago or 1 year ago. Even dramatically so. However, whenever I start getting too comfortable or certain about my vision, life throws more tough questions my way to make me feel uncomfortable again.

Naturally, I enjoy this flux. It is what makes taking the road less traveled truly interesting. However, it causes me to pause all the time in the middle of my doing to ask, “Why am I doing this out of all things?” 

This introspection can make or break my day. I can become consumed or energized by this question. 

With that said, how much is the right amount of introspection? In the end, I think the right amount is enough so you question your raison d’être for significant milestones and goals, but you don’t get lost in your internal musings in the day-to-day hustle. 

If you liked this post, you can sign-up for my e-mail list or follow me on Twitter @dexteryz. I would love to hear your feedback.

 

The Importance of Refueling

Everything comes and goes in cycles.

For any new project, you kick off a little uncertain and then ramp up your energy until you become familiar with whatever you’re working on. Sometimes you get hit by inspiration and can work manically and compulsively for hours and days on end without feeling the least bit tired. Inevitably, your productivity will start slowing down and eventually you’ll hit a slump or even come to a grinding halt. This happens to everyone, unless if you are superman.

At these points in time, it’s important to take a break and refuel so you can jump back into the game as quickly as possible without delay. Otherwise, you risk sitting around for weeks just coasting until you snap out of your trance.

My way of refueling is to go somewhere new and to reunite with great friends. I spent this past weekend in Boston, meeting up with new and old friends (in Kairos and beyond), hearing about the incredible things they’re working on, and trading stories about how we deal with challenges in the trenches.

I am constantly inspired by my friends’ persistence, boldness, and creativity, and I feel like we are all working side-by-side to truly create new meaning in the world. 

It is also this kind of knowledge-sharing that 1) opens my eyes to new solutions to problems I have been mulling over and 2) gives me a new perspective on problems that I previously didn’t think about.

Our discussions refuel my mind. Too often, the quality of my daily conversations pale in comparison to those when I’m engaged with changemakers. It is a little bit like soul food. Everyone should start having more empathetic and thought-provoking conversations on a regular basis to not only learn more about each other, but to ultimately work together to create change. 

Defining Entrepreneurship and Art

Over the last week, I discussed this topic frequently with friends, and interestingly enough, we all came up with different definitions.

To me, entrepreneurship is defined as “the act of turning an idea into reality.”

Art is defined as “the act of expressing creativity.” 

I define entrepreneurship and art broadly because I believe that anyone can be an entrepreneur and/or an artist. 

Entrepreneurship does not equate to art and vica versa.

But there is room for overlap. 

As for entrepreneurship, I believe the term ‘entrepreneur’ can be very black and white — you are either an entrepreneur or not an entrepreneur. Instead, why not think of entrepreneurship as having some gray area where people can achieve various degrees of entrepreneurship?

Professor Fairbrothers answers my concerns by viewing entrepreneurship alternatively as an adjective rather than a noun — ie. being ‘entrepreneurial’ rather than being ‘a entrepreneur’. This alternative interpretation is great because it allows for vary degrees of entrepreneurial thinking and doing.

Whenever possible, I defer to thinking of entrepreneurship as an adjective. 

How do you define entrepreneurship and art?

Gen-Y Curiosity: Ending Apathy in the Classroom and Grooming the Next Generation for Success

President Obama recently implored governors to not cut state funding to higher education and job training. Senator and presidential candidate Santorum responded by calling him a “snob” for thinking that every student should get a classical education and suggested that many would be better served in an alternative classroom.

As a college student in the middle of the mess we call our higher education crisis, the problem I see is not the breadth of education and career pathways laid before us students. Many students now have plenty of choices.

The main problem I see is that by the time those students come across the fork in the road, they no longer possess the curiosity to explore the different pathways out there. They stick to the familiar, traditional pathway that thousands (maybe millions?) have walked before them. For example, some college students get so absorbed in getting good grades for their “education”, they forget to learn.

I have seen this time and time again with my peers who study “safe” majors and pursue guaranteed prestigious and well-compensated jobs without exploring other options. This risk-averse behavior breeds the apathy that leads many people down unsatisfying career paths.

Read more

From New York City to Phoenix: A Formative Journey in Entrepreneurship and Education

These past two weekends have been life-changing. As just a young and ambitious upstart, hellbent on making some kind of impact on the world, these past two weekends have taken my vision and drive to the next level. 

