S2 L1 What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20 (Tina Seelig)

'Tina Seelig is one of the most creative and inspiring teachers at Stanford* Her book ought to be required reading."

— Robert Sutton, author of The No Asshole Rule

W hat I Wish I Knew When

I Was 20Search |

A Crash Course on Making Your Place in the World

T I N A S E E L I G

What I Wish I Knew

When I Was 20

A Crash Course on Making

Your Place in the World

Tina Seelig

t££ HarperCollins e-books

For Josh,

Happy 20th Birthday

CONTENTS

1 Buy One, Get Two Free 1

2 The Upside-Down Circus 15

3 Bikini or Die 33

4 Please Take Out Your Wallets 55

5 The Secret Sauce of Silicon Valley 71

6 No Way . . . Engineering Is for Girls 99

7 Turn Lemonade into Helicopters 117

8 Paint the Target around the Arrow 137

9 W ill This Be on the Exam? 159

10 Experimental Artifacts 175

A cknow led gm en ts 185

Notes 191

About th e Author

Cred its

C ov er

C op y r i g h t

About th e Pub li sh er

Chapter 1

BUY ONE, GET TWO FREE

What would you do to earn money if all you had was five dol

lars and two hours? This is the assignment I gave students in

one of my classes at Stanford University Each of fourteen teams

received an envelope with five dollars of “seed funding” and was

told they could spend as much time as they wanted planning.

However, once they cracked open the envelope, they had two

hours to generate as much money as possible. I gave them from

Wednesday afternoon until Sunday evening to complete the

assignment. Then, on Sunday evening, each team had to send

me one slide describing what they had done, and on Monday

afternoon each team had three minutes to present their project

to the class. They were encouraged to be entrepreneurial by

identifying opportunities, challenging assumptions, leveraging

the limited resources they had, and by being creative.

W hat would you do if you were given this challenge? W hen

I ask this question to most groups, someone usually shouts out,

“Go to Las Vegas,” or “Buy a lottery ticket.” This gets a big

7 What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20

laugh. These folks would take a significant risk in return for a

small chance at earning a big reward. The next most common

suggestion is to set up a car wash or lemonade stand, using the

five dollars to purchase the starting materials. This is a fine

option for those interested in earning a few extra dollars of

spending money in two hours. But most of my students even

tually found a way to move far beyond the standard responses.

They took seriously the challenge to question traditional

assumptions—exposing a wealth of possibilities—in order to

create as much value as possible.

How did they do this? Here’s a clue: the teams that made

the most money didn’t use the five dollars at all. They real

ized that focusing on the money actually framed the problem

way too tightly. They understood that five dollars is essentially

nothing and decided to reinterpret the problem more broadly:

W hat can we do to make money if we start with absolutely

nothing? They ramped up their observation skills, tapped into

their talents, and unlocked their creativity to identify problems

in their midst—problems they experienced or noticed others

experiencing—problems they might have seen before but had

never thought to solve. These problems were nagging but not

necessarily at the forefront of anyone’s mind. By unearthing

these problems and then working to solve them, the winning

teams brought in over $600, and the average return on the five

dollar investment was 4,000 percent! If you take into account

that many of the teams didn’t use the funds at all, then their

financial returns were infinite.

Buy One, Get Two Free 3

So what did they do? All of the teams were remarkably

inventive. One group identified a problem common in a lot

of college towns—the frustratingly long lines at popular res

taurants on Saturday night. The team decided to help those

people who didn’t want to wait in line. They paired off and

booked reservations at several restaurants. As the times for

their reservations approached, they sold each reservation for up

to twenty dollars to customers who were happy to avoid a long

wait.

As the evening wore on, they made several interesting obser

vations. First, they realized that the female students were better

at selling the reservations than the male students, probably

because customers were more comfortable being approached

by the young women. They adjusted their plan so that the

male students ran around town making reservations at differ

ent restaurants while the female students sold those places in

line. They also learned that the entire operation worked best at

restaurants that use vibrating pagers to alert customers when

their table is ready. Physically swapping pagers made custom

ers feel as though they were receiving something tangible for

their money. They were more comfortable handing over their

money and pager in exchange for the new pager. This had an

additional bonus—teams could then sell the newly acquired

pager as the later reservation time grew nearer.

Another team took an even simpler approach. They set up

a stand in front of the student union where they offered to

measure bicycle tire pressure for free. If the tires needed filling,


they added air for one dollar. At first they thought they were

taking advantage of their fellow students, who could easily go to

a nearby gas station to have their tires filled. But after their first

few customers, the students realized that the bicyclists were

incredibly grateful. Even though the cyclists could get their

tires filled for free nearby, and the task was easy for the students

to perform, they soon realized that they were providing a con

venient and valuable service. In fact, halfway through the two-

hour period, the team stopped asking for a specific payment

and requested donations instead. Their income soared. They

made much more when their customers were reciprocating

for a free service than when asked to pay a fixed price. For this

team, as well as for the team making restaurant reservations,

experimenting along the way paid off. The iterative process,

where small changes are made in response to customer feed

back, allowed them to optimize their strategy on the fly.

Each of these projects brought in a few hundred dollars,

and their fellow classmates were duly impressed. However, the

team that generated the greatest profit looked at the resources

at their disposal through completely different lenses, and made

$650. These students determined that the most valuable asset

they had was neither the five dollars nor the two hours. In

stead, their insight was that their most precious resource was

their three-minute presentation time on Monday. They de

cided to sell it to a company that wanted to recruit the students

in the class. The team created a three-minute “commercial”

for that company and showed it to the students during the time

Buy One, Get Two Free S

they would have presented what they had done the prior week.

This was brilliant. They recognized that they had a fabulously

valuable asset—that others didn’t even notice—just waiting to

be mined.

Each of the other eleven teams found clever ways to earn

money, including running a photo booth at the annual Vi

ennese Ball, selling maps that highlighted local restaurants

during Parents’ Weekend, and designing and selling a custom

T-shirt to the students in the class. One team actually lost

money when the students purchased umbrellas to sell in San

Francisco on a rainy day, only to have the weather clear up

shortly after they launched their effort. And, yes, one team

ran a car wash and another started a lemonade stand, but their

returns were much lower than average.

I count the “Five-Dollar Challenge” as a success in teaching

students about having an entrepreneurial mind-set. But it left

me feeling a bit uncomfortable. I didn’t want to communicate

that value is always measured in terms of financial rewards. So,

I added a twist the next time I assigned the project. Instead of

five dollars, I gave each team an envelope containing ten paper

clips. Teams were told they had four hours over the next few

days to generate as much “value” as possible using the paper

clips, where value could be measured in any way they wanted.

The inspiration for this was the story of Kyle MacDonald, who

started with one red paper clip and traded up until he had a

house.1 He set up a blog to document his progress and to solicit

trades. It took a year, but step-by-step he reached his goal. He


traded the red paper clip for a fish-shaped pen. He then traded

the pen for a doorknob and the doorknob for a Coleman stove,

and so on. The value of the items increased slowly but surely

over the year until he had his dream house. Considering what

Kyle did with one paper clip, I felt quite generous giving the

students ten paper clips. The assignment began on a Thursday

morning and presentations were scheduled for the following

Tuesday.

By the time Saturday rolled around, however, I was anxious.

Perhaps I’d gone too far this time. I worried the assignment

would be a bust and was ready to chalk it up to experience.

These concerns couldn’t have been further from the mark.

The seven student teams each chose to measure “value” in

different ways. One decided that paper clips were the new cur

rency and went about collecting as many as possible. Another

team learned that the current world record for the longest

paper clip chain was over twenty-two miles and set out to break

that record. They rallied their friends and roommates, pitched

local stores and businesses on their plan, and showed up in

class with a mountain of paper clips linked together. Appar

ently the students in their dorm were so moved by the chal

lenge that they committed themselves to breaking the world

record even after the assignment was over. (I’m pretty sure they

didn’t break the record, but it’s a good measure of the energy

the team was able to generate.)

The most entertaining and provocative team came to class

with a short video, with the song “Bad Boys” blaring in the


background, that showed them using the paper clips to pick

locks and break into dorm rooms to steal tens of thousands of

dollars worth of sunglasses, cell phones, and computers. Just

before I fainted, they announced that they were joking and

showed another video documenting what they really had done.

They traded the paper clips for some poster board and set

up a stand at a nearby shopping center with a sign that read,

“Stanford Students For Sale: Buy One, Get Two Free.” They

were amazed by the offers they received. They started out

carrying heavy bags for shoppers, moved on to taking out the

recycling from a clothing store, and eventually did an ad hoc

brainstorming session for a woman who needed help solving a

business problem. She paid them with three computer moni

tors she didn’t need.

Over the years, I’ve continued to give groups similar as

signments, changing the starting material from paper clips to

Post-it® notes, or rubber bands, or water bottles. Each time the

students surprise me, and themselves, by what they accomplish

with limited time and resources. For example, using one small

package of Post-it notes, students created a collaborative music

project, a campaign to educate people about heart disease, and

a public service commercial—called Unplug-It—about saving

energy. This exercise ultimately evolved into what has become

known as the “Innovation Tournament,” with hundreds of

teams from all over the world participating.2 In each case, par

ticipants use the competition as a means to look at the world

around them with fresh eyes, identifying opportunities in their


own backyard. They challenge traditional assumptions, and in

doing so generate enormous value from practically nothing.

The entire adventure with Post-it notes was captured on film

and became the foundation for a professional documentary

called Im ag in e It?

The exercises described above highlight several counterin

tuitive points. First, opportunities are abundant. At any place

and time you can look around and identify problems that

need solving. Some are mundane, such as scoring a table at

a popular restaurant or pumping up bike tires. Many, as we

well know, are much larger, relating to major world issues.

As Vinod Khosla, a co-founder of Sun Microsystems and a

successful venture capitalist, says so clearly, “The bigger the

problem, the bigger the opportunity. Nobody will pay you to

solve a non-problem.”4

Second, regardless of the size of the problem, there are usu

ally creative ways to use the resources already at your disposal

to solve them. This is actually the definition many of my col

leagues use for entrepreneurship: an entrepreneur is someone

who is always on the lookout for problems that can be turned

into opportunities and finds creative ways to leverage limited

resources to reach their goals. Most people approach problems

as though they can’t be solved and, therefore, don’t see the

creative solutions sitting right in front of them.

Third, we so often frame problems too tightly. W hen given

a simple challenge, such as earning money in two hours,


most people quickly jump to standard responses. They don’t

step back and look at the problem more broadly. Taking off

the blinders opens up a world of possibilities. Students who

participated in these projects took this lesson to heart. Many

reflected afterward that they would never have an excuse for

being broke, since there is always a nearby problem begging to

be solved.

These assignments grew out of a course I teach on entrepre

neurship and innovation at Stanford University. The overarch

ing goal is to demonstrate that all problems can be viewed as

opportunities for creative solutions. I focus first on individual

creativity, then move on to creativity in teams, and finally dive

into creativity and innovation in large organizations. I give my

students small challenges and slowly make them more dif

ficult. As the course progresses, the students grow increasingly

comfortable seeing problems through the lens of possibility

and are eventually w illing to take on just about anything that

comes their way.

I’ve been at Stanford for ten years as the executive direc

tor of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP),5

which is located in the School of Engineering. Our mission

is to teach scientists and engineers about entrepreneurship

and to provide them with the tools they need to be entrepre

neurial in whatever role they play. We believe, along with a

growing number of universities around the world, that it isn’t

good enough for students to come out of school with a purely

technical education. To be successful, they need to understand


how to be entrepreneurial leaders in all working environments

and in all parts of their lives.

STVP focuses on teaching, scholarly research, and outreach

to students, faculty, and entrepreneurs around the world. We

strive to create “T-shaped people,” those with a depth of knowl

edge in at least one discipline and a breadth of knowledge

about innovation and entrepreneurship that allows them to

work effectively with professionals in other disciplines to bring

their ideas to life.6 No matter what their role, having an en

trepreneurial mind-set is key to solving problems, from small

challenges that face each of us every day to looming world

crises that require the attention and efforts of the entire planet.

In fact, entrepreneurship cultivates a range of important life

skills, from leadership and team building to negotiation, inno

vation, and decision making.

I’m also on the faculty of the Hasso Plattner Institute of

Design at Stanford, affectionately called the “d.school.”7 This

cross-disciplinary program draws upon educators from across the

entire university, including the Schools of Engineering, Medi

cine, Business, and Education. The institute was envisioned and

launched by Stanford mechanical engineering professor David

Kelley, who is also the founder of the design firm IDEO, known

for creating wildly inventive products and experiences. All

d.school courses are taught by at least two professors from differ

ent disciplines, and cover an endless array of topics, from design

for extreme affordability to creating infectious action to design

for agile aging. As part of the d.school teaching team, I’ve experi


enced the thrill of radical collaboration, extreme brainstorming,

and rapid prototyping as we give our students and ourselves big,

messy problems with more than one right answer.

This book draws upon the stories that come out of the class

rooms at Stanford as well as from my prior experiences as a

scientist, entrepreneur, management consultant, educator, and

author. Other stories come from those who have taken a wide

range of paths, including entrepreneurs, inventors, artists, and

academics. I’m fortunate to be surrounded by those who have

done remarkable things by challenging assumptions and are

eager to share their tales of success and failure.

M any of the ideas presented here are the polar opposite of

the lessons we are taught in a traditional education system. In

fact, the rules that apply in school are often completely dif

ferent from those in the outside world. This disparity causes

incredible stress when we leave school and attempt to find our

way. Gracefully bridging that gap to tackle real-world chal

lenges can be extremely difficult, but it’s doable with the right

tools and mind-set.

In school, students are usually evaluated as individuals and

graded on a curve. In short, when they win someone else loses.

Not only is this stressful, but it isn’t how most organizations

work. Outside of school, people usually work on a team with a

shared goal, and when they win so does everyone else. In fact,

in the business world there are usually small teams embedded

inside larger teams, and at every level the goal is to make ev

eryone successful.


The typical classroom has a teacher who views his or her job

as pouring information into the students’ brains. The door to

the room is closed and the chairs are bolted to the floor, facing

the teacher. Students take careful notes, knowing they will be

tested on the material later. For homework they are asked to

read assigned material from a textbook and quietly absorb it on

their own. This couldn’t be any more different from life after

college, where you are your own teacher, charged with figur

ing out what you need to know, where to find the information,

and how to absorb it. In fact, real life is the ultimate open book

exam. The doors are thrown wide open, allowing you to draw

on endless resources around you as you tackle open-ended

problems related to work, family, friends, and the world at

large. Carlos Vignolo, a masterful professor at the University of

Chile, told me that he provocatively suggests that students take

classes from the worst teachers in their school because this will

prepare them for life, where they won’t have talented educators

leading the way.

Additionally, in large classes, students are typically given

multiple-choice tests with one right answer for every question,

and the bubbles must be carefully filled in with number two

pencils to make for easy grading. In sharp contrast, in most

situations outside of school there are a multitude of answers to

every question, many of which are correct in some way. And,

even more important, it is acceptable to fail. In fact, failure is

an important part of life’s learning process. Just as evolution is

a series of trial-and-error experiments, life is full of false starts


and inevitable stum bling. T he key to succcss is the ab ility to

cxtract the lessons out of each of these experiences and to

move on w ith that new knowledge.

For most people, the world is quite different than a typical

classroom. T here isn’t one right answer that leads to a clear

reward, and facing the wall of choices in front of cach of us

can be quite overwhelm ing. Although family, friends, and

neighbors w ill happily give us pointed advice about what to

d o , it is e s s e n t i a l l y o u r re sp o n s ib i l i ty to p ick o u r o w n d ir e c t io n .

But it is helpful to know that \vc don’t have to be right the

first tim e. Life presents everyone w ith m any opportunities to

experim ent and recombine our skills and passions in new and

surprising ways.

T h e concepts presented in this book turn m any well-worn

ideas on their heads. M y hope is to challenge you to sec your

self and the world in a fresh light. T h e ideas arc straightfor

ward, but not necessarily intuitive. As an educator focusing

on innovation and entrepreneurship, I have seen firsthand

that these ideas arc relevant to those working in dynam ic en

vironments, where situations change rapidly, requiring those

involved to know how to identify opportunities, balance priori

ties, and learn from failure. Additionally, the concepts arc valu

able to anyone who wants to squeeze the most ju ice out of life.

In the com ing chapters I w ill tell stories that come from a

wide variety of sources, from recent co llege graduates to sea

soned professionals. I lopefully, some o f their cxpcricnccs w ill

resonate w ith you, providing insights and inspiration as you

14 What I W ish I Knew When I Was 20

consider the choices you face throughout your life. Essentially,

the goal o f this book is to provide a new lens through which

to view the obstacles you encounter every day w h ile chart ng

your course into the future. It is designed to give you permis

sion to question conventional wisdom and to revisit the rules

around you. T here w ill always be uncertain ty at each turn, but

armed w ith the confidence that comes from seeing how others

have coped w ith sim ilar am biguities, the stress w ill moiph

into excitem ent, and the challenges you face w ill become

opportunities.

Chapter 2

THE UPSIDE-DOW N CIRCUS

W hy don’t most of us view problems as opportunities in our

everyday lives? W hy did the teams described previously have

to wait for a class assignm ent to stretch the lim its o f their imag

inations? Essentially, wc aren 't taught to em brace problems.

W e’re taught that problems arc to be avoided, or something

to com plain about. In fact, w hile speaking at a conference for

business executives, I presented video clips from the Innovation

Tournament as part of my talk. Later that afternoon the CKO

of a com pany approached m e and lam ented that lie wished

he could go back to school, where he would be given open-

ended problems anti be challenged to be creative. I looked at

h im w ith confusion. I’m pretty confident that even- d ay he

faces rea l- life ch a llen ges that w ould benefit from creative


th inking. Unfortunately, he didn’t see that the concepts easily

relate to his life and business. He viewed m y assignm ents as

som ething that could only happen in a controlled, academ ic

environment. O f course, that isn't and shouldn't be the ease

at all.

W e can challenge ourselves every single day. T hat is, we

can choose to view the world through different lenses—lenses

that allow us to see problems in a new light. T he more we take

on problems, the more confident and proficient we become

at solving them. And the better able we arc to sec them as

opportunities.

A ttitude is perhaps the biggest determ inant of what we can

accom plish. True innovators face problems directly and turn

traditional assumptions on their head. A wonderful exam ple

is Jeff I law kins, who revolutionized the way people organize

their lives w ith the Palm Pilot. Jeff was drawn to the problem

of creating sm all personal computers that were easily accessi

ble lu the gcucia l public. rI liis was a g iaud goal, and along lliu

w ay he faccd an endless array of additional challenges. In fact,

he adm its that being an entrepreneur m eans constantly facing

big problems and finding creative ways to tam e them.

