Being a revolutionary and the importance of choice

Tom O’ConnorInside Leap

BIS Seminar SeriesJanuary 17th 2007

What’s in store• Who Am I• What does it mean to be a revolutionary?• Technology revolutionaries • The freedom to choose• Common characteristics of a revolutionary• The New Economy• Closing

Who Am I?Tom O’Connor

2006: Managing Director, Inside Leap & Living Outside The Box Ltd.

2004-2006 Barclays Capital – Consultant

2000-2004 Citigroup Inc – Employee

2000 Graduate of BIS

What does it mean to be a revolutionary?

• To do things differently • To bring us down new paths• To serve others• To change the world

Bill Gates:

"If the 1980s were about quality

and the

1990s were about reengineering,

then the

2000s will be about velocity.” (Business @ the Speed of Thought)

Technology Revolutionaries

1975

Past to Present to Future

1998 2005

Microsoft• 1975 - Altair 8800 • 1980: QDOS• 2006: $44.2 Billion Revenue

• Goal:

“A computer on every desk and in every home, running Microsoft software”

• 1996: Stanford Phd Students• 1997: Google.com• 1998: Google Inc

• Mission: To organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.

• Google Today:• Adsence, Gmail, Google Earth, Google Docs, You Tube, Blooger etc• 2006: $7.14 Billon Revenue

What will I do after college?• 2004 – Have Dinner, get an idea!• 2005 – Launch “You Tube”• Sweat it out for a year• 2006 – Close deal with Google for $1.65 Billion• Back to bed …

The upshot of being a (successful) technology revolutionary

• You get to make a massive difference

• You can make a lot of money fast

• You get to ignite the imagination of others

• You get to impact and change the world

Are you?

• 20 something?• Looking for and adventure?• Want to do more than 9-9?

• Then there is good news ….

Tomorrows Revolutionaries

“Even the skeptics expect more

Microsofts and Googles to emerge from

dorm rooms around the country”

Business Week

Each of you here has the potential to be a

revolutionary.

Your Generation

• Willingness to rival the status quo• Expect more• Want to change the world• Causing headaches for employers

2007• We are living at a time of unprecedented change

– Unprecedented choice– Unprecedented problems– Unprecedented opportunities

Technology today• Internet: Web 2.0• $100 Dollar Laptop computer• Nano Technology• Space Tourism

• Technology changes happening at exponential growth

Web 2.0• Online collaboration • Richer Internet experiences• Intelligent internet

• Second Life: Virtual reality

Second Life …

$100 Dollar Laptop

One Laptop per child for worlds poorest children

Nigeria and Libya, 2007-08

100M units per year

500 Mhz AMD

Dual mode display

128 DRAM, 512 Flash

Wifi mesh network

The freedom to choose• As BIS students, you face 3 choices

– Employee• Security*, order, career progression• 1 in 7 fully engaged in their jobs• 100 in 1000 with an idea, 3 will take action

– Entrepreneur • Risk, great rewards, excitement, passion, creation, change the

world• Can you harvest your failures?

– Employee to Entrepreneur

What the experts say:

“It's dangerous not to do what you love. If you are half-hearted about the work you do, there are a dozen people out there who are passionate about it and want to take your job away from you”

Mark Thompson

Success Built To Last (2006)

Famous & Infamous HBS Class of 79

• Dan Bricklin -developed Visicalc, the first spreadsheet for computers

• Meg Whitman -CEO eBay Inc • John Thain -President of Goldman Sachs -CEO New York Stock

Exchange• Ron Sargent, CEO Staples Inc • Jeff Skilling Enron Corp

Famous & Infamous BIS Class of 200X

• Reserve your place now ….

• The potential for you to impact and change the world is out there …

• To have incredible fun, to make a killing and to better the world while your at it

What will be your choice?

The time to seed your dreams and ideas is now ..

• Get curious• Expect more of yourself• Be unwilling to accept the status quo

Your Greatest Asset

• Yourself• The people you surround yourself • Your Passion• The ideas you are open to receiving and exploring• Your willingness to ignore dogma • The courage to follow your heart and intuition

Some questions for you:

• When is the last time you did anything that really frightened you?

• Was last year much the same for you as this year? Or has anything significant happened?

• Do you have a hunger to do something you love?

• Would you like to do something your passionate about?

What will you be doing three, six months, years from now?

Where do you want to be?

Something to ponder ….

Common characteristics of a revolutionary

• They made a choice• Passionate • Focus & Clarity• Willing to make mistakes• Stretched themselves and had thick skin• They sought to serve• They were insatiably curious• They were resilient• Educated themselves and built great teams

Common characteristics of a revolutionary

• The willingness to forgo (temporarily) – The big corporate job– The big pay cheque– The social status of working for X– Your fear of failure and looking bad– Willingness to hold on to the wall

Regardless of the road you takeEntrepreneurial thinking as a

skill to develop is in your future

Employers are looking for entrepreneurial thinking

Top skill sought by employers in the coming decade

Creativity and Innovation

What are Universities saying

• “Teaching all students to think entrepreneurially is a skill members of the next generation will need to succeed in the corporate world, even if they never expect to be their own boss”

MIT Sloan School of Management 2005

• The number 3rd level institutes in the US offering some type of entrepreneurial programs:

• 1990's: 300 (Approx 15%)• 2005: 1300 (Approx 66%)

Welcome to the New Economy

“The New Economy is a knowledge and idea-based economy

where the keys to job creation and higher standards of living are

innovative ideas and technology embedded in services and

manufactured products. It is an economy where risk, uncertainty,

and constant change are the rule, rather than the exception.”

The biggest limiting factor to your growth and revolution

• Your Mental Models

What do you believe about you?

• The questions your willing to ask of yourself

• The people you surround yourself with

It is your chance to make a difference …

It’s your life …

The Ages they started …

22 20 25 25 25’s

It’s your life …

“Stay YoungStay Hungry”

Thank You

Tom O’ConnorManaging DirectorInside Leap

Innovators in Graduate Career andProfessional Performance Training

Email: tomoconnor@insideleap.co.ukTel: +44 845 094 4603

Online: www.insideleap.co.uk

Questions and Answers