Kairos Global Summit

Two weekends ago over February 2-5, I attended the Kairos Global Summit, a private gathering in New York City that brought together 350 of the most innovative and entrepreneurial students from around the world to meet 150 of today’s most influential leaders. 

Here are some highlights of the incredible experiences I had at the Summit:

  • Led a workshop on ‘Personalized Education’ at the New York Academy of Medicine and New York Stock Exchange for about 40 student entrepreneurs and mentors. The mentors came from backgrounds such as Singularity University faculty, Gates Foundation advisor, Ashoka leadership, startup CEOs, and non-profit founders.
  • Met the most brilliant and talented young entrepreneurs I have ever met. 
  • Encountered some of the most innovative ventures in the world started by students through the Kairos 50.
  • Started meaningful relationships with incredible mentors that I hope to collaborate with and learn from.
  • And last but not least, danced with good friends on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

Ashoka U Exchange

Last weekend over February 10-12, I attended the Ashoka U Exchange, a conference in Phoenix, AZ which brought together about 500 administrators, faculty, staff and students at colleges and universities globally – as well as social entrepreneurs and leaders representing corporate, non-profit, and philanthropic organizations. The focus of the conference was on ‘Disruptive Innovation in Higher Education’.

At Ashoka U Exchange, I met a diverse group of inspirational students and entrepreneurs from organizations such as Ashoka, Echoing Green, ThinkImpact, UnCollege, and Knewton. A peer-to-peer learning workshop showed me the powerful potential of tapping into the knowledge of your peers and vica versa as a learning methodology. An education technology panel helped reinforce my belief in technological innovations bringing widespread change in the way we learn. Further, I started seeing the greater potential of social entrepreneurship to change the world. 

***

Joining the forces that are disrupting education

After all the knowledge I have accumulated from these weekends and my previous experiences, I have come to the conclusion that massive disruption of education as we know it is imminent and very near. 

Institutional structures at the K-12 level have been breaking down over the last several decades, leaving openings for new and innovative structures to emerge. 

Adaptive learning has made personalized education a reality for students across all age groups. Tablet-based learning has become increasingly cheaper to afford while mounting piles of evidence support its impact on students. Inexpensive, high-quality online courses have brought great educational content to a global audience.

The antiquated recruiting industry is about to be disrupted by quicker and nimbler startups that make it easier for companies to recruit talent based upon their actual project outcomes and cultural fit versus lines on a resume. These alternative credentialing systems are going to change the paradigms that influence a student’s decision to go to college.

In the next 3 to 5 years, these disruptions currently occurring in isolated slices along a spectrum of peoples’ educational experiences are going to align and cause widepsread change in the way people learn along the entire spectrum.

I am ecstatic for these changes and want to do everything possible to be a part of this massive force of disruption in education.

***

Redefining what is possible

These past two weeks have helped me scope and flesh out my vision for education innovation dramatically, but even more importantly, they have helped me redefine what is possible and injected me with long-lasting inspiration as fuel. 

As with most conferences, it was not the workshops or panels that had the most impact on me, it was the people. I was humbled by mentors who shared their impressive life stories with me and inspired by the lengths that student entrepreneurs went to in order to take their ventures to new heights. 

Until the next time we meet, I will be kicking it into high gear. 

The Road Less Traveled: 3 Lessons from a Student Entrepreneur

*Originally written for the Dartmouth Entrepreneurial Network Fall 2011 newsletter

———-

“Do not go where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

I was bitten by the entrepreneurship bug my sophomore year when I realized that startups can be a part of innovative solutions to society’s most pressing problems. I was attending the StartingBloc Institute in Boston, where young professionals learned how to increase their social impact through their careers, exponentially. There, I met numerous like-minded students who were my age and already founding and growing social ventures. These young founders inspired me to take my first steps into the world of social entrepreneurship.

Previously, I had interned at Root Cause, a nonprofit research and consulting firm. I had also volunteered with several education and social service nonprofits. Through these experiences, I learned a lot about the challenges nonprofits face in trying to serve their beneficiaries under chronic resource shortages. I saw well-intentioned leaders who were passionate about conquering serious social problems but did not have the support and skillset to make their visions a reality. I became truly interested in changing the ways nonprofits and social enterprises maximize their social impact.

Armed with passion and ambition, I set off on my entrepreneurial journey as the Co-Founder and Director of Development of the Seeds Consulting Group, a student-run nonprofit & social enterprise consulting venture. I also became a Class of 1982 Social Entrepreneurship Fellow in order to help a community non-profit, Upper Valley Business & Education Partnership, develop a performance measurement system.