Jeffs problems began at the very beginn ing. W hen Palm re

leased its first product, the Zoomer, it failed miserably. Instead

of w alk ing away in defeat, Jeff and his team called the custom

ers who had purchased the Zoomer, as well as those who had

purchased its rival, the Apple Newton, and asked what they

had hoped it would do. T h e customers said they had cxpcctcd

the product to organize their com plicated schedules, helping

them integrate several calendars into one. That's when Jeff

realized the Zoomer was com peting m uch more w ith paper

calendars than w ith other computer products. This surpris

ing fccdback, which contradictcd his original assumptions,

prov.ded useful input for the design of the ncxt-generation

product, the fabulously successful Palm Pilot.

Along the way, Jeff and his team tacklcd the daunting prob

lem of determ ining how users would enter information into the

new, small device. Jeff felt it was critically important to allow

people to use a pen to enter information, in addition to a tiny

keyboard, to m ake this proccss more natural. But handwriting-

rccognition programs of the day weren’t up to the task. So Jeff

and his team crcatcd a new written language, Graffiti, which

was easier for the computer to recognize. There was consider

able resistance inside the company to m andating the use of a

new language, but Jeff was confident customers would spend a

s m a l l a m o u n t o f l im e up f io n l in l e l u m foi s a v in g lo ls u f l im e

going forward. Graffiti was a radical innovation that challenged

a ll the rules and solved a real problem.

Jeff I law kins is a perfect exam ple of a problem solver who

is w illing to look at the world with a fresh eye. I lis most rcccnt

company, N um cnta, is built around his own theories about

how the brain works. Jeff spent years teaching h im self ncuro-

scicr.cc in an attempt to understand how we th ink, and came

up with a com pelling and provocative theory about how the

neocortex processes information, which he describes in his

T/ie Upside-Down Circus 17


book O n In te l l ig en ce . W ith these theories in hand, Jeff cleciclecl

to use his ideas as the foundation for a “smarter" computer that

processes information like the hum an brain. O f course, one

could argue that Jeff I lavvkins is one-of-a-kind, and that we

can ’t all develop revolutionary theories and groundbreaking in

ventions. But it is m uch more productive to sec Jeff as a source

of inspiration, as someone who demonstrates that problems

can be solved if we give ourselves permission to look a t them

differently.J

W hy don’t we a ll focus on the opportunities that surround us

each day and take full advantage of them ? O ne projcct that

cam e out o f the second Innovation Tournam ent sheds some

light on this idea. D uring the tournament, participants were

challenged to create as m uch value as possible w ith rubber

bands. O ne team cam e up with the idea for “Do Bands,”

bracelets that give people a simple incentive to “do” the things

they often put off doing. Do Bands is a clever idea, inspired by

the now-fam iliar rubber bracelets worn to show solidarity withj

a cause, such as Lancc Armstrong’s Live Strong bracelets. Do

Bands have a few gu id ing principles:

• Put one around your wrist v ith a promise to do

something.

• l ake it off when you have completed the task.


• Record your success online at the Do Bands W eb site.

Each Do Band comes w ith a num ber printed on it so

you can look up a ll the actions it has inspired.

• Pass the Do Band along to someone else.

Do Bands give individuals an incentive to do what they

wanted to do a ll along. In reality, a Do Band is just a rubber

band. But sometimes som ething as sim ple as a rubber band is

a ll that’s needed to m obilize people to actually do something,

to bridge the gap between inaction and action. T he Do Bands

cam paign only lasted a few days, but in that short tim e it in

spired a long list of actions: Some people ca lled their mothers,

some showed their appreciation to others by sending thank-you

notes, and one began a new cxcrcisc program. O ne participant

used the Do Band as an im petus to start a sum m er cam p, one

was inspired to reach out to long-lost friends, and some do

nated m oney to charities of their choice. It’s fascinating that a

rubber band was a ll that was needed to move people to act. It’s

also a clear rem inder that there is just a tiny switch between

doing nothing and doing something, but that the two options

have w ild ly different outcomes.

I assign a simple challenge in m y class, using a related

concept, that’s designed to give students experience looking

at obstacles in their lives from a new perspective. I ask them

to identify a problem, and then pick a random objcct in their

environment. T hey then need to figure out how that objcct

w ill help them solve the problem. O f course, I have no notion


about their personal challenges, what objects they w ill select,

or whether they w ill successfully solve their problem. I lowcvcr,

in most eases they m anage to find a way to use random objects

in their environm ent to tackle a seem ingly unrelated problem.

My favorite exam ple is a young woman who was mo\ing

frorr one apartm ent to another. She had to transport some

large furniture and had no idea how to make it happen. If she

couldn't move the furniture, she would have to leave it in her

uld apailm en l. She looked a io iu id hci apa ilm eiit and sa>v a

ease of w ine that was left over from a party a few weeks car.icr.

Aha! She went to craigslist*, an online com m unity bulletin

board, anti offered to trade the case of w ine for a ride across

the Bay Bridge with her furniture. W ith in a few hours, all of

her furniture was moved. T h e leftover w ine co llecting dust in

the corncr had been transformed into valuable currcncv. The/

assignment didn't turn the w ine into currency, but it did give

this woman the ab ility and motivation to see it that wav.j /

There is no lim it to the size of the problems you can tacklc. In

fact, most of the Innovation Tournam ent projects were craftcd

to crcatc “social value.” That is, students used the competition

as an opportunity to address a significant social problem, s.ich

as saving energy, encouraging people to stay healthy, or provid

ing com m unity support for disabled children.

The first step to solving big problems is to identify them.

In the world of product design, this is callcd “need finding."

T his is a skill that can be learned. In fact, its a key com porcnt


of the curricu lum for the BioDesign Fellows at Stanford.1

Postgraduates who have studied eng ineering, m ed icine, and

business come together for a yea: to identify significant needs

in m edicine and then design products to address them. Paul

Yock, a cardiologist, inventor, and entrepreneur, runs the

BioDesign Program.: Paul believes that "a well-characterized

need is the DNA of an invention." In other words, if we clearly

define a problem, the solution w ill logically present itself.

T he BioDesign Fellows spend three months shadowing

doctors in action and identifying problems they appear to be

facing. T hey watch carefu lly ; talk with a ll o f the stakeholders,

includ ing physicians, nurses, patients, and administrators; and

figure out where things can be improved. T hey whittle a list of

hundreds of needs to just a handful, w ith the goal of picking

the biggest problems they can find. After they settle on the

challenge, they design and quickly build prototypes for a vari

ety of solutions. After a focuscd, iterative proccss, they present

l l i e i i new p io d u e l concept:* to lh « k e y s t a k e h o ld e r to f ind out

if they have successfully m et the need.

Interestingly, in m any eases those who arc on the front lines

arc so used to the problems they experience every day that they

don’t even sec them , or can ’t im agine radical approaches to

solving them . Paul Yock shared a story about the development

of balloon angioplasty, a technique that involves inserting a

balloon into an artery and expanding it so that it opens up

the blocked artery. Before this breakthrough invention, most

cardiologists felt that the only way to deal with elogged arteries


was to do bypass surgery to remove the dam aged blood vessels.

T his procedure requires opcn-hcart surgery, which carries sub

stantial risks. W hen the balloon angioplasty procedure, which

is much less dangerous and invasive, was first introduced, it

was met w ith tremendous skepticism and resistance among

physicians, especially surgeons who “understood best" how to

treat the disease. S ign ificant roadblocks appeared in front of

pioneers of the procedure. For exam ple. John Simpson, one of

the inventors of balloon angioplasty, wound up having to leave

the university to do his research at a private hospital. However,

over tim e, the efficacy of balloon angioplasty was firm ly estab

lished and becam e the standard of care for most patients with

clogged arteries. T his is a great exam ple of a case where the

status quo is so entrenched that those closest to the situation

can ’t im agine anyth ing different.

“Problem blindness” applies to consum er product develop

ment as w ell. For exam ple, it is well documented that auto

matic teller m achines (AT Ms) failed in focus groups where

potential customers were asked if they would use a m achine to

deposit and withdraw' money from their accounts, as opposed to

going into a local bank to complete the transaction with a teller.

These customers couldn’t im agine changing their behavior so

dram atically. But, in retrospect, ATM m achines represented a

r a d ic a l l y n r w a n d r f f r rH v r im p r n v r m r n t for p e r so n a l h a n k in g ,

one that few of us can now im agine living without.

I’\e experienced problem blindness myself. About fifteen

years ago m y husband, M ike, gave m e a cell phone. This


was long before ce ll phones were ubiquitous, and I had no

idea I needed one. In fact, I got somewhat annoyed, flunk

ing it was one more electronic gadget that would sit around

unused. M ike urged m e to try it for a week. It took m e only

two clays to figure out I couldn’t live without it. I was com

m uting at least two hours cach day and was able to catch up

with friends and colleagues during the drive. I cam e back to

M ike with sincere appreciation for the gift, and now always

try to keep this story in m ind when I look at new, potentially

breakthrough, ideas.

T h e key to need finding is identifying and filling gaps—that

is, gaps in the way people use products, gaps in the scrviccs

available, and gaps in the stories they tell when interviewed

about their behavior. I got a chance to talk with M ichael Barry,

an expert in need finding at Point Forward, and he told a tcr-

rific story about his work with K imberly-Clark, the com pany

that makes K leenex ', Scott'- paper towels, and H uggics' d ia

p e r . I .SM'ulialh, K iiubcily-C laik was disappointed w illi llit.ii

d iaper sales relative to diaper giants such as Procter & Gamble

(makers of Pampers), and brought in M ichael s team to help

figure out how they could improve their business. By m aking

detailed observations on how diapers arc sold, assessing the

m essaging on the diaper packages, and conducting interviews

w ith parents, M ichacl realized that K imberly-Clark was miss

ing the point: they were selling diapers as though they were

hazardous waste disposal devices But parents don’t view them

that way. To a parent, a diaper is a way to keep their children


comfortable. D ealing w ith diapers is part of the nurturing

process. A diaper is also viewed as a piece of clothing. T hese

observations provided a great starting point for improving how

Kimberly-Clark packaged and positioned I luggics. T hen, upon

closer scrutiny, M ichael identified an even b i g g e r opportunity.

He noticed that parents become terribly embarrassed when

asked if their child is “still in diapers.” Bingo! T his was a huge

pain point for parents and for kids on the cusp of toilet tra in

ing. T here had to be a way to turn this around. I low could

a diaper becom e a symbol of success as opposed to failure?

M ichael cam e up w ith the idea for Pull-Ups*, a cross between

a diaper anti underwear. Switching trom diapers to Pull-Ups

served as a big m ilestone for both children and parents. A child

can put on a Pull-Up without help, and can feel proud of this

accom plishm ent. This insight led to a billion-dollar increase

in annual revenue for Kimberly-Clark and allowed them to

leapfrog ahead of their competition. T h is new product grew

out of focuscd need finding, identification of a c lcar problem,

and then tu rn ing it an opportunity.

In m y course, I use a case study about C irque du SolciP that

gives students a chance to hone their skills at cha lleng ing

assumptions. T h e backdrop is the 1980s, when the circus

industry was in trouble. Performances were predictable and

stale, the num ber of customers was d im in ish ing, and an im al

treatm ent was under attack. It c idn ’t seem like a good tim e

to start a new circus, but that is cxactly what Guy Lalibcrte, a


street performer in C anada, decided to do. G uy started C irque

du Soleil by cha lleng ing every assumption about what a circus

could be and in doing so transformed a problem—a dying

industry—into an opportunity.

After showing video clips from the 1939 M arx Brothers

movie, At th e C ircus, I ask the students to uncover a ll the as

sumptions of a traditional circus: a big tent, an im als, chcap

tickcts, barkers se lling souvenirs, several acts perform ing at

once, playful m usic, clowns, popcorn, strong m en, flam ing

hoops, ctc. I then ask them to turn these things upside down—

to im agine the cxact opposite of each one. I*or exam ple, the

new list would include a sm all tent, no an im als, expensive

scats, no barkers, one act perform ing at a tim e, sophisticated

music, and no clowns or popcorn. T h ey then pick the things

they want to keep from the traditional circus and the things

they want to change. T he result is a brand-new type of circus,

a la C irque du Soleil. I then show them video clips from rcccnt

C irque du Soleil performances so they can see the impact

of these changcs. O ncc w e do this cxcrcisc w ith the circus

industry, it’s easy to apply to other industries and institutions,

includ ing fast-food restaurants, hotels, airlines, sporting events,

education, and even courtship and m arriage.

O ncc you get the hang of it, this is an easy, back-of-thc-

cnvclopc cxcrcisc you can use to reevaluate a ll aspccts of your

life and carccr. T he key is to take the tim e to clcarly identify

every assumption. T his is usually the hardest part, sincc, as

described in the ease about balloon angioplasty, assumptions


arc som etim es so integrated into our view of the world that it’s

hard to sec them . I lowcvcr, w ith a little practice, it becomes a

useful way to look at your options in a fresh light.

Som e people arc particu larly good at identify ing and cha l

leng ing assumptions. In their qi:cst to find creative solutions

to seem ingly impossible problems, they question the lim its

of what is reasonable and possible. T hey start their lives over

in exotic locations, they take on projects that have a grand

scopc, they m ake choiccs that srem rad ica l, and they carve

out a new path that leads them into unchartcd territory. W e

often watch in awe, preventing ourselves from tak ing the

same leaps.

Consider Sandra Cook, who has successfully strctchcd the

boundaries and challenged all traditional assumptions as she

crafted am az ing adventures for herself. T h e beg inn ing of

Sandra’s carccr snapped into placc like clockwork. She earned

a PhD in m athem atical logic, went off to the London School

of Kconomics to study and then teach, cam c back to the

United States to work at the Stanford Research Institute (SRI),

took a job as a consultant at Booz A llen I lam ilton , and eventu

a lly headed up strategy for the com m unications businesses for

Motorola. She could have contirucd on this path for the rest

of her carccr, but dccidcd to jump out of this perfectly good

airp lane because it was head ing in the wrong direction.

Sandra’s passion has always been adventurous travel to w ild

and remote placcs, and she m anaged to squeeze exotic trips to

India, T ibet, M ongolia, and Nepal into two-week stints during


her busy work schedule. But she eventually decided this wasn’t

enough, and so flipped her world on its head by qu itting her

prestigious job at Motorola in 2002 in order to travel in Af

ghanistan more extensively. T h e country was in sham bles after

the war began , and she wanted to help in any way she could.

She got a visa, purchased an a ir inc ticket, and went, hoping

to find some way to m ake a difference. W hen she got off the

plane in Kabul, there were no taxis and little infrastructure

in place. W ith some effort, she found her way to a hotel fre

quented by reporters from around the world, and got to work

contacting everyone she could to find out how she could get

involved with the effort to rebuild the country. She offered

to write grants, to prepare business plans, or even to sweep

floors—whatever would be helpful.

Sandra eventually connected w ith N ancy Dupree, the di

rector of the Afghanistan Center at Kabul University. Nancy

was working tirelessly to rebuild the university library and toge l books iu lo ih e hands o f people l lu o u g h o u l ih e e o u n l iy

through their Box Library Extension. After they got to know

each other a little better, Sandra wrote a business plan for

the ccntcr and was eventually asked to serve on the organiza

tion’s board of directors. She is now co-prcsidcnt of the board

and spends most of her tim e building awareness of and rais

ing m oney for this organization. Besides her official duties,

Sandra also takes on grassroots projects in Afghanistan, such as

d istributing pom egranate trees throughout the city o f Kabul.

She personally purchased twenty thousand barc-root trees and


handed them out to fam ilies so they could start replacing trees

destroyed during the war.

Most people do not leave comfortable lives to tackle enor

mous problems in far-flung lands. But, in m any eases, much

sm aller challenges seem just as daunting. For many, changing

jobs Dr moving across town feels just as risky as traveling to an

exotic location to perform relief work. It is m uch more com

fortable to stay loeked in a role that's “good enough" than to

reach for an alternative that has a higher degree of uncertainty.

M as! o f us arc content taking sm all, reliable steps. W e don’t get

very far, but wc don’t rock the boat either.

Venture capital firms that invest in early stage businesses pride

themselves on identifying big problems and tak ing significant

risks with the goal of tackling them. T hey arc always scanning

the horizon for the next big opportunity, as opposed to looking

for small problems w ith increm ental solutions. T hey attempt

to look into the future for challenges that arc just beyond the

next hill so they can invest in rad ically innovative approaches

to m eeting them head-on. A great exam ple is Kleiner Perkins

Canfield & Byers (K PCB), a firm with a rem arkable trick

i c c u id fui p i c d i c l in g f u lm c c h a l l e n g e s a n d in v e s t in g in I licit

solutions. T hey invested in biotechnology, Internet com m cice,

and alternative cncrgv long before these were household topics,

and :hey anticipated the future im pact of businesses such as

Gcnentcch, Sun Microsystems, Amazon, Google, Netscape,

Intuit, and E lectronic Arts. As Randy Komisar, a partner at

KPCB, notes, being entrepreneurial m eans seeing the world as

opportunity rich. He and his colleagues have found that iden

tifying and solving big problems leads to significant rewards for

everyone involved.

Despite the fact that one can m ake a profit by solving big

problems, Randy stresses in his book, T h e M onk a n d th e

Riddle, the im portance of having the zeal to solve a grand

problem, as opposed to being motivated to m ake money.4 To

explain the difference, he compares a m issionary who passion

ately pursues an important cause to a m ercenary whose drive

is only to serve his or her own interests. By focusing on finding

solutions to significant challenges w ith missionary-like energy,

successful com panies arc born. T his message is echoed by

author G uy Kawasaki, who says it is better to “m ake m eaning

than to m ake money.”’ If your goal is to m ake m ean ing by

trying to solve a big problem in innovative ways, you arc more

likely to m ake money than if you start w ith the goal of making

money, in which case you w ill probably not make money or

m eaning.

W hat do the entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and inventors

described above have to do with the students who started with

five dollars, paper clips, or water bottles and were challenged

to creatc as m uch value as possible? A tremendous am ount. All

of these exam ples reinforce the idea that there is great benefit

to identifying problems in your m idst and then relentlessly

working to solve them by challeng ing traditional assumptions.



Problems arc abundant, just w aiting for those w illin g to find

inventive solutions. T his takes acute observation, coordinated

teamwork, the ab ility to execute a plan, a w illingness to learn

from failure, and creative problem solving. But the lirst re

quirem ent is having the attitude that the problem can be

solved. I have found, for m yself and my students, that the more

experience you have tackling problems, the more confident

you become that you can find a solution.

I was recently in Scotland teaching in a wceklong entre

preneurship boot camp, run by James Barlow at the Scobish

Institute for Enterprise, for fifty collcgc students from across the

country who were studying a w ide range of disciplines, from

crim inology to cosmetics. Most of them had no exposure to en

trepreneurship at all. At the beginning of the week, m any were

completely overwhelmed by the first assignment, which required

them to come up with and then sell a new product or scrvicc.

