Make It Count

Besides the incredibly inspiring nature of this video, I notice something very important about its origins: it speaks volumes of Nike to pick such a filmmaker for the campaign, the filmmaker to have frankly the cojones to spend $10K of Nike’s budget on travel expenses, and presumably Nike supporting later that it represents their brand well. Whether the recognition goes to filmmaker Casey Neistat or Nike I feel more inclined to include the Nike brand into my life brand. Another instance where business is fundamentally about people and does in fact have the ability to inspire and reach for more than profit.

A Beautiful Voyage

*In light of my hopes to travel and my recent delay to Patagonia this poem comes to mind. I had it in my mind to include this in some way to my Patagonia documentary because I think it speaks volumes of how to live the journey we are on.

When you set out on your journey to Ithaca,
pray that the road is long,
full of adventure, full of knowledge.
The Lestrygonians and the Cyclops,
the angry Poseidon – do not fear them:
You will never find such as these on your path,
if your thoughts remain lofty, if a fine
emotion touches your spirit and your body.
The Lestrygonians and the Cyclops,
the fierce Poseidon you will never encounter,
if you do not carry them within your soul,
if your soul does not set them up before you.

Pray that the road is long.
That the summer mornings are many, when,
with such pleasure, with such joy
you will enter ports seen for the first time;
stop at Phoenician markets,
and purchase fine merchandise,
mother-of-pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
and sensual perfumes of all kinds,
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
visit many Egyptian cities,
to learn and learn from scholars.

Always keep Ithaca in your mind.
To arrive there is your ultimate goal.
But do not hurry the voyage at all.
It is better to let it last for many years;
and to anchor at the island when you are old,
rich with all you have gained on the way,
not expecting that Ithaca will offer you riches.

Ithaca has given you the beautiful voyage.

Without her you would have never set out on the road.
She has nothing more to give you.

And if you find her poor, Ithaca has not deceived you.
Wise as you have become, with so much experience,
you must already have understood what Ithacas mean.

—Constantine P. Cavafy (kah-VAH-fee, Greek poet, 1863–1933)

Countdown to Patagonia

After months of research and collaboration with Babson College, they have denied my petition to study-abroad in Patagonia in the spring of 2013 with the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS). The trip was to include sea kayaking and mountaineering around Patagonia for 80 days with NOLS and then hopefully continuing to do some more traveling in the area and working for the Conservacion Patagonica. I was going to synthesize the experience into a documentary about life, travel, and leadership.

I am not giving up my dream to be humbled by the mountains, glaciers, and waters of Patagonia, but recognize that due to finances and other constraints it cannot be a part of my Babson College experience. My quest for leading by the example of Jeff Johnson, Yvon Chouinard and Doug Tompkins (revealed to me through the documentary 180° South) and combining it with my entrepreneurial business believes will just have to be looked at from another angle.

If you are at all interested in seeing my 15 page petition outlining how I believe experiential learning with Entrepreneurial Thought and Action in mind can lead to standing at the crossroads of business, technology, and the environment just let me know and I will gladly share it with you.

Taking Back Winter

The winter of my senior year of high school I was fortunate enough to ski 87 days. Days working as a ski instructor, practices and races for the high school ski team, and free skiing days certainly added up. It helped to have a working car equipped with a ski rack, free weekends, and a flexible school schedule. During my spring semester, I only had a first and last period class; I would do the ten minute drive to the mountain right after class, ski by myself for two hours (I taught myself how to telemark ski over this period of time), and rush back into class with my snow gear still on. It also helped that at this point I was already accepted to Babson.

The following winter, the winter of my freshman year at college, was the exact opposite. A record year of snow in the northeast and I had too much work and was figuring too much out for myself to make the drive up into the mountains. I got days in of course, but not of quality. So over the summer I made it my goal to take back my winter. In the fall I committed to a intensive work out routine and got the entrepreneurial wheels turning in my mind. What resulted was an amazing winter. I maximized my ski-related-enjoyment in one of the least conducive winters in the northeast on record (incredibly warm and very little snow). Here is what I was up to this winter:

1. Visited the Boston Ski & Snowboard Expo at the Seaport Trade Center (November)

2. Worked for Poor Boyz Productions for their Triple Threat Tour stop in Boston at The Royale (November)

3. Alpine and telemark ski instructed at Gunstock Mountain Resort (January)

4. Began doing internet marketing for pro skier Dan Egan kicking off at “Ski the Beast with Dan Egan” at Killington Resort (January) See my review of the event here.

5. Was invited to the Eastern Winter Sports Reps Association (EWSRA) On Snow Demo at Stratton Mountain to become a contributing writer for SnowEast Magazine (February) I tested 10 all-mountain twin tip skis across 7 different companies. My review of the year’s best will be featured in SnowEast’s 2012 October issue.