Here are some of the lessons I have learned so far that I wish I knew when I started:

1. Figure out your first things before your second things.

Gregg Fairbrothers speaks frequently about the first things and second things principle.  He cautions aspiring entrepreneurs: “you can’t get second things by putting them first. You can only get second things by putting first things first.”

In other words, first things are your why. I admit; they are tough to figure out. But I believe that aspiring young startup founders only cheat themselves by not developing a clear answer to this fundamental question. Without a firm grasp of why you are starting a venture, it is very difficult to stay motivated enough to plow through the obstacles that commonly plague startups.

In my case, I came to Dartmouth with the first thing of changing the world for the better. To make life better and easier for the people that I care about. However, I almost lost sight of this vision because I was sucked in by the herd mentality created by corporate recruiting like many of my peers. Fortunately, I broke away in time, but I had to learn how to filter out the noise so that I could stay razor focused on my vision.

2. Surround yourself with the right people.

As the old adage goes: “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.”

In other words, surround yourself with people whose characteristics you wish to emulate and learn from.

The entrepreneurial journey can be lonely. For aspiring undergraduate founders, not knowing where to go for help and support can really stifle drive. To make this journey easier, join groups where you can meet and share ideas with entrepreneurial individuals. It might be hard to find a group like this, but take initiative.

At Dartmouth, I dreamed of having a “tribe” of undergraduate student entrepreneurs that acted as a support network and social group. I could not find an existing one. So after a couple months of networking and planning, I co-founded a chapter of the Kairos Society, an international network of student entrepreneurs building innovative ventures, with the goal of cultivating this tribe on campus. We have just recently accepted our first cohort of 15 fellows.

3. No one is going to tell you what to do and how to do it.

Startup founders often joke that there is a quickstart guide to starting your own venture.

In reality, no such instruction manual exists. Even if it did, it would be no substitute for experience and the intuition you gain from experience.

For most of my time in college, I made the mistake of applying for numerous prestigious leadership programs, thinking that they could show me steps I needed to take to start my own innovative initiatives.

I was wrong. While these programs were fascinating and helped shape my vision, it was still up to me to piece together all the resources I collected and act upon them to build my own venture. That is why the most valuable advice I received on this topic was “just do it own your own.”

Do not wait for others to tell you what to do. Be hungry. Be self-motivated.

Social Entrepreneurship Fellowship Intro Part 2

Why did I want to become a Class of 1982 Social Entrepreneurship Fellow?

One of my favorite mentor figures, Gregg Fairbrothers, the founding director of the Dartmouth Entrepreneurship Network and a professor at the Tuck School of Business, speaks frequently about the first things and second things principle. He explicitly highlights this principle in his new book on how to start a start-up, From Idea to Success: The Dartmouth Entrepreneurial Network Guide for Start-Ups. I would highly recommend any entrepreneurially-minded individual to read this book, but if you are strapped on cash, then check out this excerpt from an article where Gregg Fairbrothers succintly explains what he means by first things and second things:

Remember, success really isn’t a good end goal. Success is a “second thing,” and you can’t get second things by putting them first. You can only get second things by putting first things first.

(Off-topic: He also shares a lot of his advice on topics such as what it means be an entrepreneur vs. being entrepreneurial, nature vs. nurture, and how learning is 5% hearing, 10% seeing, and 85% doing. All really good nuggets for the aspiring start-up founder.)

My first thing has always been to change the world for the better. To make life better and easier for the people that I care about. I am truly passionate about this and feel happy and alive when working towards a better world. 

My second thing is to be entrepreneurial in the social sector. I want to build and grow a social enterprise that positively impacts the lives of millions of human individuals through technology and/or education. This is a lofty goal, I admit. But I believe in order to achieve big things, you have to think big, so this is where things start for me.

As you can see, my first thing is the why for my second thing and my second thing is the what for my first thing.

The Class of 1982 Social Entrepreneurship Fellowship is a second thing. It is one of the steps that I want to take to become more entrepreneurial in the social sector and thus make the world a better place for the people I care about. 

From a past internship at Root Cause and volunteering with numerous nonprofits that spanned across education, mentorship, social services all throughout high school and college, I learned a lot about the challenges nonprofits face in trying to serve their beneficiaries under chronic resource shortages. I saw things like poorly maintained facilities, programs that didn’t fit into the nonprofits mission, and lack of systems in place to make continual program improvements. At the heart of the widely-discussed issue of why nonprofits fail, I saw well-intentioned leaders who were passionate about conquering some serious social problems but did not have the support and skillset to make their visions a reality. 