Each team was given fifty British pounds of starting capital at

6 :00 p.m. and had a total of eighteen hours to complete the proj

ect. T he goal was to get them out of their comfort zone and into

the real world. M any of the students told me they were on the

verge of going home. (T hey didn’t need to tell me this, because

the panicked looks on their faces said it all.) But they a ll st ick

with it and were pleasantly shockcd by what they accomplished.

One group becam e “umbrella walkers," assisting those who got

caught in the unexpected rain ; one group set up an impromptu

speed-dating station at a local bar; and one started a makeshift

shocihinc stand on a busy downtown street.

Bui this assignm ent was just the beginn ing of their experi

ence. By the end of a w eeks worth of cha lleng ing activities,

includ ing scouring newspapers to identify problems, brain

storming to com e up w ith creative solutions, design ing new

ventures, m eeting w ith potential customers, film ing comm er

cials, and pitching their ideas to a panel of successful execu

tives, they were ready to take on just about any challenge.

O ne team that stands out in my m ind was composed of

three young women, for whom all of this was brand-new. T hey

were shaking in their shoes when the first assignm ent was

given. By the end of the week, however, they had com e up

w ith a fabulous idea that earned high praise from the panel of

judges as well as seed funding from investors. T hey developed

a m obile, at-home service for bra fitting, based on their obser

vation that most women arc embarrassed by the process and

often end up w ith ill-fitting bras. T heir video com m ercial was

tasteful and convinced everyone that this was an interesting

u p p u i lu n i l y .

O n the last day o f the workshop, one of the young women

said to m e, “I now know that there isn’t anyth ing I can ’t do.”

She, along w ith a ll the other students, already had the bulk of

the skills they needed to accomplish am azing things. A ll we

offered them was tangib le proof, a long w ith a healthy dose of

perm ission, that they could turn the problems around them

into opportunities.


Chapter 3

BIKINI OR DIE

T h e famous psychologist B. F. Skinner once wrote that all

human behavior can be viewed as being adaptive to cither

the individual, the gene pool, or to society at large.1 I lowever,

these three forces are often at odds, causing significant tension.

T h e rules m ade by society are a huge presence in our li'c s ,

created by the government, religious groups, our employers,

our schools, our neighbors, and our fam ilies. Because these

social groups craft the explicit ru les around us, we often find

ourselves in situations where we arc driven to break them to

satisfy' our personal desires or the drives of our spccics. These

social rules and norms arc designed to m ake the world around

us more organized and predictable, and to prevent us from

hurting one another.

But when is a ru le really just a suggestion? And when do

suggestions morph into ru les? Every day, physical signs tell all

of us what to do, written instructions direct us how to behave,

and social gu idelines urge us to act w ithin specific parameters.

What I W ish I Knew When I Was 20

In fart, we also m ake lots o f rules for ourselves, in large part

encouraged by others. T hese rules become woven into our

individual fabric as wc go through life. W e draw im aginary

lines around what we th ink we can do—lines that otten lim it

us much more than the rules imposed by society at large. Wc

define ourselves by our professions, our incom e, where we live,

the car we drive, our education, and even bv our horoscope.

Each definition locks us into specific assumptions about who

wc are and what wc can do. I’m rem inded of a famous line

from the movie M y D inn er w ith Andre, that states that New

Yorkers “arc both guards anti prisoners and as a result they

no Icnger have . . . the capacity to leave the prison they have

made, or even see it as a prison." W e always m ake our own

prisons, w ith rules that wc each crcatc for ourselves, locking

us into specific roles and out of an endless array of possibili

ties. W hat if you challenge the underlying assumptions? W hat

arc the consequences—good and bad—of getting off the pre

scribed path? W h at happens to those who break the rules?

Lsrry Page, co-founder of Google, gave a lecture in which

he encouraged the audience to break free from established

guidelines by having a healthy disregard for the impossible.:

T hat is, to th ink as b ig as possible. I Ic noted that it is often

easier to have big goals than to have sm all goals. W ith sn ail

goals, there arc very specific ways to reach them and more

ways they can go wrong. W ith big goals, you arc usually allo

cated more resources and there arc more ways to achieve them.

T h is is an interesting insight. Im agine that you arc try ing to get

Bikini or Die 35

from San Francisco to Kabul. There arc lots of different routes,

you w ill likely give yourself the time and resources to get there,

and you w ill be flexible if things don’ t unfold as planned. But

if your goal is to go across town, then the path is pretty d e a r

and you cxpcct it to be a quick trip. If the road is blockcd for

some reason, you arc stuck and frustrated. O ne of the reasons

Google has been so successful s their w illingness to tackle

hard problems with an undefined path to completion.

L inda Rottenberg is a prim e example of a person who sees

no problem as too big to tackle and readily breaks free of expec

tations in order to get where she wants to go. She believes that if

others think your ideas arc crazy, then you m ust be on the right

track. Eleven years ago Linda starred a remarkable organization

called Endeavor.' 1'hcir goal is to foster entrepreneurship in the

developing world. She launched Endeavor just after graduat

ing from Yale Law School, w ith little more than a passion to

stim ulate econom ic development in disadvantaged regions.

She flopped a l nothing lu teach l.ci goals, includ ing “stalking”

influential business leaders whose support she needed.

Endeavor began its efforts in Latin A m erica and has since

expanded to other regions of the world, includ ing Turkey and

South Africa. They go through a rigorous proccss to identify

high-potential entrepreneurs and, after selecting those with

great ideas and the drive to execute their plan, give them the

resources they need to be successful. The entrepreneurs arc

not handed money, but instead arc introduced to those in their

environm ent who can guide them. They arc also provided


with intense educational programs, and get an opportunity to

m eet w ith other entrepreneurs ir. their region who have navi

gated the circuitous path before. O ncc successful, they serve

as positive role models, create jobs in their local com m unities,

and, eventually, give back to Endeavor, helping future genera

tions of entrepreneurs.

An inspiring exam ple of an Endeavor entrepreneur is Leila

Velez in Brazil. L e ila lived in the slum s in the h ills overlook

ing Rio dc jan icro , known as favelas. C lean in g houses, she

survived on a subsistence income. However, she had an idea:

there arc m any women in Brazil »vho want desperately to have

softer, less kinky hair. Leila, along w ith her sister-in-law I Icloisa

Assis, invented a product that transforms knotty hair into curly

hair. It took years of trial-and-crror experim entation, resulting

in m any extrem e failures along :hc way, but oncc she found

a solution, she opened a salon ir Rio. I Icr business was brisk

and Leila had the fantasy o f creating a franchise. A long cam c

E n d eav o r , w h ic h h e lp e d h e r r e a l iz e h e r d r e a m . T h is b u s in e s s ,

callcd Bclcza N atural, now employs a thousand people and

earns m illions in annual revenue

T his is but one of hundreds of success stories from En

deavor. I was at Endeavor’s biannual sum m it two years ago

and was overwhelmed w ith the energy and enthusiasm in the

room. Each entrepreneur was indebted to Endeavor for provid

ing the tools they needed, as well as the inspiration to succeed.

T h is would never have happened if L inda had listened to

those who told her that her ideas were crazv.J

Bikini or Die

• • •

O ne of the biggest obstacles to taking on “impossible tasks”

is that others arc often quick to tell you they can ’t be accom

plished. It is arguably tough to address a grand problem. But

oncc you decide to take it on, it is equa lly hard to break out

of traditional approaches to solving it. T h is is another placc

where it is helpful to break a few rules. T h e next cxcrcisc

forces people to do this in a surprising way. First, com c up

w ith a problem that is relevant for the particular group. For

exam ple, if it is a group of executives in the u tility business,

the topic m ight be getting companies to save energy; if it is a

theater group, the problem m ight be how to attract a larger au

d ience; and if it is a group of business students, the challenge

m ight be to com c up with a cool, new business idea. Break the

group into small teams and ask cach one to comc up w ith the

best idea and the worst idea for solving the stated problem.'

T he best idea is som ething that cach team thinks w ill solve the

problem brilliantly. T he worst idea w ill be incffcctivc, unprof

itable, or w ill make the problem worse. O ncc they arc done,

they write cach of their ideas on a separate piece of paper,

one labeled BES T and one labeled W O RS T. W hen I do this

cxcrcisc, I ask participants to pass both to m e, and I procccd

to shred the BES T ideas. After the tim e they spent generating

these great ideas, they arc both surprised and not too happy.

I then redistribute the W O RST ideas. Each team now has

an idea that another team thought was terrible. T hey arc in

structed to turn this bad idea into a fabulous idea. T hey look

at the horrible idea that was passed their way and quickly sec

that it rea lly isn’t so bad after all. In fact, they often think t is

terrific. W ith in a few scconds someone always says, “Hey, this

is a great id ea !”

W hen doing this cxcrcisc w ith a utility company, one of the

“worst ideas” for saving energy was to give cach employee a

quota for how m uch energy he or she used and to charge extra

for exceeding the allotm ent. T h ey thought this was a pretty

silly idea. T h e team that received this idea turned it into an

idea that is really worth considering, in which employees do

have a quota for how m uch energy they use. If they use less

they get money back, and if they use more they arc charged

for it. They could even sell energy credits to their co-workcrs,

g iv ing them an even larger incentive to save electricity.

I did this cxcrcisc w ith the staff responsible for putting on

arts events at Stanford. O ne of the teams charged w ith finding

ways to bring in a larger audience cam e up with the “bad” i:lca

o f p u t t in g on a s ta f f ta le n t show. T h i s is s e e m in g l y the opposite

of what they do now—bringing in top-notch talent from around

the world. T he next team turned this idea upside down. T .icy

interpreted this m uch more broadly and proposed a big fund

raiser, where the faculty and staff across the university would

showcase their diverse talents. T h is would very likely bring in

lots of people who don’t norm ally go to perform ing arts events

and would help build awareness for their other programs.

W hen the challenge was to com e up with the worst busi

ness idea, the suggestions were boundless. O ne group sug-


Bikini or Die 39

gcstcd selling bikinis in Antarctica, one recom m ended starting

a restaurant that sells cockroach sushi, and one group proposed

starting a heart attack m useum . In each of these eases, these

bad ideas were transformed into pretty interesting ideas that

deserved some real consideration. For exam ple, the group that

was tasked with se lling bikinis in Antarctica cam e up with

the slogan "Bikini or Die.” Their idea was to take people who

wanted to get into shape on a trip to Antarctica. By the end of

the hard journey, they would be able to fit into their bikinis.

T h e group that needed to sell cockroach sushi cam e up with

a restaurant called La Cucaracha that m ade a ll sorts o f exotic

sushi using nontraditional but nutritious ingredients and tar

geted adventurous diners. T he group given the challenge of

starting a heart attack m useum .iscd this idea as the starting

point for a m useum devoted entirely to health and preventa

tive m edicinc. A ll groups cam e up w ith com pelling business

nam es, slogans, and commercials for these ventures.

T h is cxcrcisc is a great way to open your m ind to solutions

to problems because it demonstrates that most ideas, even if

they look s illy or stupid on the surface, often have at least a

seed of potential. It helps to challenge the assumption that

ideas arc cither good or bad, and demonstrates that, w ith the

right fram e of m ind, you can look at most ideas or situations

and find som ething valuable. For exam ple, even if you don’t

start the “Bikini or Die” excursion to A ntarctica, this is an in

teresting starting point for ideas that m ight be more practical.• • •


M y old buddy John Stiggelbout used the idea of turning a

good idea on its head when applying to graduate school. 1 le

did something that any normal person would think was a ter

ribly bad idea, and it turned out to be inspired. 1 le decided at

the last m inute that he wanted to go to business school. I laving

missed a ll the deadlines, he chose to m ake his application

stand out am ong the others in an unconventional way. Instead

of touting his impressive accom plishm ents, as most applicants

do, lie augm ented his liad ilional application with a le i lei of

rcfcrencc written by a past professor c la im in g to be John’s best

friend and ccll mate in prison. T h e letter described John in

the most unusual terms that any admissions com m ittee had

ever seen, includ ing his ab ility to open a mason jar w ith his

belch. Instead of knocking John out of the runn ing, those in

the admissions office were incredib ly curious to m eet h im and

invited John to visit the school. John was nice enough to dig

up the letter so you can see it, too.

1 met John Stiggelbout as a fellow G reyhound bus

passenger. He m ust have passed out on the floor at

the back. I found h im next to a Styrofoam cup and

a candy wrapper, covered w ith c igarctte butts,

holding an em pty M D 20/20 bottle. I am his best

friend. W c were cc ll m ates after w e got caught

robbing the 7/11.

After a hearty m eal at the Salvation Army, wc

oncc went to a revival m eeting where we were both

Bikini or Die

try ing to pick up the sam e girl. (H e takes defeat and

hum iliation w ell; he is obviously a practiced loser.)

11c has impressive qualities that any struggling

Junior Achievement Com pany or sm all fam ily

laundry could put to good use. 11c covers his brown

and yellow teeth when he yawns, and opens the

window when lie spits. He can whistle loud using his

fingers, and can crack a m ascn jar w ith his burp. 1 Ic

showers once a month. 11c uses soap when he can.

I Ic needs a placc so he doesn’t have to sleep in the

bus station restroom. I Ic needs to find a position with

a large company where his heavy drinking and sexual

preference for exotic birds will not get h im fired the

first day on the job.

Anyone w ith a sexual preference for cxotic birds

is both orig inal and independent of thought. In fact,

he is so independent of thought that lie is utterly

devoid of it.

'I'his guy w ill do anyth ing for a drink. I Ic may-

even work.

Now that Stiggs is out of jail, I’m sure his parole

officer would not m ind if sonic graduate school

looked after him for a bit. I Ic is a great leader in the

I le lls Angels, and a ll the boys I talked to thought he

would m ake a hell of a white collar crim inal.

O f all the people I have found on the floor, passed

out in the back of a bus, this guy is the best.

M y overall impression is that he is not as good as

1 m ake him out to be. Get m e out of jail so that I can

go to C h icago instead of him .

Buford T Morton, Inmate #335342

W alla W alla Federal Penitentiary

W alla W alla, W ashington

Once John arrived for the interview, everyone in the office

was pecking out of his or her doors, hoping to get a look at the

fellow who submitted the w ild application. 11c was polite and

poisctl during his interview, and was adm itted.

T h e conccpt that there arc no bad ideas is a hallm ark of good

brainstorming. D uring a brainstorm ing session it is important

to explicitly state that there arc no bad ideas. You need to break

with the assumption that ideas need to be feasible in order

to be valuable. By encouraging people to conic up w ith wild

ideas vou diffuse the tendency to edit vour ideas before youj J j •

share them. Som etim es the craziest ideas, which seem imprac

tical when they arc in itia lly proposed, turn out to be the most

interesting in the long run. T hey m ight not work in their first

iteration, but with a bit of m assaging, they m ight turn out tc be

brilliant solutions that arc feasible to implement.

Running a successful brainstorm ing session actually takes a

lot of skill and practice. T he key is to set the ground rules at the

beginning and to reinforce them. Tom Kelley, general manager


Bikini or Die 43

of the design firm IDEO and David Kelley s brother, wrote a

book called T he Art o f Innovation , in which he describes the

rules of brainstorm ing at their firm. O ne of the most impor

tant rules is to expand upon the ideas of others. W ith this ap

proach, at the end of a good brainstorming session, m ultiple

people feel that they created or contributed to the best ideas to

com c out of the session. And, since everyone in the room had

a chance to participate and witnessed the em ergence and evo

lution of a ll llie ideas, llie ie ib usually shaied suppoit foi the

ideas that go forward toward implementation.

If you have participated in brainstorming sessions, you know

that they don’t always work like that. It is hard to elim inate the

natural tendency for each person to feel personal ownership for

their ideas, and it can be tough to get participants to build on

others’ suggestions. Patricia Ryan Madson, who wrote bnprov

Wisdom, designed a great warm-up cxcrcisc that brings to life

these two ideas: there arc no bad ideas a n d build on others’

ideas. You break a group into pairs. One person tries to plan

a party and makes suggestions to the other person. T he other

person has to say no to every idea anti must give a reason why it

won’t work. For example, the first person m ight say, “Let’s plan

a party for Saturday night,” and the second person would say,

“No, I have to wash m y hair.” This goes on for a few minutes,

as the first person continues to get more and more frustrated

trying to com e up with any idea t ic second person w ill accept.

O nce this runs its course, the roles switch and the sccond

person takes on the job of planning a party. T he first person


has to say yes to everything and must build on the idea. For

example, “Let’s have a party on Saturday night.” T he response

might be, “Yes, and I'll bring a cake.” This goes on for a while

and the ideas can get wilder. In some cases the parties end up

under water or on another planet, and involve a ll sorts of exotic

food and entertainment. T he energy in the room increases,

spirits arc high, and a huge number of ideas arc generated.

T h is is the type of energy that should be present during a

great brainstorm ing session. O f course, at some point you have

to decidc what is feasible, but that shouldn’t happen during the

“idea generation” phase. Brainstorming is about breaking out

of conventional approaches to solving a problem. You should

feel free to flip ideas upside down, to turn them inside out, and

to cut loose from the chains of normalcy. At the end of a brain

storm ing session you should be surprised by the range of ideas

that were generated. In almost a ll eases, at least a few w ill serve

as seeds for really great opportunities that arc ripe for further

cxpluialiou.

If is important to rem em ber lliat idea generation involves

exploration of the landscape of possibilities. It doesn’t cost any

m oney to generate wild ideas, and there is no need to commit

to any of them . T h e goal is to break the ru les by im agin ing a

world where the law s of nature ar? different and a ll constraints

arc removed. O nce this phase is complete, it is appropriate to

move on to the “exploitation” phase, where you sclcct some

of the ideas to explore further. At that tim e you can view the

ideas with a more critical eve.

Bikini or Die 45

• • •

Rule breaking can happen throughout every organization and

in a ll processes. A great exam p.e can be found at Cooliris,

a young com pany that crcatcs an imm ersive W eb browsing

cxpcricncc. Essentially, Cooliris turns the standard flat Web

pages wc view online into a three-dim ensional w all that makes

browsing a faster and more intu tive cxpcricncc. T he images

stretch out in front of you, m aking you feel as though you’re

navigating through a gallery.

Two Stanford students, Josh Schw arzapcl and Austin

Shoem aker, started C ooliris w i:h a seasoned entrepreneur,

Souyan ja Bhumkar. T h ey received a sm all am ount of fund

ing for their venture, but were having a very d ifficu lt tim e

recru itin g people to work at the company. T h is was a big

problem. T h ey were never going to reach their aggressive

product developm ent goals unless they brought in dozens of

talented people. And to m ake that happen, they were go ing

lu have lu do things difTcicnlly.

