The Kev Blog

This from a Tom Peters post in September:

Describing Dan Pink’s A Whole New Mind.

Fundamental premise: “The last few decades have belonged to a certain kind of person with a certain kind of mind—computer programmers who could crank code, lawyers who could craft contracts, MBAs who could crunch numbers.

But the keys to the kingdom are changing hands. The future belongs to a very different kind of person with a very different kind of mind—creators and empathizers, pattern recognizers and meaning makers. These people—artists, inventors, designers, storytellers, caregivers, consolers, big picture thinkers—will now reap society’s richest rewards and share its greatest joys.”

Pink makes a sound analytic argument for all this, based on the Rise of Asia and the New Technologies, among other things. One other zinger I cotton to:

“The MFA [master of fine arts] is the new MBA.”

The other book is The Big Picture, from the person I consider to be the most innovative educator in America … Dennis Littky. Dennis considers the current school system a disaster.

He’s working on a new model, piloted in Providence, RI, and now spinning out across the nation courtesy a big grant from the Gates Foundation. Littky’s work dovetails brilliantly with Pink’s. He believes we need to get beyond the rote learning and teach-to-test shackles … and get kids to engage in activities that mean something to them.

Consider: “From the media, we hear these great tearjerker stories of kids who succeeded despite the odds. But all of our kids are instead facing the odds of an education system that is all wrong. The odds are against them because the system works against them instead of with them. … I see it every day: kids who people have dismissed as ‘dumb in math’ or ‘uninterested in science’ or ‘nonreaders’ doing incredible things in these exact same areas because they were (finally) allowed to start with something they were already interested in. A 9th-grade kid who ‘hates science’ sees a movie about freezing people, then decides to read a college biology text on cryogenics, and then gives a presentation on it that blows your socks off.”

Peters then goes on to explain that he thinks the state of education in the world is as important as terrorism. “I don’t think I’m crazy,” Peters says. “I think this is the equal of security concerns … perhaps the ultimate security concern?”

Image credit.

This is going to be a unique post for me; in the Tom Peters, rant-style, in the heat of the moment kind of way.

I’ve recently been shooting emails back and forth with Albert Lai. For anyone who doesn’t know, Albert was featured on the cover of Canadian Business magazine in June 2008.

Here’s what I can tell you about Albert:
-28 years old
-founded, invested in or consulted with over a dozen startups in the past 10 years
-Founder of:
-MyDesktop
-BubbleShare
-BuyBuddy
-and a TON more

From what I hear, he sleeps about 3 hours a night - bed at 1am and up at 4:30am. The guy is incredible, and what I’ve written doesn’t do justice to the work he is doing or how highly regarded he is in the web/tech world right now.

Read the article in Canadian Business here.

Something that has come up a lot over the past few months is being visionary, forward-looking, and determined to follow through with an idea - no matter how crazy people think you are.

There’s been a few times over the past few years (and heck, even more when I look back to ever since I can remember) where I did NOT follow through with something (an idea, a project, a business, or even saying something) no matter how good I thought it was. “What will other people think?”

Well, Kev, what the hell were you [not] doing?

I was recently speaking with my dad, one of my most trusted mentors, about Albert.

“How the heck does he do it, Dad? People search their whole life for just one idea. Here’s this guy that’s taken over twelve ideas and turned them into profitable, exciting, and most of all disruptive new ideas.”

My dad’s answer:

“No Fear.”

And, just like most father-son moments, he was exactly right. You can’t have fear.

Most importantly, when people say you’re crazy (and they will!), you’ve got to keep pushing.

A good idea is a good idea. Want to follow through? Just do it. Don’t let anyone tell you no.

To be completely honest, I think you’ve got to be at least a little crazy, quirky, weird, and/or straight up strange if anyone’s going to listen to you. People might tell you you’re crazy, but that’s when you know you’ve got their attention.

I’ve had the “crazy talk” with a few people recently. Most notably, Marc Stamos. Another ‘crazy one’. Here’s a guy who ‘had it all’, including a lucrative career in corporate law.

But, he did something very unique. Marc looked up the corporate ladder at the firm he was with, and decided it wasn’t for him.

What did he do? He quit.

And he turned his attention to what is one of the coolest projects/organizations I have seen in a while: REBEARTH (www.rebearth.com)

Another “crazy one” who didn’t let fear get in the way.

It makes me sad when I encounter someone so scared of change that it almost paralyzes them. I actually, no word of a lie, feel sad - because they’re missing out on the exhilaration of trying something new, taking risks and working for something they actually believe in - not to mention the possibility of success! They let fear get in the way.

So here is what I’m going to do (and I owe this to the person who gave me some very good advice today over the phone). The next time I have an idea - I’m just going to do it. I’m not waiting for anyone’s permission to try something out, and I’m certainly not going to wait to have things perfected before I get the ball rolling. I’m just going to do it, ‘crazy’ or not.

You see, ‘crazy’ is a relative term. You’re only considered crazy until everyone else thinks the same way.

And besides, who will listen if you’re not half crazy?! In the words of Jack Welch:

“You can’t behave in a calm, rational manner. You’ve got to be out there on the lunatic fringe.”

Here’s my commitment to living out on that fringe. I am a lunatic. And I am more than OK with that :)

Just to finish things up, here’s a great ad from the mid 90’s Apple campaign called Think Different:

Please, if you do one thing tomorrow: be a little crazy. The world could use a few more crazy ones.

-K