6. As president of the Babson Outdoor Association I planned trips to Sunday River, Blue Hills, Waterville Valley, and Jay Peak; all of which lucky enough had great weather/conditions.

7. …..And of course I free skied with friends. Notably I caught first tracks at Waterville Valley after an 8″ overnight storm and skied Okemo on two bright sunny days.

Here is my “Career Plan”

Finally I have found an article that explains my vision for a career plan – and what do you know, it comes from the words of President Schlesinger of Babson College. Do you get asked what you see for yourself in 5 years? When you don’t name a specific job, company, or industry, do you get this uneasy, blank stare back from your inquirer? If you are like me, then you know what I am talking about.

Here is the article: Career Plans Are Dangerous – Leonard A. Schlesinger, Charles F. Kiefer, and Paul B. Brown – Harvard Business Review.

Allow me to highlight what I find important:

“Instead of formulating the logically perfect ending job and the optimal path to get there, begin with a direction, based on a real desire, and complement that with a strategy to discover and create opportunities consistent with that desire.”

“So, the process looks like this:

1. Determine your desire
2. Take a step toward it
3. Incorporate what you learn from taking that step
4. Take another step
5. Learn from that one
6. Repeat until you have a job, your own business, or have achieved your goal

Have a Good Time with What You Got

A friend shared this with me recently. I love it! A great addition to the recent group of ski film that doesn’t involve a whole lot of production and focuses on the core of the sport and its culture. Yes, I love the giant ski productions that come out each year by the major companies, but we need simple stuff like this.

Connecting the Dots, Everyday

Love, a photo by Babson College on Flickr.

En.tre.pre.neur.ship (n): The constant tying together of unique ideas and values in an intricate web of action.

(my answer on define.babson.edu)

Many things are coming together, but right now there just is not enough time to put them to writing. Stay tuned….it will be worth it.

I Now ‘Think Different’

A year ago today I joined Apple Inc. The past year has been nothing short of life-altering and there is nothing that could be more complimentary to my college experience than growing up alongside my colleagues at Apple.

The Famous Speech

In addition to my tribute to all that Steve Jobs has done for the world, it cannot be forgotten the advice and reflection he shared at the Stanford University’s 114th Commencement on June 15, 2005.

A Small Tribute to Steve

There are many things I could say about Steve Jobs. Among what I could say would be many thanks. Thanks for his commitment to perfection. Thanks for his belief in humanity. Thanks for creating the company who’s culture would open my mind in countless ways. I cannot adequately explain my appreciation. So rather than getting lost in words, I would like to share some of my favorite quotes from Steve that have influenced me most.

 ***

Playboy: We were warned about you: Before this Interview began, someone said we were “about to be snowed by the best.”

[Smiling] “We’re just enthusiastic about what we do.”

“We think the Mac will sell zillions, but we didn’t build the Mac for anybody else. We built it for ourselves. We were the group of people who were going to judge whether it was great or not. We weren’t going to go out and do market research. We just wanted to build the best thing we could build.

When you’re a carpenter making a beautiful chest of drawers, you’re not going to use a piece of plywood on the back, even though it faces the wall and nobody will ever see it. You’ll know it’s there, so you’re going to use a beautiful piece of wood on the back. For you to sleep well at night, the aesthetic, the quality, has to be carried all the way through.” [Playboy, Feb. 1, 1985]

***

“Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things. And the reason they were able to do that was that they’ve had more experiences or they have thought more about their experiences than other people.

“Unfortunately, that’s too rare a commodity. A lot of people in our industry haven’t had very diverse experiences. So they don’t have enough dots to connect, and they end up with very linear solutions without a broad perspective on the problem. The broader one’s understanding of the human experience, the better design we will have. [Wired, February 1996]

***

“That’s been one of my mantras — focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.” [BusinessWeek, May 25, 1998]

***

“Innovation has nothing to do with how many R&D dollars you have. When Apple came up with the Mac, IBM was spending at least 100 times more on R&D. It’s not about money. It’s about the people you have, how you’re led, and how much you get it.” [Fortune, Nov. 9, 1998]

***

“But innovation comes from people meeting up in the hallways or calling each other at 10:30 at night with a new idea, or because they realized something that shoots holes in how we’ve been thinking about a problem. It’s ad hoc meetings of six people called by someone who thinks he has figured out the coolest new thing ever and who wants to know what other people think of his idea.

“And it comes from saying no to 1,000 things to make sure we don’t get on the wrong track or try to do too much. We’re always thinking about new markets we could enter, but it’s only by saying no that you can concentrate on the things that are really important. [BusinessWeek, Oct. 12, 2004]