Josh, who was in charge of recruiting, started w ith a ll the

traditional approaches to recruiting, includ ing posting posi

tions on job boards and craigslist, advertising on social net

working sites such as L inkedln and Facebook, and even h iring

professional recruiters. But nothing was working. So the team

decided to look at the entire recruiting situation differently,

and to break w ith these standard approaches. Instead of trying

to convince young, talented people to join the company, they

decided to focus on m aking Cocliris such an appealing placc


to work that students would be begging to join. T hey wanted

it to be the coolest “party” in town. T he)- hosted special events

for students, made sure to have the most dram atic booth at the

job fairs, complete w ith eyc-popp ng demos of their product on

big plasm a screens; and handed out hip sunglasses to everyone

who visited their booth.

T hey also hired two Stanford students, Jonah Greenberg

and M att W ah l, as interns. Their job was to spread the word

about Cooliris across the Stanford cam pus, and to identify the

best students they could, independent of their age or field of

study. Jonah and M att arc popular and well connccted, and

tapped into their social circlcs to spread the word about Cool

iris. They helped m ake it cool to work at Cooliris, and eventu

a lly Cooliris becam e t h e placc to be.

Now that Cooliris was inundated w ith resumes, how did

they decide which students to hire? Instead of go ing through

a rigorous screening proccss, they decided to n o t dccidc, and

h iicd almost cvciyonc—as interns. "This gave them the chance

to sec each individual in action, and for the students to get a

taste of the company. Not only did C ooliris get an opportunity

to take the interns for a test drive, but the interns got so cxcitcd

about the products that they bccam e evangelists both for the

product and the company, bringing in their friends as interns

and as customers. This helped with recru iting and built mo

m entum for the business.

Now that they were on a roll, Cooliris continued to break

rules. Thcv abolished the hierarchy between interns and fu ll

Bikini or Die 47

tim e employees, g iv ing interns significant projects w ith full

accountability for their results. Each intern was given a project

w ith a big goal and was allowed to do whatever he or she felt

would work to rcach it. O f course, there was oversight, but Tic

interns were clearly empowered to m ake key decisions. Forex-

ample, the goal m ight be to increase the num ber of W eb sites

that arc Cooliris enabled. T he interns weren’t told what to do,

but each was encouraged to run with his or her projcct. In this

way, they could easily sec what each person could accomplish

and reward those w ho did an outstanding job.

But they didn’t stop there. T hey also figured out that :hc

best way to identify those who were a good fit for the company

is to sec them in action. To do that, they brought in hundreds

of students for user-testing of their product. T his is, of course,

standard practice to evaluate new project features. But Cool

iris also used product testing as a recru iting tool. D uring the

interaction w ith each tester, they could see how cach person

thought and how passionate he or she was about the prod.ict

and, u ltim ately, whether he or she would be a good fit w ith :he

company. At the very least they got useful custom er feedback

and at best they found a new employee.

You m ight th ink it’s easier to cha llenge conventions and

break rules as an ind iv idual or a sm all start-up firm , but

you can also break the rules that get in the way from within

a large company. I learned about the launch of Z une at

Microsoft from a former student, T ricia Lee. T his product.


designed to com pete w ith the Apple iPod, was on a tight

developm ent schedule. About halfway through the projcct,

it was c lear they weren’t go ing to m eet their aggressive goals.

T h e software wasn’t elose to halfway com plete, and on the

current course—w ith the usual checks and balances, feed

back loops, and bureaucracy—it was go ing to take m uch

longer than cxpcctcd to complete. To address this problem ,

one of the subgroups on the pro cct isolated them selves from

the test o f the team and woiked intensely. T hey com pleted

an essential p iece of the software code, w hich got the projcct

back on track, boosted m oral, and allowed the product to be

com pleted on time.

Com panies such as Microsoft put processes in placc that arc

scalable; that is, they have to work for large groups across a big

organization. But sometimes scalable processes arc not neces

sarily efficient. W hen there is a fire drill and things have to get

done quickly, like w ith I ricia anc the Z une team at Microsoft,

com panies need to break free of the bureaucracy. In fact,

m any com panies dccidc to set up Skunk Works projects to do

just this: they pull a team out of the normal workflow, giving

them permission to break the rules, to free them to think and

work differently.

Rules arc often m eant to be bioken. T h is idea is captured

in the oft-used phrase “Don’t ask for perm ission, but beg for

forgiveness." Most rules arc in place as the lowest common de

nominator, m aking sure that those who don’t have a c lue what

Bikini or Die 49

to do stay w ithin the boundaries. If you ask someone how to go

about m aking a movie, starting a company, getting into gradu

ate school, or runn ing for political office, you w ill usually get

a long recipe that involves getting increm entally more support

from those who arc already in these fields. It involves agents

and seed funding and exams and approvals. The m ajority of

people choosc to follow those rules . . . and others don’t. It is

important to keep in m ind that there arc often creative ways

to work around the rules, to jump over the traditional hurdles,

and to get to your goal by taking a side route, just as most

people wait in a never-ending line of traffic on the m ain route

to the highway, others who arc n.orc adventurous try to find a

side road to get to their destination more quickly. O f course,

some rules arc in place to protect our safety, to keep order, and

to crcatc a process that works for a large num ber of people. But

it is worth questioning rules along the way. Som etim es side

roads around the rules can get you to your goal even when the

traditional paths appear blocked.

L inda Rottenberg, of Endeavor, shared a relevant story that

had been passed on to her bv one of her advisors, about two

student fighter pilots who got together to share what they had

learned from their respective instructors. T he first pilot said, "I

was given a thousand rules for flying m y plane.” T he second

pilot said, “I was only given three rules." T h e first pilot gloated,

th inking he was given m any more options, until his friend said,

“M y instructor told m e the three things I should n e v e r do. All

else is up to me.” T h is story captures the idea that it is better


to know the few tilings that arc really against the rules than to

focus on the m any things you think you should do. T h is is also

a rem inder o f the big difference between rules and recommen-

dations. O nce you whittle away the recomm endations, there

arc often m any fewer ru les thar. you im agined. T h is is how

Linda leads Endeavor: each franchise is given three things

they can ’t do—the rest is completely up to them.

Another way to break the rules is to break free of expectations

you have for yourself and that others have for you. Armen

Bcrjikly, a computer scientist, always cxpcctcd that he would

spend his carcer working for a high technology company. He

studied computer scicncc as an undergraduate and m anage

ment scicncc as a graduate student. After com pleting school,

he took a job as a product m anager at a com pany called

Echelon. Everything was going smoothly, he was well rc-

spected in the company, and his path was set. I lowcvcr, a elose

friend developed m ultip le sclerosis. l ie was so moved by her

condition that he wanted to do whatever he could to help. In

his free tim e after work and on weekends, he built a W eb site

callcd “T h is Is M S.” T he site offered useful information about

M S and its treatments, and provided a confidential forum for

people with M S to share their experiences. T h e site quickly

gained traction because visitors were hungry for the chance

to tell their stories. A rm en realized lie had struck a nerve. He

decided to build an even bigger Web site that allowed anyone

to share his or her experiences anonymously. This new site,

Bikini or Die 51

callcd “ The Experience Pro ject” gained avid users quickly.

Arm en had to make a tough decision: Should he stay in the

secure job w ith a reliab le salarv and a d e a r career path, or

jum p into the unknown by deciding to run T he Experience

Project full-tim e?

After serious consideration, Armen dccidcd to break free

from the expectations that both he and his fam ily had for him

in order to pursue this venture. It was a terribly hard choicc,

but it has been several years nowand Arm en doesn’t regret bis

decision for a m inute. T he business is hard work, but the most

cha lleng ing part was decid ing to com pletely reinvent him self.’

So, le t’s step out of the h igh technology business world and

sec how you can break ru les in order to crcatc som ething

of great value in a com pletely different arena. T h e past few

years have seen grow ing interest in restaurants that look at

food, cooking, and d in in g in a brand-new way. Instead of

using traditional cooking tcchniqucs, a handful of clicfs arc

experim enting w ith “m o lecu lar gastronomy,” which involves

stretch ing the lim its o f cooking in a ll sorts of unusual d irec

tions. T hese restaurants use equipm ent and m ateria ls straight

out of a laboratory and plav with vour senses in w ild wavs./ l j j /

At Moto, in Chicago/' the kitchen is stockcd w ith balloons,

syringes, and dry ice, and the goal is to crcatc food that is

shocking yet tasty. T hey have a “tasting m enu,” where you

actu a lly cat the m enu, which m ight, for exam ple, taste like

an Italian pan ini sandwich. Moto strives to break the rules


with cac li dish they serve, from “delivering” food that looks

like packing peanuts to the tabic in FedEx boxes to m aking

a dessert that looks like nachos but is rea lly m ade up of

chocolate, frozen shredded m ango, and chccsccake. Each

dish is designed to push the boundary of how you im agine

food should look and taste as they “transm ogrify" your food

into surprising shapes and forms. O ne of their chefs, Ben

Roche, says their goal is to create a circus for your senses.

T hey question every assum ption about food preparation and

presentation, develop brand-new cooking techn iques, and

even design custom utensils that arc used to consum c the

food T h is is a great rem inder that in any arena, from your

kitchen to your carccr, you can break free o f the constraints

that m ight be com fortable but arc often lim iting .

I met with a dozen current and former students, and asked

then, to share their stories about breaking free from expecta

tions. After listen ing to a ll their talcs about getting around

obstacles in school, in the workplace, and when traveling,

Mike Rothenberg, who graduated two years ago, sum m arized

a ll he heard by stating, “A ll the cool stuff happens when you

do things that arc not the autom atic next step.” T he well-worn

path is there for everyone to trample. But the interesting things

often occur when you arc open to taking an unexpected turn,

to trying som ething different, and when you arc w illing to

question the rules others have made for you. All agreed that

it is easy to stay on the prescribed path, but it is often much

Bikini or Die 53

more interesting to discover the world of surprises lurking just

around the corner.

Knowing that you can question the rules is terrifically

cinpDwcring. It is a rem inder that the traditional path is only

one option available to you. You can always follow a recipe,

drive on the major thoroughfares, and walk in the footsteps of

those before you. But there are boundless additional optians

to explore if you arc w illin g to identify and challenge assump

tions, and to break free of the expectations that you and others

project onto you. Don’t be afraid to get out of your comfort

zone, to have a healthy disregard for the impossible, anc to

turn well-worn ideas on their heads. As the students described

above learned , it takes practice to do things that arc not the

“automatic next step." The more you experim ent, the nxirc

you sec that the spectrum of options is m uch broader than

im agined. The sole ru le is that you arc lim ited on ly by p u r

energy and im agination.

Chapter 4

PLEASE TAKE OUT YOUR WALLETS

Before retiring, m y father was £ successful corporate execu

tive. He rose up through the ranks, from young engineer to

m anager to executive, and had senior roles at several large

m ultinational companies. Growing up, I got used to learn ing

that he had received promotions, from vice president to execu

tive vice president to senior executive vice president, and so on.

It happened like clockwork every two years or so. I was always

impressed by m y father’s accomplishments and viewed him as

a wonderful role model.

T h a t said, I cou ldn ’t have been more surprised when my

father got annoyed w ith m e after I showed h im one of m y

new business cards. T h ey read “T ina L . Scc lig , President.”

I had started m y own venture and printed m y own business

cards. M y father looked at the cards and then at m e and said ,

“You can ’t just ca ll yourself president.’’ In his experience, you


had :o w ait for someone else to promote you to a leadership

role. You cou ldn ’t appoint yourself. He was so steeped in a

world where others promote you to positions w ith greater re

sponsibility that the thought of m y ano in ting m yself w ith that

title perturbed him .

I have com e across this m entality tim e and again . 1'or ex

ample, twenty years ago when I told a friend I was going to

write a book, she asked, “W hat makes you think you can write

a book? " She couldn ’t im agine tak ing on such a projcct with

out the blessing of someone in a position of greater authority.

1, on the other hand, felt confident I could do it. T h e task nas

ccrtainlv ambitious, but whv not try? At the tim e there weren’t

any popular books on the chem istry of cooking. I wanted to

read such a book, and since there wasn’t one available, I de

cided to write one myself. I wasn’t an expert on the topic, but

as a scientist, figured I could learn the m aterial along the way.

I put together a detailed proposal, wrote some sample chapters,

shopped it around, and landed a contract.

After my first book cam e out, I was surprised by how little

promotion m y publisher d id , and decided to start a business to

help authors get more exposure for their work and to help read

ers learn about books that m ight interest them . A gain , quite a

number of people asked m e what m ade m e think I could start

a company. T h is was clearly a stretch for m e, but I assumed I

could figure it out. I started BookBrowser in 1991, several years

before the W eb was born. T he idea was to crcatc a kiosk-based

system for bookstore customers that would “M atch Books

Please Take Out Your Wallets 57

with Buys.” I built the prototype on m y M ae computer using

1 lypcrC ard , a program that allowed users to put links from

one “card" to another “card," just like 1 lo t Links on the Web

today. T h e software allowed users to follow links for a par

ticular author, title, or genre. I also met w ith local bookstore

managers, who agreed to put the kiosks in their stores, ai d I

talked with dozens of publishers who were enthusiastic about

including their books in the system. Satisfied that the idea was

sound, I h iied a team uf p iugiam m eis lu im plem ent the piod-

uct. Nobody told m e I could or should do this . . . I just did it.

Over tim e, I've becam e increasingly aware that the world is d i

vided into people who wait for others to give them permission

to do the things they want to do and people who grant them

selves permission. Som e look inside themselves for motivation

and others wait to be pushed forward by outside forccs. From

m y cxpcricncc, there’s a lot to be said for seiz ing opportunities

instead of w aiting for someone to hand them to you. T here arc

always white spaccs ready to be filled and golden nuggets of

opportunities ly ing on the ground w aiting for someone to pick

them up. Som etim es it means looking beyond your own desk,

outside your build ing, across the street, or around the corner.

But the nuggets arc there for the tak ing by anyone w illing to

gather them up.

This is exactly what Paul Yock discovered. Paul, as previ

ously introduced, is the director of Stanford’s BioDesign Pro

gram. 1 lis home base is the m edical school, which is literally


across the street from the eng ineering school. About ten years

ago, Paul realized that Stanford was m issing a huge oppor

tunity by not finding ways for the m edical school students

and faculty to work with the engineering school students 2nd

faculty to invent new m edical technologies. T h e m edical folks,

including doctors, students, and research scientists, needed

engineers to design new products and processes to improve

patient care; and the engineers across the street were look ng

for com pelling problems to solve using their skills. Over the

course of months, the various stakeholders m et to discuss ways

that they could work together. It was a com plicated proccss

sincc the two groups work so differently and have quite dif

ferent vocabularies. Eventually, they ham m ered out a p an

and the BioDesign Program was born. D uring the same titne

pcricxl, other colleagues in different m edical and technical

disciplines developed sim ilar partnerships and the groups were

gathered under one large um brella, known as BioX. T he idea

was so big that it took several years to im plement and resulted

in productive cross-disciplinary collaboration and a stunning

new build ing that now stands between the m edical school

and the engineering school. This story illustrates the fact that

sometimes opportunities can be found right across the street—

you just have to look up from your desk to see them. Nobody

told Paul to do this. But he saw the need and filled it.

I’ve talked with m any other people who have found con

structive ways to bridge gaps and fill holes that others merely

walk around, and in the proccss have anointed themselves


to roles others m ight not have cnosen for them . A wonderful

exam ple is Debra D unn ,1 who spent a good part of her career

at 1 lewlett-Packard. 1 Icr first job with 1 IP was in the corporate

headquarters. After several years she was strongly cncouragcd

to take on a role w ithin one of the operating units of the com

pany, which would give her a better understanding of the inner

workings of the organization. A position in hum an rcsourccs

opened up in the test and m easurement group. A lthough

Debra d idn 't sec herself as a career hum an rcsourccs m anager,

she dccidcd to take the job because it would give her a chancc

to get an in-dcpth look at the functioning of an operating unit

of the company.

After a couplc o f years, 1 IP offered early retirem ent across

the entire com pany as a way to avoid layoffs. W ith this incen

tive, the entire m anagem ent team of her group dccidcd to

leave. T he charter of the group changcd completely, and a

new general m anager was brought in. T here were some big

holes to fill. Debra looked at the voids in the organization and

dccidcd to seize that opportunity She volunteered to run a ll of

m anufacturing for the new ly configured division. She’d never

run a m anufacturing group before, but having spent so m uch

tim e working with the prior m anufacturing directors, she was

confident she could do it, and knew she could fill in her gaps

of knowledge along the way. She was ccrta in ly not the typical

candidate for the position, but she successfully convinced her

new boss she could retool. In the end, Debra brought in a fresh

perspective and was able to m ake m any positive changes in the


group. After only two years, she used the same strategy to move

into a senior m arketing job at I IP. A gain , Debra didn’t wait for

someone to tap her for the post; she simply figured out how to

repackage her skills for the new position.

As demonstrated by Debra’s story, one of the best ways to move

from one field to another is to figure out how your skills can

be translated into different settings. Others m ight not see the

paiallels uii the mu face, so it’s yum job lo expose (hem. Some

times the vocabulary in two disparate fields is com pletely dif

ferent, but the job functions arc rem arkably sim ilar. Consider

the sim ilarities between being a scientist and a m anagem ent

consultant: soon after earn ing my PhD in neuroscience, my

sights were set on working in a startup biotechnology com

pany. T h e only problem? I wanted a job in m arketing and

strategy, not in the lab. T h is seem ed nearly impossible without

any relevant cxpcricncc. T h e startup com panies w ith whom

I interviewed were looking for individuals who could hit the

ground running. I interviewed for months and months and

often got close to a job offer, but nothing cam e through.

Eventually, I got an introduction to the m anag ing direc-

tor of the San Francisco branch of Booz A llen Hamilton, an

international consulting company. M y goal was to impress

h im enough that he would introduce me to some of the com

pany’s life science clients. I walked into the m eeting and he

asked m e why someone with a PhD in neuroscience wculd

be a good m anagem ent consultant. I could have told h im the


truth—that I actually hadn’t considered that option. But on the

spot, with nothing to lose, I outlined the sim ilarities between

brair. research and m anagem ent consulting. For example, in

both eases you need to identify the burn ing questions, collect

relevant data, analyze it, sclcct the most interesting results,

craft a com pelling presentation, and determ ine the next set of

burning questions. I Ie arranged other interviews for later that

day, and I walked out that evening with a job offer. O f course,

I look il. In fact, il Inn ltd oul lo be an am azing way lo Ieam

about business and a w ide range of industries, and I certain ly

did leverage my prior tra in ing as a scientist. O ut of necessity

and curiosity. I’ve done this again and again , constantly re

fraining m y skills to crcatc new opportunities. W hen people

ask me how a neuroscientist ended up teaching entrepreneur

ship to engineers, I have to say, “It’s a long story."

