Because my college was a local college, it had a historic role in educating minorities and the tuition increase was viewed as an obstacle in creating more opportunity for minorities. I threw myself info the protests with all my heart. Ultimately, a group of us barricaded ourselves in the school for about 3 weeks so we brought the running of the campus to a halt.
I did in fact take a couple of classes at my local college here in NYC. But I did it unwillingly and without enthusiasm. That is until a protest broke out in the streets around campus against rising tuition costs.
While I did complete high school, I would have to say that it was by the skin of my teeth. My education ever since then has been one that I got "on the job" and I consider myself a very well-educated person at this point!
It's the "Success Paradox." When a set of behaviors has gotten you somewhere, you keep doing them even though the circumstances have changed.
I know a lot of great success stories of those who were excellent problem-solvers because they had found a need that they could fill well. As a result, they built organizations around them and those organizations had belief systems that could be described as a form of leadership.
The problem is not the sentiment, it's the execution. When a company makes a mistake, the individual benefits because they've learned how NOT to do something while the institution had to pay for the mistake.
However, I believe that large groups make markets, so serving the needs of large groups is a simple approach to success in business success. But that's no reflection on whether or not they're making wise moves or good calls. It's just about filling the need.
CEOs are no different than the guy in the mailroom. They all have to learn how to manage better the risk created by our increasingly risk-shifting world.
I think small groups have more collective wisdom than an individual.
That doesn't mean we should be doing it, though. We should always be carving back those things that are comfortable and institutionalized but not necessarily impactful.
One of the things all entrepreneurs struggle with is where their efforts will have the highest impact. Unfortunately, too many of us continue to do the very same things that led to our initial success because we're good at it and we've created and invested in systems to support them
I grew up in a modern business environment and did not experience the kind of prejudice that my mother and grandfather experienced.
My fighting spirit has often seemed out of place.
Still, it formed one of my basic beliefs about success which is this: most of the time, success can be measured in terms of how much more than others you have of something that's in short supply. This includes money, reputation, respect, etc.
I went to work at political consulting firms, graphic design and communications firms and ultimately, magazines. Today, my career is in the media business. And more specifically, I'm in the "words" side of the business as opposed to video or music.
There is a direct line between the communications work I did to protest tuition increases at my school and what I do today. Plus it had one other benefit...it got me kicked out of college!
When I started out, I wanted to have everything solved by the time I was 30. That didn't happen. Instead, I realized that the journey is the destination, that the work.
The work I'm doing today gets me one step closer to the work I should be doing tomorrow. And that the way I learn this is by trying, failing, networking and experimenting. I'll stop doing that when I'm dead.
I don't know if you hear this often but I would say The Razor's Edge (loosely based on a great W. Somerset Maugham novel). This was Bill Murray's first dramatic role so everyone thought he stunk in this deep character but I thought he and the movie were great. The movie takes place over decades so you see Murray's character go from goofy playboy all the way to wiser, older person. It's basically a movie version of the journey I described.
Because I work with entrepreneurs who own businesses, I have found Doug Tatum's No Man's Land to be a really helpful body of working knowledge. It's very applicable to most businesses that have the usual problems of growing businesses - managing people, capital, markets, etc.
On a personal side, I found Bo Burlingham's Small Giants to be a great window into how business can be an extension of social change and the critical role the entrepreneur plays in creating progress in society.
I believe that only a subset of us is meant to lead. The rest want to follow.
That being said, everyone of us can move a big step farther towards determining the direction of our own lives. We can all break free from group think. Some more than others. Most don't. Finding out who is who is great fun.
Thinking like others is ok for things that are not important to you.
I've got better things to do than to find my individuality in that particular area. But if it's important to me, I've got to seek my own path.