One of my mentors, Bill Nisen, who is a seasoned entrepreneur and nonprofit board member in the Upper Valley mentioned that from his experience, he saw that many nonprofit founders start their organizations with seemingly infinite passion, energy and hustle, but as they start to hit the walls that most nonprofits come up against at some point – no funding, mission drift, poor program management, etc. – they lose steam. Then, managing the nonprofit stops being fun and becomes a day-to-day grind. The light at the end of the tunnel starts getting dimmer and dimmer for the nonprofit…

To wrap up, these experiences and conversations have made me sincerely intrigued by the following questions:

  • What makes some nonprofits and social enterprises (a whole new beast) better at achieving their mission than others?
  • How do you help nonprofits and social enterprises maximize their social impact?
  • What are ways that nonprofits and social enterprises can become more innovative?

I am going to start searching for some answers. The Class of 1982 Social Entrepreneurship Fellowship is a good place to start. 

Contact me if you think you could help!

Social Entrepreneurship Fellowship Intro Part 1

Beginning in January, I will be working full-time at a Hanover, NH-based nonprofit organization called the Upper Valley Business Education Partnership (UVBEP). I have been working on a performance measurement project for them since I received the Class of 1982 Upper Valley Social Entrepreneurship Fellowship from the Tucker Foundation in March.

What is the Class of 1982 Social Entrepreneurship Fellowship?

From the Tucker Foundation website:

The Class of 1982 Upper Valley Social Entrepreneurship Fellowship was created and launched on the occasion of the 25th Reunion of the Class of 1982. The fellowship honors the Upper Valley community for its contributions making Dartmouth the special place that it is. By directing their resources to the non-profit organizations and the people of this community, the Class of 1982 took this opportunity to give something back and to ensure that Dartmouth students continue to enjoy and benefit from this unique environment today and in the future.

The Fellowship is awarded annually to one Dartmouth undergraduate and will support the establishment of new ongoing initiatives which expand economic and social opportunities for low-income people in the Upper Valley region on a sustainable basis. Projects should emphasize program entrepreneurship, revenue-generation, or cost recovery or community outreach and engagement. The grant covers one full-time leave term of immersion at the fellowship site and several terms of part-time involvement. Fellows must collaborate with a local non-profit organization or school. As the Social Entrepreneurship Fellowship program develops, we will develop learning ties with the Tuck School of Business and with the Upper Valley Non-Profit Exchange.

The fellowship lasts one year, and as the description above mentions, supports one full-time leave term of immersion and three part-time support terms. My fellowship period is from March 2011 – June 2012, a little longer than a year because I am currently studying abroad and not available to fulfill a part-time support role. 

What was the application process like?

The application process was rigorous. It started in January where I requested information about the program from the Tucker Foundation and set up an initial meeting with the fellowship advisor. I gave a description of my interests and was given suggestions for Upper Valley organizations to contact.

For the next two weeks, I contacted about 5 community service organizations in the Upper Valley that could potentially support a project that fit my interests at the time: financial literacy, strategic planning, and revenue generation. I believe 4 contacted me back. We e-mailed back and forth and spoke over the phone to see if we could propose a project to the Tucker Foundation that fit both the organization’s interests and my interests.

One organization in particular was a natural fit for what I was looking for. They had recently brought their board members and staff together for a strategic planning retreat and walked away with a document listing 4 priority objectives they had for capacity building. They were looking to pick one of these priority objectives and roll with it for the next year. They were even looking to bring in a Darmouth College student to help them work on the priority objective! Thus, the stars aligned, and I contacted them at a perfect time in their project trajectory. 

This organization was the Upper Valley Business and Education Partnership (UVBEP). 

I had several phone conversations with Kathi Terami, executive director of UVBEP, and in the next two weeks, we agreed upon a broad project scope and drafted and finalized a project proposal together which we submitted to the Tucker Foundation. We knew that we would likely have to pivot with the project once we got started, but it was still helpful for ourselves to come up with concrete project parameters, objectives, and deliverables.

Then, I had to solicit two recommendation letters from a professor and previous employer, fill out a lengthy application, and bam! I was set by the beginning of February to turn in all this material and after an engaging 1 hour interview, the application process was over. All that was left to do was sit close to a computer at all times checking my e-mail constantly over the next week (half-kidding). After a few days, Tucker sent me an e-mail congratulating me on selecting me for the fellowship. And then it was up to me to take action and truly make a difference in my community!