All of these eases illustrate that in any complex organiza

tion, there arc always opportunities around you. Even if tack

ling them doesn’t seem like a natural fit for you, with a little bit

of creativity, you can usually find a way that your skills arc rcl-

cvant to the challenge. Paul Yock identified a m issed opportu

n ity n a university setting and designed a brand-new program

to fil the need; Debra Dunn saw holes in her organization and

found a way to leverage what she knew to take on roles otl crs

would not necessarily have choscn for her; anti I figured out a

creative way to reframe m y skills so I could move between two

fields that on the surface looked com pletely disparate.


Another way to anoint yourself is to look at things others have

discarded and find ways to turn them into som ething useful.

There is often tremendous value in the projects others have

carelessly abandoned. As discussed previously, sometimes

people jettison ideas because they don’t fu lly appreciate their

value, or because they don’t have tim e to fu lly explore them.

Often these discarded ideas hold a lot o f promise.

M ichael H earing started his carccr in strategy at Disney,

went on to launch a retail venture that failed, and then landed

at eBay, a lead ing online auction W eb site. M ichael was ni-

tia lly assigned to a job he wasn’t thrilled about. He dccidcd to

use his free tim e to look at features that had been designed but

then ignored or abandoned, ideas just w aiting for someone to

exploit them. It was the year 2000, and M ichael saw that tlicrc

was a new feature that let customers add a photo to their stan

dard listing for an additional twenty-five cents. O nly 10 percent

of eBay customers were using this feature. M ichacl spent some

time analyz ing the benefits of this scivicc and was able lu dem

onstrate that products with accom panying photos sold faster

and at a h igher price than products w ithout photos. Armed

with this com pelling data, he started m arketing the photo ser

vice more heavily and ended up increasing the adoption rate of

this feature by customers from 10 percent to 60 percent. Ibis

resulted in $300 m illion in additional annual revenue for cBav.

W ithout any instructions from others, M ichacl found an un

tapped gold m ine and exploited it w ith great results. The cost

to the com pany was m in im al and the profits were profound


T his wasn’t the first tim e M ichael found a way to tap into

resources around h im . Even as a kid he wrote letters to famous

people and was pleased to see that most of the tim e they wrote

back. 11c still continues that habit, sending unsolicited e-m ails

to people he adm ires. In alm ost ever)' instance they respond,

and in m any eases the correspondence results in long-term

relationships and interesting opportunities. He never asks the

folks he writes for anyth ing. I Iis in itia l contact is a ll about

thanking them for som ething they’ve done, acknowledging

som ething they’ve accomplished, asking a simple question,

or offering to help them in some way. I Ie doesn’t wait for an

invitation to contact these people, but takes it upon h im self to

m ake the first move.

T here is considerable research showing that those w illin g to

stretch the boundaries of their current skills and w illing to risk

trying something new, like Debra Dunn and M ichael Dcaring,

arc m uch more likclv to be successful than those who believe

they have a fixed skill set and innate abilities that lock them

into specific roles. Carol Dweck, at Stanford’s psychology

departm ent, has written extensively about this, demonstrating

that those of us with a fixed mind-set about what we’re good at

arc m uch less likely to be successful in the long run than those

with a growth mind-set. I Icr work focuses on our attitude

about ourselves. 1’hosc with a fixed im age about what they

can do arc m uch less likclv to take risks that m ight shake that

im age. But those with a growth mind-set arc typically open

to taking risks and tend to work harder to reach their obec-

tives T h ey ’re w illin g to try new things that push their abilities,

op ering up entirely new arenas along the way.

So Iwnv do vou find holes that need to be filled? It’s actually

quite simple. T h e first step is learn ing how to pay attention.

M y colleagues at the d.school developed the following cx

crcisc, which gets at the heart of identifying opportunities.

Participants arc asked to take out their wallets. T hey then

break up into pairs and interview one another about their wal

lets. T hey discuss what they love and hate about their wallets,

paying particu lar attention to how they use them for purchas

ing and storage.

One of the most interesting insights comes from watching

each person pull out his or her wallet at the beginning. Sam e

of the wallets arc trim and neat, some arc practically explod

ing with papers, some arc fashion statements, some carry the

individual’s entire library' of photos and rcccipts, and some

consist of little more than a paper clip. C learly, a w allet plays

a different role for each of us. T h e interview proccss exposes

how each person uses his or her w allet, w hat it represents, and

the strange behaviors each has developed to get around the

w allet’s lim itations. I’ve never seen a person w ho is completely

satisfied with his or her w allet: there is always som ething that

can be fixed. In fact, most people are w alk ing around with

wallets that drive them crazy in some wav. Thev discuss theirj ; /

frustrations with the size of their wallets, their inab ility to find



tilings easily, or their desire to have different types of wallets

for different occasions.

After the interview proccss, each person designs and builds

a new wallet for the other person—his or her “customer.”

T he design m aterials include nothing more than paper, tape,

markers, scissors, paper clips, and the like. T hey can also use

whatever else they find in the room. 1'his takes about thirty

minutes. After they’ve completed the prototype, they “sell" it

lu tl ieii eus to iue i . A lmost un ive i sa l ly , the new wal le t solves

the biggest problems with which the customer was struggling.

T hey’re thrilled with the concept and say that if that wallet

were available, they would buy it. Som e of the features arc

based on scicncc fiction, such as a w allet that prints money on

demand, but some require little more than a good designer to

make them feasible right away.

M any lessons fall out of this cxcrcisc. First, the wallet is

symbolic of the fact that problems arc everywhere, even in

your back pockct. Second, it doesn’t take m uch effort to un

cover these problems. In fact, people arc generally happ\ to

tell you about their problems. T h ird , by experim enting, you

get quick and d irty feedback on the solutions you propose. It

doesn’t take m uch work, m any resources, or much tim e. And,

final.y, if you aren’t on the right track w ith a solution, the sunk

cost s really low. A ll you have to do is start over.2

I’ve run this cxcrcisc w ith sm all groups, w ith large groups,

w ith kids, with doctors, and with business executives. In a ll

eases they’re surprised by the sim plicity of rea liz ing that tlicrc

arc always things that can he improved—from wallets and

shoelaces to backpacks, software, restaurants, gas stations,

cars, clothes, coffcc shops . . . the list is endless. You don’t

need someone else to give you this assignm ent. In fact, a ll suc

cessful entrepreneurs do this naturally. T hey pay attention at

home, at work, at the grocery store, in airp lanes, at the beach,

at the doctors officc, or on the baseball field, and find an array

of opportunities to fix tilings that arc broken.

T h e wallet design exeieise focuses uu p iuducl design.

But you can use the same approach to rethink services, cx-

pcricnccs, and organization structures. At the d.school, the

teach ing team crafts projects that charge the students with

com pletely reth inking an am azingly w ide range of experi

ences, from prim ary school education in the United States to

irrigation of crops in rural India and m anagem ent of innova

tive organizations. If you study cach situation w ith an eye for

improvement, you w ill find countless opportunities. It is then

up to you to decide if you w ill put yourself in the position to

take on that challenge.

Som e people arc masters at taking on challenges and seizing

leadership roles. I learned a lot about this from David Roth-

kopf, author and CKO of Garten Rothkopf, a W ashington,

D C -based international advisorv firm, whose book Superc la ss

focuses on those people in the .vorld who have more power

and influence than the rest of us.' David studied leaders who’ve

m ade it to the inner circic, interacting w ith one another in the



elite World Economic Forum that meets annually in Davos,

Switzerland. I asked David what sets these people apart from

the rest of us. I Ie echoed m any of the things that others in this

book m entioned: people w ho get to the top work harder than

those around them , they have more energy that propels them

forward, and they're m arkedly more driven to get there. He

notes that in the past people in the inner circle inherited their

wealth and access. But today that isn’t the ease. 1’he majority

of people who cla im great success have m ade it happen on

their own. 'I bis means that the prim ary barriers to success arc

self-imposed. T he corollary to this is, as David says, “T h e big

gest ally o f superachievers is the inertia of others.”

David actually embodies these characteristics him self, natu

rally seiz ing opportunities, as opposed to w aiting for others to

hand them to h im . His first com pany was called International

M edia Partners, and one of their activities was organizing c o n - fcrcnccs for top CKOs. T h e loom ing question for this s tam p

was how to get a ll those exclusive and elusive executives in the

same room. David and his partners needed a tem pting hook,

and decided that getting I Icnry Kissinger to speak would do

the trick. But how would they get 1 Icnry Kissinger to par

ticipate? David found out how to reach Kissinger’s officc and

asked Kissinger’s staff if he was available to speak at the c d u -

fcrcncc. No problem . . . but it would cost $50,000, require a

private a irp lane w ith two pilots, and a chauffeured limousine.

David and his team d idn ’t have anv monev, so anv amount was

too much . . . but he said, “Yes, we’ll do it.” I Ic assumed that if


lie could get I len ry Kissinger in the room, then the rest would

fall neatly into p lace—and it did! O nce Kissinger accepted,

they were able to secure Alexander Haig, Secretary of State

under President Reagan; then Edmund M uskic, Secretary

of State under Jim m y Carter; followed by a long list of other

well-known speakers. W ith this ist of lum inaries, the CKOs

showed up in droves and the company was able to get sponsors

who more than paid for a ll the speaking fees. T h e fact that

David didn’t know 1 len ry Kissinger and had no m oney didn’t

get in his way. I le succeeded by creatively leveraging what lie

did have—his energy, his w illingness to work hard, and his

drive to m ake it happen.

T he story goes on from here. David’s co lleague at Inter

national M edia Partners, Jeffrey G arten, went on to become

Undersecretary of Com m erce during the first C linton adm in

istration. He invited David to become Deputy Undersecretary

of C om m erce for International Trade. It seemed like a pretty

plum position. I le hud a huge office and a big staff. Bui aflei

two weeks David walked into Jeffs office and quit. I le couldn’t

stand the bureaucratic environment. Everything was painfully

slow and David was im patient to make things happen. Jeff took

David outside for a walk and told h im the following joke:

T here was oncc a m an named Goldberg who wanted

nothing more than to be rich. So each day he went the

synagogue and prayed to God to w in the lottery. T his

went on for days, weeks, months, and years, but Goldberg

never won. Eventually, Goldberg was at bis w its end.

Praying to God, he said, “You have really let me down.'

Suddenly the silence was broken and God responded in

a boom ing voice, “Goldberg, you’ve got to help m e out

here. You could at least buy a ticket!"

Jeff rem inded David of som ething he already knew—he

wasn’t go ing to “w in the lottery" in W ashington if he didn’t

engage. Nobody was going lo hand h im the tools lo be suc

cessful. So David went back to his office and tapped into his

natural instincts to make things happen, as opposed to waiting

for someone to show up w ith a gam e plan. 1 Ic quick ly real

ized that there were endless holes to be filled and tremendous

resources at his disposal. In a wonderful finale, several years

after David left the Department o f C om m erce he becam e the

m anaging director of Kissinger Associates, Inc. He went from

being a newcomer who dream ed of being in the sam e rcom

with H enry Kissinger to jo in ing h im as a business partner.

David has seen this story play out again and again in his own

life and in the lives of those he has studied while researching

his book. Those who arc successful find wavs to make them-j

selves successful. There is no recipe, no sccrct handshake, and

no m agic potion. Each person he studied has a story as unique

as a fingerprint. The consistent them e is that they each pay at

tention to current trends and leverage their own skills to build

thcii influence. T hey find ways to sway history, as opposed to

waiting for history to sway them.



If you want a leadership role, then take on leadership roles,

just give yourself perm ission to do so. Look around for holes

in your organization, ask for what you want, find ways to lever

age your skills and experiences, be w illing to m ake the first

move, and stretch bcvond what you’ve done before. There arc/ j

always opportunities w aiting to be exploited. Instead of wait

ing to be asked and tiptoeing around an opportunity, seize

it. It takes hard work, energy, and drive—but these arc the

assets that set leaders apart from those who wait for others to

anoint them.

Chapter 5

THE SECRET SAUCE OF SILICON VALLEY

I require my students to write a failure resume. T hat is, to craft

a resume that sum m arizes a ll their biggest screwups—personal,

professional, and academ ic. I'or every failure, each student

m ust dcscribc what he or she learned from that cxpcricncc.

Just im agine the looks of surprise this assignm ent inspires in

students who arc so used to showcasing their succcsscs. How

ever, after they finish their resume, they rea lize that v iew ing

cxpcricnccs through the lens o f failure forccd them to com e to

terms with the mistakes they have m ade along the way. In fact,

as the years go by, m any former students continue to keep their

failure resum e up-to-date, in parallel with their traditional

resume of succcsscs.

I borrowed this assignm ent from Liz Kiscnw ether at Penn

State University. W hen I first heard the idea I thought it was

terrific. Its a qu ick w ay to demonstrate that failure is an


important part o f our learn ing proccss, especially when you’re

stretching your ab ilities, doing things the first tim e, or taking

risks. W e hire people who have cxpcricncc not just because

of their succcsscs but also because of their failures. Failures

offer learn ing opportunities and increase the chance that you

won’t m ake the sam e m istake again . Failures are also a sign

that you have taken on challenges that expand your skills. In

fact, m any successful people believe that if you aren ’t failing

sometimes then you aren ’t tak ing enough risks. Prodded by

a former student, I dccidcd to include here my own abbrevi

ated failure resum e, showcasing some of my biggest mistakes.

I wish I had kept this resum e up-to-date for the past thirty

years. It would have been fascinating to revisit and learn from

a ll the m istakes I’ve conveniently put out of m y m ind.

TINA L. SEELIG

Professional Failures

Not pay ing a tten tion : Early in m y carccr I naively

thought I knew how organizations worked. I made

judgments about corporate cu lturc that were incor-

rcct. I wish I had spent more tim e paying attention

a id less tim e m aking assumptions.

Q u ittin g too early : W h ile runn ing m y own busi

ness I hit the wall. It got incredib ly hard both tech

nically and organizationally, and was go ing to take

£ tremendous amount of effort to find m y way to a

T/ie S ecre t Sauce o f Silicon Valley

solution. I wish I had been confident enough to fully

com m it to finding a solution.

Academ ic Failures

Not do ing m y best: T he first two years of college

I d idn ’t put m y focused effort into a ll my courses. I

missed the chance to cxtract the most value from the

classes—a chance I can ’t get back.

R elationsh ip m anagem ent: I had a cha lleng ing

relationship w ith m y PhD advisor. I wanted to spend

£ lot of tim e teaching and she felt I should spend most

of my tim e in the lab. I wish I had found a way to

better a lign our goals.

Personal Failures

Avoiding conflicts: I had a boyfriend in collcgc,

a id as wc elosed in on graduation w e were both

stressed about where we were going next. Instead of

dealing w ith the questions directly, I blew up the rela

tionship. I wish I had been able to talk honestly about

what was go ing on.

Not listen ing to my gut: M y uncle died in New

York. I lived in California and several people urged me

not to travel to the funeral. I have always regretted it. I

barncd that there arc some things you can’t undo, and

that in situations such as these I should do what is right

for m e, not necessarily what others want me to do.


• • •

W illingness to take risks and reactions to failure differ dra

m atically around the world. In some cultures the downside for

failure is so high that individuals arc allerg ic to tak ing any risks

at a ll. These cultures associate shame w ith any type of failure,

and from a young age people arc taught to follow a prcscribcd

path w ith a wcll-dcfmcd chance o f success, as opposed to

trying anyth ing that m ight lead to disappointment. In some

places., such as I hailaud , suiueuue who has failed lepealed ly

m ight even choosc to take on a brand-new nam e in an attempt

to reboot his or her entire life. In fact, in the 2008 O lympics, a

T h a i weight lifter attributed her victor)' to changing her nam e

before the games.

T h e Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (G E M ),1 which pub

lishes a detailed annual report on startup activity around the

world, looks at cu ltural differences in risk tak ing and comfort

w ith failure. T h e GEM team found that important factors con

tribute to a society’s risk profile. For exam ple, in some coun

tries, such as Sweden, the bankruptcy laws arc designed such

that once your com pany goes out of business you can never

get out of debt. Knowing that failure has drastic, long-term

consequences for you and your fam ily is a huge disincentive to

try to start a com pany in the first placc. T h e cu ltu re in other

countries is equally unforgiving. O ncc you fail, your friends,

neighbors, and colleagues w ill always view you as a failure. A

recent issue of the Wall S tree t jo u rn a l dcscribcs hum iliating

tactics currcntlv used bv debt collcctors in several countries,

The Secret Sauce of Silicon Valley 75

includ ing Spain." T he collcctors literally show up at individu

als’ houses in bizarre costum es, with the goal o f draw ing atten

tion from the neighbors and sham ing the debtors. W hy would

anyone in these com m unities risk public rid icu le by taking on

any unnecessary risk?

T his is in sharp contrast to Silicon Valley, where failure is

acknowledged as a natural part Df the proccss of innovation.

Steve jurvctson,' a partner at the venture firm Draper Fisher

Jurvctson, describes failure as the secret sauce of Silicon

Valley, while Randy Komisar of KPCB notes that being able

to view failure as an asset is the hallm ark of an entrepreneurial

environment. Randy also says that when he secs people who

have never had a failure, he wonders what they have really

learned from their cxpcricnccs.

O n the most basic level, a ll learn ing com es from failure.

T h ink of a baby learn ing to walk. 1 Ic or she starts out craw ling

and then fa lling before finally m astering the skill that as an

adult wc take for granted. As a child gets older, each newr feat,

from catch ing a baseball to doing algebra, is learned the same

way, by experim enting until you arc finally successful. W e

don’t cxpcct a child to do everything perfectly the first tim e,

nor should w e cxpcct adults who :akc on complex tasks to get it

a ll right the first tim e, either.

I’ve conic to believe that the most powerful learn ing comes

from experiencing failures as well as succcsscs. It is also nearly

impossible to learn anyth ing without doing it yourself, by


experim enting along the way, and by recovering from the in

evitable failures. You can ’t learn to play soccer by read ing the

rulcbook, you can ’t learn to play the piano by studying sheets

of music, and you can 't learn to cook by read ing recipes. I'm

rem inded o f m y tim e as a graduate student in neuroscience.

I had taken several courses in w hich wc “learn ed ” the prin

ciples of neurophysiology. A lthough I could pass a written

test on the m ateria l, it wasn’t un til I was in the lab, d issccting

nerves under a m icroscopc, im paling them w ith tiny cicc-

trodcs, and m an u a lly tu rn ing the d ia ls on the oscillosccpc,

that I fu lly understood the concepts. L ikew ise, you can read

as m any books on leadership as you w ant, but un til you expe

rience the cha llenges that facc real leaders, you w ill ncvci be

prepared to take charge.

T i e M ayfield Fellows Program, which I co-dircct with Iom

Byers, a professor in M anagem ent Scicncc and E ngineering

at Stanford, gives students this opportunity.4 After one quarter

of classroom work, during which wc offer an in-dcpth intro

duction to entrepreneurship through ease studies, the twelve

students in this nine-month program spend the summer

working in startup companies. T h ey take on key roles in cach

business and arc closclv mentored bv senior leaders in the

company. T hey experience firsthand what it is like to identify

and address the white-hot risks that facc cach organization, the

stresses o f m aking decisions w ith incomplete information, and

the challenge of lead ing in an ever-changing environment.

After the intense sum m er experience, the students come back

T/ie Secret Sauce of Silicon Valley 77

to class for ten weeks of debriefing about what happened in

their respective com panies. Each student leads a class on an

important issue that evolved during their internship.

The students in the M ayfield Fellows Program have profound

insights about what it m eans to run a fast-paccd business in ady

nam ic environment. T hey watch these companies struggle with

issues such as runn ing out of cash, retooling after a change in

the senior m anagem ent team , the challenge of getting cutting-

edge technology to work, and the daunting task of competing

against giants in the industry. By the end of the sum m er, the

students realize that only a handful of the com panies for which

they worked w ill be in business in a year or two. Despite all of

the efforts of talented teams, m any of them w ill fail.

T h e en tire venture cap ital industry essentia lly invests in

failures, since the m ajority of the com panies they fund

eventually go under. O ther industries have a s im ilar success

rate, in c lud ing the toy industry, the m ovie business, and the

publ sh ing industry. C onsider book publish ing: According

to Nielsen Bookscan, of the approxim ately 1.2 m illion d if

ferent books in print in 2004, on ly 25,000, or 2 percent, sold

more than 5,000 copics, and the average book in the U.S.,

sells less than 500 copics. However, it is nearly impossible to

prcd.ct w hich ones w ill be the b ig hits. As a result, publishers

cont nuc to produce m any different books, hoping that each

w ill be a success but know ing that only a tiny fraction will

m ake it onto the bestseller list. Publishers, toy m akers, movie


producers, and venture cap italists understand that the path to

success is littered w ith failures.

M ir Imran, a serial entrepreneur, has started dozens of

companies, m any in parallel." His success rate has been re

markable, considering that in alm ost every environm ent most

startups fail. W hen asked about his success rate, M ir admits

that the key is k illing projects early. He uses a brutal proccss

to weed out projects w ith a low likelihood of success and puts

increased energy into those with a high likelihood of m aking it

to the finish line. I Ic uses considerable discip line and analysis

in the early stages, prior to launch ing a ncwr venture, to in

crease the chances that it w ill thrive in the long run.

Even though it is always difficult to abandon a projcct, it is

much easier in the early stages of a venture, before there is an

enormous escalation of com m itted tim e and energy. T his hap

pens in a ll parts of our lives, includ ing jobs, stock investments,

and any type of ic lalio iisliip . Lcouaido da V inci once staled,

“It if easier to resist at the beg inn ing than at the end.” Bob

Sutton, an expert on organizational behavior, describes “The

Da Vinci Rule" in detail in his book. T h e No Asshole R i le ,

where lie talks about leav ing jobs that arc not a good match as

soon as you discover they are untenable.6 I Icrc he generalizes

this much more broadlv:

A lthough most people know that sunk costs shouldn’t

be considered in m aking a decision, the “too-much-


invcstcd-to-quit syndrome" is a powerful driver of hum an

behavior. W e justify a ll the time, effort, suffering, and

years and years that we devote to som ething by telling

ourselves and others that there m ust be som ething worth

w hile and important about il or we never would have

sunk so m uch of our lives into it.

Q u itting is actu a lly incredibly empowering. It’s a rem inder

that you control the situation and can leave whenever you like.

You don’t have to be your own prison guard, keeping yourself

locked up in a place that isn’t working. But that doesn’t mean

qu itting is easy. I’ve quit jobs tha: were a bad match and aban

doned failing projects, and in c ad i case it was terribly difficult.

W e’re taught that qu itting is a s.gn of weakness, although in

m any circum stances, it’s just the opposite. Som etim es quitting

is the bravest alternative, because it requires you to facc your

failures and announce them publicly. T h e great news is that

qu itting allows you to start over with a clcan slate. And, if you

take the tim e to evaluate what happened, quitting can be an

invaluable learn ing experience.

W hen Randy Komisar left his v ice president position at

C laris, a computer software company that spun out of Apple

Computer, he felt he had failed. Randy, who had a clcar vision

of what he wanted to accomplish, left C laris when he realized

he was never go ing to ach ieve his goals. Randy’s “failure” was

very public, and it stung badly. However, w ithin a short tim e

Randy realized that being released from this job provided him


with an opportunity to reevaluate his passions and determine

how he could best use his skills. For instance, it becam e dear

that one reason lie felt so dissatisfied at C laris was that he was

neither passionate about the product nor about what he was

doing. I Ic loved th inking about the com pany’s big p icture and

scoping out its vision, but he was hardly inspired by the day-to-

day m anagem ent issues.

W hen Randy was asked to becom e C F O of a new company,

he suggested instead that he work w ith the CF.O to set the

direction for the company. In this way he crafted a brand-new

role for h im self—“V irtual CE O ”—and was subsequently able

to become involved with dozens of com panies, m any at the

same tim e. I le served as a coach, sounding board, and advi

sor far CKOs, but didn’t have the day-to-day responsibilities.

T h is suited h im and the com panies well. “T he failure allowed

m e to better a lign m y passions w ith the opportunities around

m e,” says Randy. This is a poignant rem inder that learning

when to ca ll it quits is crucial. You need to know when to stop

pounding on an idea that isn’t working and when to move on

to something new.

T here arc actually m any ways to turn a failure into a success.

O ne memorable story about transform ing a big disappoint

ment into a big win cam e out of the Innovation Tournament

in which students had to create value from rubber bands

in five days. O ne team decided to crcatc a “W ish ing Tree.”

'They identified a tree in the center of cam pus, across from


the university bookstore, and wrapped the trunk w ith chicken

w ire. T hey then used rubber bands to attach messages to the

chicken wire. T h e idea was that anyone passing by could post

a wish on the tree. 1’hc team promoted it widely, using online

networking sites, e-m ail lists, and by literally standing in front

of the tree, inviting passcrsbv to post a wish. Unfortunately,

people just weren’t interested.

In an attempt to build mom entum , the team started seeding

the tree with wishes. This had little affect. T hey then became

more aggressive in their promotion and more actively invited

passcrsbv to contribute. A gain , this had little im pact. But the

students’ disappointment was am plified by the fact that not

more than fifty feet away a sim ilar project was getting lots of at

tention. Another team had created a huge w eb of large rubber

bands from which they invited students to suspend their sc-

crcts T h e rubbcr-band web was brim m ing w ith hundreds of

brightly colored papers, each with a different secret. T hey flut

tered in the light brcc/.c, in sharp contrast to the nearly naked

W ishing Tree next door.

T he W ish ing free team dccidcd to chalk this one up as

a fai.ure. However, they didn’t stop there. T hey extracted as

much as they could from this cxpcricncc by m aking a provoca

tive :hrcc-m inutc video docum enting the failure. The team

described a ll o f their attempts to m ake the W ish ing Tree suc

cessful and compared their failure to the success of the “Web

of Secrets.” 1’hey very publicly celebrated their failure and

shared what they had learned about the “stickiness” of w ishes

82 What I W ish I Knev. When I Was 20

versus secrets. (Stories, products, and Wei) sites arc “stickv"

when they hold your attention and don’t let go.) T hey also

made it c lear that this was just cne step along the patli to the

next idea, and the next, and the next.

Because even great ideas require a tremendous am ount

of work to reach a successful outcome, it’s incredib ly hard to

know when to keep pushing on z problem, hoping for a break

through, and when to walk away. W e a ll know that persistence

is to be adm ired, but when docs it becom e foolish to continue

working on som ething that’s never going to fly? G il Penchina,

CKO of W ik ia , describes the dilem m a wonderfully: “If you

throw gasoline on a log, a ll you get is a wet log. But if you

throw gasoline on a sm all flame, you get an inferno.”7 That

is, it’s important to know whether you’re putting energy into

som ething that lias the potential to pay off. This is one of life’s

biggest challenges. W e often stay in dead-end situations way

too long. T h is occurs when companies com m it to a doomed

product or projcct, or when individuals stay w ith jobs or in

relationships that m ake them miserable, hoping the situation

w ill improve.

So how do you know when to cuit? T h is is a huge philosophi

cal question. It's always a m am im th challenge to separate your

desire to m ake something work from the reality o f the probabil

ity that it w ill work. O f course, the more you put into a project,

the more likely it is to succeed. But some efforts w ill never pan

out, no matter how much tim e, money, or sweat is injected. T he

most scientific answer I've found is, listen to your gut and look

at your alternatives. Essentially, you have to negotiate honestly

with yourself. Do you have the fortitude to push through the

problems in front of you to reach a successful outcome, or arc

you better off taking another path '

So qu itting is hard—but it’s even harder to do it well. I’ve

seen people quit graccfu lly and others quit so c lum sily that

they leave a huge crater in their wake. As tliscusscd in detail

in chaptcr 8, you arc likely to bump into the sam e people

again and again in life, often in unexpected ways. T h is alone

is reason enough to make sure that when you quit, you do so

w ith carefu l thought about the consequences for those around

you. Besides the im pact that quitting graccfu lly m ight have

on you later, it is just the right thing to do. You can never ra

tionalize qu itting in such a way that you hurt your colleagues,

friends, or former business.

A colleague told me about his assistant, who was doing a tcr-

i ific job. I Ic gave hci g ical levkrws and spent a lot of lim e talk

ing with her about her carccr path w ithin his group. She made it

clcar that ultim ately she hoped to move into a different field, and

my colleague was supportive of this. In fact, he told her he would

be delighted to serve as a reference for her anytim e. W ith this as

a backdrop, my colleague couldn’t have been more surprised

when his assistant cam c in one day and gave two weeks' notice.

T he team was in the midst of a huge project, the deadline three

weeks away. She was going to leave one week before the proj

ect was completed, putting the entire team in a very difficult


position. M y colleague asked her several times if she would

consider staying one more week to help him get to the end of

the project, which involved dozens of people directly and several

thousands indirectly. She refused, saying, "I know you're going

to be unhappy that I’m leaving no matter when I go, so I decided

to dc what I want.” M y colleague felt as though he’d been kickcd

in tlic stomach. It was nearly impossible to fill in the holes she

left during the last week of the project, and everyone worked

around the clock to trv to fill the void. All those who worked/

with her w ill remember that decision. Despite the fact that she

did a terrific job while she was with them, the dam age she did to

her reputation during the last weeks of her employment dwaifed

all the positive things she had done in prior years.

In sharp contrast, I’ve seen others quit jobs with remarkable

style Even if they were leav ing because the job wasn’t a good

match, the grace w ith which they left m ade such a posi:ivc

impression that everyone involved would be pleased to give

lliem a glow ing lecom m ciidalio ii at any lim e in llie fu lu ie.

They provided enough notice to fill any gaps, they took the

tim e to put their work in order so that someone else could pick

up where they left off, and they even offered to help with the

transition. T hese folks arc heroes. Thev mastered the art ofj

quitting w ell, and used their skill to turn a bad situation into

something positive.

So how do you prepare yourself for inevitable failures? Pccplc

who spend their tim e on creative endeavors know that failure



is a natural part o f the creative process and arc ready when

it happens. Jeff Hawkins gets worried when things go too

smoothly, knowing that failure m ust be lurking around the

corner. W hen he was runn ing 1 landspring, everyth ing was

going sw im m ingly for the release of the original “Visor” a new

personal d igital assistant. But Jeff kept w arn ing his team that

something would happen. And it did. W ith in the first few days

of the release of their first product they shipped about 100,000

units. This was remarkable. But the entire b illin g and ship

ping system broke down. Some customers didn’t receive the

pred icts they paid for, and others received three or four times

as m any units as they ordered. T h is was a disaster, especially

for a new business that was try ing to build its reputation. So

what did they do? T he entire team , includ ing Jeff, buckled

down and callcd each and every customer. T hey asked cach

person what he or she had ordered, if they had received it,

and whether they had been billed correctly. If anyth ing wasn’t

pcrfcct, the com pany corrcctcd it on the spot. T he key point is

that jeff knew som ething would go wrong. I Ic wasn’t sure what

it would be, but was prepared to deal w ith anyth ing that came

their way. I lis experience has taught h im that failure is inevi

table, and that the key to success is not dodging every bullet

but being able to recover quickly.

This them e comes up again and again when listening to

those who have been successful. T hey arc w illin g to try lots of

things, and arc confident that some of their experim ents will

lead to great outcomes. But they also recognize that there will


be potholes along the way. T h is approach can be used for big

and sm all challenges. Consider the following story, told to me

by a friend: T here was a m an who appeared to have endless

luck with women. 1 Ic wasn't particularly charm ing, funny,

smart, or attractive, so it was quite a mystery. One day my

friend asked h im how he m anaged to have such a steady flow

of women in his life. 1 Ic confided that it was sim ple—he asked

every attractive woman he m et for a date, and some of them

said yes. I Ic was w illin g to take his share of rejections in return

for a handful of succcsscs. This wrings the lesson to its basest

level. If you get out there and try lots of things, you’re m uch

more likclv to find success than someone who waits around for

the phone to ring.

T h is story is consistent with advice my father always gave m e:

being a squeaky wheel rarely changes the outcome, but it tloes

allow you to get to the conclusion sooner. Don’t sit around wait

ing for a yes that w ill never conic It’s better to get to no sooner

la llie i than lale i, so you eau pul \oui eueigy into oppoi(unities

with a higher likelihood of success. I bis applies to job hunting,

finding business funding, dating, and most other endeavors.

T hat is, if you continue to push tlic lim its, and arc w illing to fail

along the way, you w ill very likclv find succcss.

T hese stories h igh ligh t an important point: a successful

career is not a straight line but a wave w ith ups and downs.

M ichae l D caring describes this w onderfu lly w ith a simple

graph that maps a typ ical carccr, w ith t im e on the x-axis

The Secret Sauce of Silicon Valley 87

and s u c c e s s on the y-axis. Most people feel as though they

should be constantly progressing up and to the right, moving

along a straight succcss line. But this is both un rea listic and

lim iting . In reality, when you look closely at the graph for

most successful people, there arc always ups and downs.

W hen viewed over a longer period of tim e, however, the

line generally moves up and to the right. W hen you’re in a

down cycle, it ’s som etim es hard to see that the temporary

dip i> actu a lly a setup for the next rise. In fact, the slope of

the upward line is often steeper after a down cycle, m ean

ing you’re rea lly ach iev ing m ore than if you had stayed on

a steady, prcdictablc path.

Carol Bart/, the former CMC) of Autodesk and new CKO

of Yahoo!, uses another great analogy to describe a successful

carccr path.8 She thinks you should look at the progress of your

carccr as m oving around and up a three-dim ensional p yran id ,

as opposed to up a two-dimensional ladder. Lateral moves

along the side of the pyram id often allow you to build the base

of your cxpcricncc. It m ay not look as though you’re moving

up quickly, but you’re gathering a foundation of skills and cx-

perienccs that w ill prove extrem ely valuable later.

One of my favorite stories about the cyclical and unpredict

able nature of careers comes from Steve Jobs. As the founder

of Apple and Pixar, his success stories are legendary. However,

m any of his finest succcsscs grew out of failures. He described

these stories beautifu lly w hen he gave the com m encem ent ad

dress at Stanford in 2005. Here is an excerpt of his spccch:


W e had just released our finest creation—the M acin

tosh—a year earlier, and I had just turned thirty. And

then I got fired. I low can you get fired from a company

you started? W ell, as Apple grew we hired someone who

I thought was very talented to run the com pany with m e,

and for the first year or so things went well. But then our

visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we

had a fa lling out. W hen we did, our Board of Directors

sided with h im . So at l li i ity I was out. And veiy publicly

out. W hat had been the focus of mv entire adult life wasj

gone, and it was devastating.

I rcallv d idn’t know what to do for a few months. I feltj

that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs

down—that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed

to inc. I m et w ith David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried

to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public

failure, and I even thought about runn ing away from the

Valley. But som ething slowly began to dawn 011 m e—I

still loved what I did. T he turn of events at Apple had not

changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in

love. And so I dccidcd to start over.

I d idn’t sec it then, but it turned out that getting fired

from Apple was the best thing that could have ever hap

pened to me. T h e heaviness of being successful was

replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again , less

sure about everything. It freed m e to enter one of the

most creative periods of my life.


D uring the next five years, I started a com pany

nam ed NeXT, another company nam ed Pixar, and fell

in love w ith an am azing woman w ho would becom c my

wife. Pixar went on to create the world's first computcr-

an im ated feature film , Toy Story , and is now the most

successful anim ation studio in the world. In a remarkable

turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple,

and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart

of Apple’s current renaissance. And Laurenc and I have a

wonderful fam ily together.

I’m pretty sure none of this would have happened if I

hadn’t been fired from Apple. It was aw ful tasting m edi

c ine, but I guess the patient needed it. Som etim es life

hits you in the head w ith a brick.

T h is story is cchocd tim e and tim e again . Essentially, most

ind iv idual’s paths arc riddled with sm all and enormous fail

ings. T h e key is being able lu leeuvei fiun i them. Fui must suc

cessful people, the bottom is lined with rubber as opposed to

concrete. W hen they hit bottom, they sink in for a bit and then

bounce back, tapping into the energy o f the impact to propel

them into another opportunity. A great exam ple is David

N eclem an, the founder of JetBlue.' David in itia lly started an

a ir lin e ca lled M orris Air, which grew and prospered, and lie

sold it to Southwest A irlines for $130 m illion. I Ic then becam e

an em ployee of Southwest. After only five months David was

fired. He was m iserable working for them and, as he says, lie

was driv ing them crazy. As part of his contract he had a five-

year noncompete agreem ent that prevented h im from starting

another airline. T hat seemed like a lifetim e to wait. But after

taking tim e to recover from this blow, David dccidcd to spend

that tim e p lann ing for his next a irline venture. 1 Ic thought

through a ll the details of the company, includ ing the corporate

values, the complete customer experience, the type of people

thev would hire, as well as the details of how they would train

and compensate their employees David says that getting fired

and having to wait to start another a ir lin e was the best thing

that ever happened to h im . W hen the noncompete period was

over, he was ready to hit the ground running, just like Steve

Jobs, he was able to turn what seemed like a terrible situation

into a period of extrem e productivity and creativity.

Failing, of course, isn’t fun. Its m uch more fun to tell the

world about our succcsscs. But failures can serve as incredible

opportunities in disguise. T hey force us to reevaluate our goals

and priorities, and often propel us forward m uch faster than

continued success.

G etting too comfortable with failure, however, seems

risky. Arc those who celebrate failure doomed to fail? Imag

ine corporate “Employee of the M onth" photos showcasing

the biggest scrcwups. I lowcvcr, as Bob Sutton points out in

W eird Idea s That Work, rewarding only succcsscs can stifle

innovation because it discourages risk taking. Bob suggests

that organizations consider rewarding succcsscs a n d failures,



and punishing inaction. Doing so would encourage people

to experim ent, which is more likely to lead to interesting and

unexpected outcomes.

I am not saying that your com pany should reward people

who arc stupid, lazy, or incompetent. I m ean you should

reward smart failures, not dumb failures. If you want a

creative organization, inaction is the worst kind of fail

ure. . . . C reativity results from action, rather than inac

tion, more than anyth ing else.

Bob adds that there is strong cvidcncc that the ratio between

our individual succcsscs and failures stays the same. Therefore,

if you want more succcsscs, you’re going to have to be w illing

to live with more failures. Failure is the flip side of success, and

vou can ’t have one without the other.

At the d.school there is a lot of emphasis on tak ing b ig risks

to earn big rewards. Students arc encouraged to think really

b ig , c y ' c u if there’s a significant chancc that a project won’t be

successful. To encourage this, we reward spectacular disasters.

Students arc told that it is m uch better to have a flam ing fail

ure than a so-so success. Jim Plummer, the dean of Stanford’s

School of Engineering, embrace* this philosophy. He tells his

PhD students that they should pick a thesis project that has

a 20 percent chancc of success. Som e students find this dis

couraging, interpreting this to m ean that they w ill have to do

five different projects before they reach completion. Quite the


contrary. T h e experim ents should be designed so that a failure

is informative and a success leads to a major breakthrough.

Doing sm all, increm ental experiments w ith predictable results

is m uch less valuable than taking a big risk that w ill potentially

lead to a m uch bigger reward.

T h e flip side of being comfortable w ith failure, and w alk ing

away from a project that doesn’t work, is the risk of qu itting too

early. l ake the classic story of 3M’s Post-it notes, which began

w ith an adhesive that d idn’t stick and turned into a m ultib il

lion-dollar business. In 1968, Spcnccr Silver invented this “low

tack” adhesive and promoted it internally at 3M , but in itia lly

no one was interested. It wasn’t until 1974 that a colleague, Art

Fry, realized he could use the substandard glue to keep book

marks in place in his church hym nal and spent his free tim e

design ing the product we now know as Post-its. It wasn’t until

six years later that 3M launched the product across the United

States. Today they sell more than six hundred Post-it products

in more than a hundred countries. Im agine the lost opportu

n ity if the engineers at 3\1 hadn’t realized the potential in this

“failed” product. T h is m ind-set i ‘ captured in the class projcct

discussed earlier, where teams turn bad ideas into great ideas.

W e often live on the edge of success and failure, and it is rarely

clear which way we w ill land. This uncertain ty is am plified in

high-risk ventures such as restaurants, technology startups, and

even sports, where the line between success and failure may

be razor th in . Consider the T ourde France. Even after days of


cycling up and down steep and w inding m ountains, the tim e

difference between the winners and the losers boils down to a

m atter of seconds, if not m illiseconds. Som etim es a little extra

push is a ll it takes to flip the switch from failure to success.

Som e com panies have mastered the ab ility to coax the value

from products that others m igh : d iscard as fa ilures. M arissa

M ayer, who leads product development at Google, says it is

important not to kill projects tco early, but to morph them

instead.10 T hat is, figure out what part is working well and what

needs to be improved instead of discarding it. M arissa believes

that there is u sually a way to extract some value from any proj

ect, even one that doesn’t seem to be working.

G oogle and other W eb com panies re ly upon “A-B” test

ing. That is, they release two versions of the software at the

same tim e and rcccivc qu ick fccdback on what approach is

more successful. T hese com panies find that by m ak ing sm all

m odifications, such as chang ing the color of a button, add ing

a single word to a m essage, or m oving im ages around the

page, they can d ram atica lly a lte ra custom er’s response. Some

W cb-bascd businesses release dozens of versions of the same

product a day, each a ltering the user experience in some sm all

w ay so that they can evaluate the response.

A com pany founded by two former Stanford students, Jeff

Seibert and Kimber Lockhart, uses this approach all the tim e.

GctBackboard.com is a W eb sib for co llccting fccdback on

documents. T hey continue to experiment w ith different “callsJ I

to action’’ on their W eb site and keep track of which approach


works best. W h en they had a green bubble that said “Get an

Account Today,” they had an 8 percent sign-up rate. W hen the

message was changed to “Easy Q uick S ig n u p ” the response

rate increased to 11 percent. And when the text offered a “Free

30 Day Trial,” the response jum ped to 14 percent. This type of

experim entation turns failures into succcsscs, and makes suc

ccsscs more successful.

T rying new th ings requires a w illingness to take risks. I low-

cvcr, risk tak ing is not binary. I’d bet that you ’re comfortable

taking some types of risks and find other types quite uncom

fortable. You m ight not even see the risks that are comfortable

for you to take, discounting their riskiness, but are likely to

am plify the risk of things that m ake you m ore anxious. For

example, you m ight love flying down a ski slope at lightning

speed or jum ping out of airplanes, and don’t view these activ i

ties as risky. If so, you’re blind to the fact that you’re taking on

significant physical risk. Others, like me, who arc not physical

risk takers, would rather sip hot chocolate in the ski lodge or

buckle themselves tightly into their a irp lane scats than strap

on a pair of ski boots or a parachute. A lternatively, you might

feel perfectly comfortable with social risks, such as giving a

speech to a large crowd. 'Phis doesn’t seem risky at all to me.

But others, who might be perfectly happy jjumping out of a

plane, would never give a toast at a party.

On reflection, there appear to be five prim ary types of risks:

physical, social, em otional, financial, and in tellectual. For ex


am ple, I know that I’m comfortable taking social risks but not

physical risks. In short, I w ill rcacily start a conversation w ith a

stranger, but please don’t ask m e to bungee jum p off a bridge. I

w ill also happily take intellectual risks that strctch my analyti

cal abilities, but I’m not a big financial risk taker. On a trip to

Las Vegas I w ould bring only a small am ount of cash, to make

sure I d idn’t lose too much.

I often ask people to m ap their own risk profile. W ith only a

little bit of reflection, each person knows w inch types of risks

he or she is w illin g to take. T hey realize pretty quickly that risk

taking isn’t uniform. It’s interesting to note that most entrepre

neurs don’t see themselves as big risk takers. After analyzing

the landscape, bu ild ing a great team , and putting together a

detailed plan, they feel as though they have squeezed as much

risk out of the venture as they can. In fact, they spend most of

their efforts working to reduce ths risks for their business.

Elisabeth Pate Cornell, chair of the Department of M anage

ment Scicncc and Engineering a: Stanford, is an expert in the

field of risk management. She explains that when analyzing a

risky situation, it’s important to define the possible outcomes

and attempt to figure out the chances of cach one. O ncc this

is done, one needs to develop a full plan for cach eventuality.

Elisabeth says it makes sense to take the high risk/high reward

path if you’re w illing to live with all the potential conscqucnccs.

You should fully prepare for the downside and have a backup

plan in place. I cncouragc you b read the last few scntcnccs

several times. Experts in risk management believe you should


make decisions based upon the probability of a ll outcomes, in

cluding the best- and worst-casc scenarios, and be w illing to hike

big risks when you arc fully prepared for all eventualities.

It's also important to rem em ber that good decisions, based

on an accurate analysis of the risks involved, can still lead to

bad outcomes. T hat’s because risk is still involved. 1 lere is a

simple exam ple: soon after I got out of school I was offered a

job I wasn’t sure was a great fit for me. After several days carc-

fu lly considering the opportunity, I dccidcd to turn it down,

assum ing that soon thereafter I would be able to find another

job that was a better match. Unfortunately, the economy

turned south quite quickly and I spent months looking for

another job. I kicked m yself for not tak ing that position, which

started to look more anti more appealing. I had made a good

decision, based upon a ll the information I had at the time,

but in the short run it wasn’t a great outcome.

As in this situation, under most circum stances you have to

make decisions with incomplete information. T hat is, you lave

to make a choice and take action in the facc of considerable

uncertainty surrounding cach option. So, how do you fill in

the gaps of your knowledge? I suggest looking to “Stanley" for

inspiration. T he inner workings of Stanley, the autonomous

vehicle designed and built by Stanford’s Artificial Intelligence

L.ab and Volkswagen Electronics Research Laboratory for the

DARPA Grand Challenge, offer clucs to decision m aking with

incomplete information. DARPA, the Defense Advanced Re

search Projects Agency, is a government agency chargcd v ith


the development of cutting-edge technology for the m ilitary. In

the DARPA competition, drivcrlcss cars must navigate a 212-

kilomctcr off-road racc. Each must pass through three narrow

tunnels, make more than a hundred sharp turns, and navigate

m ountain passes with steep cliffs on each side. Despite very low

odds, Stanford’s car won the racc, due in large part to its ability

to make quick decisions with incomplete information.

S tan ley had a lot of powerful technology on board, includ

ing three-dim ensional maps of the terrain, GPS, gyroscopcs,

accelerometers, video cam eras, and sensors on the wheels. The

on-board software analyzed and interpreted all incom ing data

and controlled the veh icles speed and direction. But the key

to S tan ley’s victory was its superior skill at m aking decisions

with incomplete information. T he designers accom plished

this by bu ild ing in the ab ility to learn the way hum ans do.

T hey crcatcd a database of hum an decisions that the car drew

upon w hen m aking judgments about w hat to do. T h is data was

incorporated into a learn ing program tied to the ca r ’s control

systems, and greatly reduced errors in judgment.

T h is story h ighlights the fact that learn ing from others can

significantly reduce your failure rate. You don’t have to figure

everyth ing out yourself. Like Stanley, you should gather a ll the

data you can from your environment, and then tap into the

wisdom of those w ho have gone before you, in order to make

the best possible choicc. A ll you need to do is look around to

sec hundreds, if not thousands, of role models for every choicc

you plan to make.


If you do take a risk and happen to fail, rem em ber that you

personally arc not a failure. T he failure is external. This per

spective w ill allow you to get up and try again and again . Your

idea m ight have been poor, the tim ing m ight have been off,

or you m ight not have had the necessary' resources to succeed.

As Jeff I lawkins says, “You are not your company. You arc not

your product. It is real easy to think you arc and it is real easy

to get wrapped up in it. . . . But if you fail, or even if you arc

succcssful, it is not you. Your company m ay fail, your product

m ay fail, but you aren’t the failuic.” Keep in m ind that failure

is a natural part of the learn ing proccss. If you aren’t failing

sometimes, then you probably aren’t taking enough risks.

Chapter 6

NO WAY . . . ENGINEERING IS FOR GIRLS

I low m any people have told you that the key to success is to

follow your passions? I’d bet it’s a lot. G iving that advice to

someone who’s struggling to figure out what to do w ith his or

her life is easy. I lowcvcr, that advice is actually sim plistic and

m isleading. Don’t get m e wrong, I’m a huge fan of passions

and th ink it’s incredibly imporUnt to know what drives you.

But it certa in ly isn't enough.

Passions arc just a starting point. You also need to know your

talents anti how the world values them. If you’re passionate

about som ething but not particularly good at it, then it’s going

to be pretty frustrating to try to craft a carccr in that area. Say

you love basketball but aren’t tall enough to compctc, or you’re

enthralled by jazz but can ’t carry a tune. In both cases you can

be a tcrrific fan , go ing to gam es and concerts, without being a

professional.


'Faking this a step further, perhaps you’re passionate abaut

som ething and are quite talented in the field, but there’s no

market for those skills. For exam ple, you m ight be a skilled

artist and love to paint, or crave surfing and can ride any wave.

But we a ll know that the market for these skills is sm all. Trying

to craft a carccr around such passions is often a recipe for frus

tration. T hink of them instead as wonderful h obb ie s .1Alternatively, if you have talent in an area and there’s a big

market for your skills, then that is a great area to find a ,ob.

For example, if you arc an accom plished accountant, there’s

always a position for someone who can build a balance sheet.

For most people in the world, this is where they live. They

have a job that uses their skills, but they can ’t wait to get home

to focus on the activities they love—their hobbies. T hey count

the cays until the weekend, until vacation, or until retirement.

T he worst-casc scenario is finding yourself in a position

where you have no passion for your work, no skills in the field,

an d . l ic ic ’s no u ia ik c t foi w hat you ’i e do ing . la k e the classic

joke about try ing to sell snow to Eskimos. Now im agine doing

that if you hate snow and arc a terrible salesperson. T h is s a

bad situation all the wav around.JT he sweet spot is where your passions overlap w ith your

skills and the market. If you can find that spot, then you’re in

the wonderful position in which your job cnrichcs your life in

stead of just providing the financial resources that allow you to

enjoy your life a f t e r the workday is over. T he goal should be a

ca r e e r in w hich you can ’t believe people actually pay you to do

your job. A quote attributed to the C h inese Taoist philosopher

Lao-Tzu sum s this up:

T h e m aster of the art of liv ing m akes little d istinction

betw een his work and his play, his labor and his leisure,

his m ind and his body, his education and his recreation,

his love and h is religion. 1 Ic sim ply pursues his vision of

cxccllcncc in whatever he docs, leav ing others to decide

w hether he is working or p laying . To h im , he is always

do ing both.

T h e w isdom of th is is reflected in the observation that hard

work plays a huge part in m ak in g you successful. A nd, the

truth is, w e sim ply tend to work harder a t th ings w ere passion

ate about. T h is is easy to see in ch ild ren who spend endless

hours working at the th ings they love to do. A ch ild passionate

about bu ild ing w ill spend hours d esign in g am az in g cities w ith

Legos’1. A ch ild who loves art w ill draw for hours w ithout a

break. And to a ch ild who loves sports, shooting hoops or hit

ting baseballs a ll afternoon w ill seem like fun, not practice.

Passion is a b ig driver. It m akes cach of us want to work hard to

pcrfcct our skills and to excel.

T h e proccss of find ing the gold m in e where your skills,

interests, and the m arket co llidc can take some tim e. C onsider

N athan Furr, who started h is academ ic carccr as an English

major. N athan was passionate about read ing and w riting , and

spent his co llcgc days soak ing up turn-of-thc-ccntury literature

N o W a y . . . Engineering Is for Girls 101

102 W hat I W ish I Knew W hen I W as 20

and w riting essays that ana lyzed the work. But lie soon rea l

ized that the m arket for E nglish professors was impossibly

lim ited . And even if he got a job in the field, the com pensation

would be pretty low. T h is was go ing to be a tough w ay to sup

port the b ig fam ily he w as p lann ing . N athan spent som e tim e

th in k in g about other ways he could use his skills and channel

his passions. After scan n in g the horizon for other options,

it becam e pretty d e a r that he would fit w ell in the world of

m anagem ent consulting, w hich would allow h im to use his

research and w riting skills as w ell as his joy of learn ing . T h e

on ly problem was that N athan d idn ’t know enough to get that

first job in the field. So he gave h im se lf a year to prepare. He

jo ined organizations on his co llcgc cam pus that would allow

h im to learn more about consu lting , and he practiced doing

m in i-c a se stud ies such as those presented du ring the typical

job interview . By the tim e the one-year m ark rolled around,

N athan was ready and landed a prim e job as a m anagem ent

consultant for a top firm . It was a great fit in so m any ways,

tapping into his sk ills and his passions, and providing h im w ith

the financial security he needed.

N athan pickcd a carccr path after h e ’d been exposed to a va

riety of options. But most of us arc cncouragcd to plan m uch

further ahead. People love to ask kids, “W h at do you w ant to

be w hen you grow u p ?” T h is forces ch ildren to na il down their

goals, at least in their m inds, long before they’ve been exposed

to the w ide array of opportunities. W e also typ ica lly v isualize

ourselves do ing the th ings w e see others do ing in our im m ed i

ate environm ent, w hich is a terribly lim ited v iew considering

the world of possibilities. Also, m y guess is that you, like m e,

were heav ily influenced by people around you who liked to tell

you w hat t h e y thought you should be doing. I c lcarlv rem em

ber one of m y tcachcrs saying, “You’re rea lly good at scicncc.

You should consider be in g a nurse.” A fine suggestion, but it

is on ly one of an alm ost in fin ite num ber of th ings one can do

w ith a gift for scicncc.

D uring m y creativ ity coursc, team s of students each pick

an organ ization they th ink is innovative. T hese team s visit the

firm , in terv iew em ployees, watch them in action, and com e

to their own conclusions about what m akes the organization

creative. T h ey then present th is inform ation to the class in an

innovative way. O ne team pickcd the San Jose C h ild ren ’s Dis-

covcrv M useum . T h ey followed the staff and visitors for davs to

sec what rea lly m ade it tick. At one station kids were bu ild ing

a m in iatu re ro ller coastcr, chang ing different variables to sec

the results, and an eight-year-old girl was experim en ting w ith

the equipm ent. She changed the length , the height, and the

angles of the various parts and ran different sim ulations to sec

the cffcct. A m em ber of the m useum staff watched her experi

m entation for a w h ile and sim ply com m ented , “You’re doing

the sam e types of th ings that eng ineers do.” Later that day my

students asked the girl w hat she had learned at the m useum .

She thought for a sccond and said w ith confidence, “I learned

that I could be an engineer.''


Like the girl in the m useum , w e a ll receive explicit and im

plicit m essages about the roles w e’re cxpcctcd to play. A couplc

of years ago a co lleague o f m ine, a m echan ica l en g in eerin g

professor, told a rem arkable story. She has several women

friends from her university who arc a lso eng ineers in different

d iscip lines. T h ey often carnc over to her house for d in n er and

socializ ing . Her young son was u su a lly around, w atch ing and

listen ing to their conversations. As he got o lder and proved to

be good at m ath and sc icncc som eone said to h im , “G ee, you

should consider studying eng ineering." I le tw isted his facc

and said , “Absolutely not, eng in eerin g is for girls.” M y women

friends who arc physicians have told m e s im ila r stories. T he ir

young sons ca llcd discussions about m ed ic ine “girl talk."

C onsider the follow ing riddle: A boy and his father arc in an

acc iden t and end up in the hospital. T h e surgeon says, “I can ’t

operate on this boy, h c s m y son." W h a ts go ing on? W h en I

told m y very progressive wom en doctor friends this riddle, even

they cou ldn ’t figure out that the surgeon in the ridd le was the

boy’s mother. T h ey tried to com e up w ith convoluted answers

to the riddle, a ll involving a m ale doctor. O nce they were told

the answ er they w ere terrib ly em barrassed that they, too, had

fallen into th is traditional trap.

W hen I th ink back on the m essages I received, it’s c lcar that

specific indiv iduals had a b ig im pact—som e w ere encouraging

and others were not. W hen I was about fourteen years old wc

had a fam ily friend who was a neurosurgeon. I was fascinated

by the brain and finally m ustered the courage to ask h im about



his work. I Ic thought it was “cute” and m ade a joke. I was dis

appointed and d idn ’t ask again .

It wasn’t un til co llege that I found a professional in the field

who exp lic itly encouraged m e to pursue m y interest in the

brain . I was in m y first neuroscience class du ring m y sopho

more year and the professor gave us an unusual assignm ent.

I Ic asked us to design a scries of experim ents to figure out

what a specific part o f the brain docs. He told us that nobody

knew its role and that it was our job to com e up w ith a strategy

to find out. W h en I got m y paper back a w eek or so later a note

w ritten on the top said, ' I’ina , you th in k like a scientist." At

that m om ent I b ecam e a scientist. I was just w aitin g for som e

one to acknow ledge m y enthusiasm —and to give m e perm is

sion to pursue m y interests. W e arc a ll pow erfu lly influenced

by the m essages around us. Som e arc d irec t, such as a teacher

saying, “You should be a nurse," or “You th ink like a scientist."

O thers are em bedded into our environm ent, such as years of

see in g on ly fem ale eng ineers or m a le surgeons.

W hen I was in m y early twenties, it was surprisingly d ifficult

for m e to separate what I wanted for m yse lf anti w hat others

w anted for me. I know th is is true for m an y of m y students as

w ell. T h ey tell m e they’re getting so m uch “gu id an ce” from

others that they have a tough tim e figuring out what they want

to do. I rem em ber c learly that I som etim es had the urge to

qu it or to avoid th ings that others strongly cncouragcd m e to

do, just so I would have the spacc to figure out w hat I w anted,


independent of w hat they wanted for m e. For exam ple, I

started graduate school at the U niversity o f V irg in ia right after

I graduated from the University of Rochester. M y parents

were thrilled . T h ey were so proud of m e and were comforted

that m y path for the next few years was set. But after on ly one

sem ester o f graduate school I dccidcd to take a break and go

to C a lifo rn ia . T h e hardest part of the entire proccss was te ll

in g m y parents I was tak ing a leave of absence. M y decision

was extrem ely hard for them . I appreciated their support and

encouragem ent, but it m ade it d ifficu lt for m e to tru ly know

if being in school was the right decision for inc. 1 drove across

the country to Santa C ruz w ith no idea of what 1 was go ing to

do next.

In retrospect, tak in g a break from school turned out to be a

great choice. M y tim e in San ta C ruz was com pletely unstruc

tured. I felt like a le a f in the w ind, rcadv for anv eventuality.j J /

It was exciting and scary. It was the first tim e I d idn ’t have a

specific assignm ent, a focuscd goal, or a c lcar p lan. A lthough

often stressful, it was the pcrfcct w ay to figure out what I really

w anted to do. I took odd jobs so I could support m yself and

spent a lot of tim e th in k in g at the beach . After a w h ile I started

go ing to the U niversity of C alifo rn ia at Santa C ru z ’s biology

lib rary to keep up on ncuroscicncc literature. At first it was

monthly, then weekly, then daily.

After about n in e months in San ta C ru z , I was ready to get

back into the lab, but not ready to go back to graduate school.

W ith that objective, I trackcd down a list of the ncuroscicncc

facu lty a t Stanford University, w hich was not far away, and

wrote cach one a letter. I told them about m y background

and asked if they had a research job for inc. O ver the next few

weeks, I got letters back from a ll of them , but no one had an

open position. However, one facu lty m em ber passed m y letter

on , and I received a ca ll from a professor in the anesthesia

departm ent. 1 Ic asked if I would like to work in the operating

room testing new m ed ica l equ ipm en t on high-risk patients.

T h is seem ed in teresting , so I jum ped a t the chance.

W ith in days I was a t Stanford, gettin g up at the crack of

daw n, w earin g scrubs, and m onitoring surg ical patients. This

cxpcricncc was fascinating in a m illion unexpected ways.

O ncc the project was over, I m anaged to negotiate a job as a

research assistant in a neuroscience lab and even tually applied

to graduate school at Stanford. I took detours that m ight look

to others like a waste of tim e. But this wasn’t the case at all.

Not on ly d id the twists in m y path give m e a fresh perspective

on m y goals, they also gave m e tim e to experim ent w ith op

tions that helped confirm w hat I wanted to do. Also, th is tim e I

was go ing to graduate school for m yself, not for others.

People who arc close to you often expect you to m ake deci

sions about your carccr path and stick w ith them . T h ey want

you to be a “fire and forget" m issile that zeros in on a target

and pursues it relentlessly. But this just isn’t how th ings work.

M ost people change course m any tim es before find ing the

best m atch for their sk ills and interests. T h is is s im ila r to the



proccss of developing a product or design ing new software—

it ’s im portant to keep experim enting , try ing lots of th ings until

you find out w hat works. B eing too set on your path too early

w ill lik e ly lead you in the w rong direction .

I’ve m et m any students who literally show m e a detailed

m ap of w hat they p lan to do for the next fifty years. Not on ly is

this unrealistic , but it ’s sadly lim iting . T here arc so m any unex

pected experiences ahead that it’s best to keep your eyes open

instead of b lind ing yourself to the serendipitous options that

m ight present them selves. P lan n in g a carccr should be like

traveling in a foreign country. Even if you prepare carefu lly ,

have an itinerary and a p lacc to stay at n ight, the most inter

esting experiences u su a lly aren’t p lanned . You m ight end up

m eeting a fascinating person who shows you placcs that aren ’t

in the guidebook, or you m ight m iss your train and end up

spending the day exp loring a sm all town you hadn ’t p lanned

to visit. I guaran tee that the th ings you’re likely to rem em ber

from the journey arc those that w eren’t on your o rig inal sched

ule. T h ey w ill be the uncxpcctcd th ings that jum ped in your

path, surprising you a long the way.

T h is is true in a ll endeavors. I'or exam ple, most m ajor dis

coveries in sc icncc com e from paying attention to surprising

results and interpreting uncxpcctcd findings. Succcssfu l scien

tists qu ick ly learn n o t to be afraid of data that leads them into

uncharted territory. Instead of throw ing aw ay data that doesn’t

fit the cxpcctcd results, w riting them off as artifacts, the best

scientists latch on to anom alies, know ing this is w here true


breakthroughs are m ade. In fact, by be in g alert to inconsisten

cies, scientists often open en tire ly new fields of research and

m ake rem arkable discoveries. For exam ple, from the early days

of m icroscopy, in the m id-1800s, scientists saw that there were

two general classes of cc lls in the brain , w hich they ca lled neu

rons and g lia . T h ey assum ed that a ll the real action happened

in the neurons and that the g lia , w hich literally m eans glue

in G reek, served on ly as a k ind of “scaffolding,” or structural

support for neurons. T h is idea held for over 150 years, and sci

entists spent most their efforts studying neurons.

I lowcvcr, over the past tw enty years, g lia , w hich arc more

abundant in the brain than neurons by a factor of ten, have

been found to serve an enorm ous num ber of im portant roles

in the nervous system . B ruce R ansom , the founding editor

of the scientific journal Glia, is a p ioneer in this field. He

and other scientists around the world have dem onstrated that

g lia l cc lls arc active participants in v irtu a lly every function

of the brain . Even synaptic transm ission, the most studied

interaction between neurons, involves g lia l cc lls. Bruce, who

is also a neurologist, believes that g lia have not yet given up

a ll their secrets and arc cr it ica lly involved in m any neurologi

ca l diseases.

T h is is an im portant rem inder that ideas can be so attrac

tive that they actu a lly im pede progress. People latch onto them

and don’t sec the other v iable alternatives; they unconsciously

“ad just” conflicting observations to fit p revailing theories. In

retrospect, it seem s obvious that g lia serve an im portant role in

the brain. But those who began doing research in this area two

decades ago were tak ing a risk by stepping off a c lear ly defined

path to explore uncharted territory.

Most events and findings snap into focus w hen looked a t in

retrospect. Randy Komisar c la im s that his carccr m akes m uch

more sense w hen viewed through the rearview m irror than

through the w indshield . T h is statem ent is true for most of us.

W hen you look back on your carccr path the story m akes per

fect sense. T h e road ahead , however, is always fuzzy and full

of boundless uncertain ty. It’s easy to get frustrated by the lack

of v is ib ility ahead. You can , however, do th ings to increase the

odds that great opportunities w ill com e your way.

R andy has spent considerable tim e th in k in g about how to

craft a carccr, and his insights arc powerful. I Ic suggests that

you build a carccr in such a w ay that you op tim ize the qua lity

of the people w ith whom you work, w hich ends up increas

in g the q u a lity o f the opportunities that flow your way. Great

people support cach other, bu ild valuab le networks, and crcatc

a steady stream of new opportunities. E ssentially, the ecosys

tem in w hich you live and work is a huge factor in pred icting

the ty pes of opportun ities that w ill present them selves.

M an y seasoned professionals echo h is ideas. T h ey know it ’s

a m istake to try to m anage your carccr too closely, and that you

should instead work in organizations that grant you access to

a stream of interesting opportunities. Teresa Briggs, the m an

ag in g partner of the S ilicon V alley office of D cloittc, a large



in ternational professional services firm , gave up the notion

that she cou ld plan everyth ing in favor of be in g m uch more

opportunistic. Teresa began her carccr in the aud it practice

of D eloitte and after e igh teen years reasonably assum ed she

would be there forever. I lowcvcr, she even tua lly found herself

in an unpred ictab le situation. New laws required auditors to

rotate on and off assignm ents w ith ind iv idual c licn ts so a fresh

set of auditors could ensure the business was be in g m anaged

legally. Teresa had been w orking w ith a very large c lien t, and

w hen she rotated off the team there w eren’t other com parable

opportunities. But she learned that a new D eloitte group was

form ing that focused on mergers and acquisitions. W h ile

m ergers and acquisitions was not her area of expertise, she was

offered the opportunity to take a key position. She found that

her skills transferred beautifu lly . Even though Teresa would

not have p lanned this path herself, she rea lized that her ab ility

to build relationships w ith clicnts and lead team s allow ed her

to excel in this new role.

After a short tim e, Teresa was transferred to the D eloitte na

tional officc in New York, w here her leadersh ip and m anage

m ent skills aga in allow ed her to sh ine. Teresa was then asked

to head up the S ilicon V alley practice for the firm , where she

had to learn new strategies and a brand-new vocabulary; this

tim e for h igh technology. None of Teresa's steps could have

been predicted, and yet, by cxcc lling in an organization that

presented a continuous flow of new opportunities, m an y excit

ing roles and challenges m ateria lized .


• • •

It is important to reassess your life anti career relatively fre

quently. T h is self-assessment proccss forces you to com e to

terms w ith the fact that sometimes its tim e to move on to a new

environm ent in order to excel. Most people don’t assess their

roles frequently enough and so stay in positions for years longer

than they should, settling for suboptim al situations. T here isn’t

a m agic num ber for the am ount of tim e you should stay in one

role before evaluating w hether it’s right or not. But it makes

sense to th ink about how often you do so. Som e people readjust

their lives da ily or weekly, constantly optim izing. Others wait

years before noticing that they've ended up far from where they

had hoped to be. T h e more frequently you assess your situation,

looking for ways to llx problems, the more likely you are to find

yourself in a position where things are going well. It’s best to ad

dress sm all problems that crop up in your life early and often,

as opposed to w aiting for problems to get so b ig that they seem

intractable. T hat can only happen when you pay attention and

figure out what actu a lly needs to change.

Som e situations literally forcc you to reevaluate vour life.

For instance, once you decide to start a fam ily, the entire gam e

changes. You’re sudden ly faccd w ith the need to figure out

how to ba lance parenting w ith your profession. As everyone

knows, car in g for young ch ildren takes an enorm ous am ount

of tim e and focused energy. It’s both physically and em otion

a lly dem and ing , and incred ib ly tim e consum ing. Keeping

you on your toes, a ch ild ’s needs change d ram atica lly as they

N o W a y . . . Engineering Is for Girls I B

get older. Each yea r brings a brand-new set of responsibilities

and a fresh set of cha llenges. As a result, parenting provides

an ever-changing opportunity to be creative and helps build

skills that arc extrem ely valuab le in an y setting. It cxcrciscs

your ab ility to m ultitask and to m ake decisions under pressure,

and it certa in ly helps you m aster the art of negotiation.

W om en esp ec ia lly facc the daun tin g puzzle of figuring out

how to fit together carccr and fam ily obligations. From m y cx

pcricncc, th is ch a llenge rea lly is a great opportunity. Instead of

considering traditional jobs that have lim ited flexibility, being

a parent forccs you to be innovative. A dditionally, as your

ch ild ’s needs changc, you can experim ent w ith different jobs

w ith different responsibilities. A lthough it is hard to sec up

elose, one’s carccr is long, and ch ildren arc sm all for on ly a few

years, a llo w ing you to accelerate your carccr as your ch ildren

grow up. T h e fo llow ing excerpt from a 1997 edition of S tan

f o r d M a ga z in e puts a sharp point on th is idea.

A 1950 [Stanford] graduate earned her law degree here

in ’52, and took five years out of the paitl workforce after

her sccond son was born, keep ing herself busy and visible

in volunteer work for the Phoenix jun io r L eague and the

Salvation Army. Later, w hen her youngest w ent off to

school, she went back to work part-tim e in the state at

torney gen era l’s officc.

S tay in g hom e w ith her ch ildren du ring those years

u ltim ate ly d idn ’t ham per her carccr. . . . She added that


todays young graduates could fare even better than she

d id . “O ne help is that nowadays w om en live longer,” she

says. “W e spend more years in em ploym ent and rea lly

have tim e for a couple of careers. So if a few years arc

taken out, a ll is not lost."

T he w om an, by the way, is Suprem e C ourt ju stice

Sandra D ay O ’Connor.

From m y experience, th is is absolutely right. M y on ly rec

om m endation is that if you intend to stop working w h ile your

kids arc young, consider find ing a way to keep your carccr on a

low sim m er. If you haven ’t stepped all the w ay out for too long,

it ’s m uch easier to get back in. You can do th is in an infin ite

variety of ways, from w orking part-tim e in traditional jobs to

volunteering. Not on ly docs it keep your skills sharpened, but

it provides you w ith the confidence that you can gear up again

w hen vou’rc readv./ JC onsider Karen M atthys, who has four young ch ild ren and

is part of a group of part-tim e m arketing consultants. Karen

takes on projects w hen she can , and hands them over to her

partners w hen she’s too busy. O r take Lisa Bcnatar, who w ith

young three daughters turned her attention to her ch ild ren ’s

school. L isa, an expert on alternative energy, started an educa

tional program at the school that focuscd on teach ing ch ildren

about conservation.

T ak ing on the puzzle o f b a lan c in g work and parenting

ended up being the best carccr decision I ever m ade. I wanted


to be in te llec tu a lly stim ulated w ithout com prom ising the tim e

I had for m y son. As a result, each year I evaluated how m uch

tim e I needed to devote to each and found ways to take on

projects that a llow ed m e the most flexibility. I took on assign

m ents I probably w ouldn’t have considered if I d idn ’t have a

ch ild . I started w ritin g ch ild ren ’s books, launched a W eb site

for scicncc teachers, and even taught sc icncc in a private e l

em entary school. In the long ru n , these experiences proved to

be am az in g ly helpful w hen I d id go back to work fu ll-tim e. I

ga ined cred ib ility as a writer, learned how to design W eb sites,

and got valuab le experience teach ing—a ll sk ills 1 use every

single day in m y current role.

Lxjoking back, I see m any th ings 1 w ish I had known about

crafting a carccr that w ere counter to the traditional advice

I was given. M ost im portant? The need to find a role in the

world that doesn’t feel like work. T his on ly happens w hen you

iden tify the intersection betw een your sk ills, your passions,

and the m arket. Not on ly is th is the most fu lfillin g position,

but, by tapping into your passions in a constructive way, your

work enriches your life, as opposed to tak ing tim e aw ay from it.

F ind in g the right roles requires experim en ting a long the way,

try in g lots of d ifferent alternatives, testing the m essages you

get both exp lic itly and im p lic itly from the world, and push ing

back on those that just don’t feel right.

As you move through your carccr, you w ill be w ell served

by frequently reassessing w here you arc and w here you

w ant to go. D oing so a llow s you to m ake coursc corrections


quick ly , e sp ec ia lly w hen th ings don’t tu rn out as p lanned

or exceptional new opportun ities arise . Don’t w orry that

the path ahead appears out of focus—squ in tin g isn’t go ing

to m ake it anv clcarcr. T h is is true for everyone. Don’t be

in a rush to get to your final d estin atio n —the side trips and

unexpected detours qu ite often lead to the most in teresting

people, p laces, and opportun ities. A nd, finally , be w ary o f a ll

carccr adv ice, in c lu d in g m in e , as you figure out w hat’s right

for vou.

C h a p te r 7

TURN L E M O N A D E

INTO HELICOPTERS

I ca llcd m y son, josh , du ring his first sem ester at co llcgc to

w ish h im luck on his final exam s. His response was, “T h ere ’s

no such th ing as luck. It’s a ll hard work.' I Ic’s a driven kid, who

throws h im se lf at the th ings about w hich he is passionate, espe

c ia lly a th le tic com petitions that require a trem endous am ount

of tra in ing and preparation. At first I thought his response was

extrem e. But, on further reflection, I believe he had it right.

Even w hen w e th in k w ere lucky, w e’ve u su a lly worked rem ark

ably hard to put ourselves in that position.

I’ve watched Josh w ith adm iration as he has strived to m eet

goals others m ight th ink impossible. At n ineteen , he dccidcd

to try his hand at com petitive powerlifting. T h is wasn’t a

natural cho ice for a former cyclist and track sprinter, but he

was determ ined to break the national rccord for dead lifts.

Josh identified the best trainers in northern C alifo rn ia and


drove two hours cach way, several tim es a w eek, to learn from

them . I Ic read everyth ing he could about the sport, carefu lly

crafted a d iet to bu ild more m uscle, and spent hours tra in ing

at the gym . After several years of weight tra in in g followed by

months o f focused effort, he entered a com petition to sec how

he stacked up again st others. W e arose at 5 :00 a .m . and drove

three hours to Fresno for a form al m eet. T h e gym was filled

w ith weight lifters who’d been com peting for years. I was wor

ried he would be disappointed w ith his perform ance. But josh,

w eigh ing in at 190 pounds, b lew away both the federation’s

state and national rccords by liftin g 589.7 pounds—this was 50

pounds more than the previous rccord holder. W as he lucky?

O f course lie was lucky. A ll the cards a ligned for h im that day.

But he would never have succeedcd un less he had put trem en

dous effort beh ind h is goals.

jo sh ’s com m ents on luck echoed the m essage I frequently

heard from m v father when I was a ch ild —the harder vou

work, the luck ier you get. His m antra was a stark rem inder

that you need to put yourself in a position to be lucky. Even if

there’s a low probability of success and a trem endous am ount

of com petition , you can m ax im ize your chances by being well

prepared physically, in te llectually , and em otionally.

W e often hear in sp iring stories about people who start w ith

no th ing and by v irtue of incred ib ly hard work arc able to draw

luck their way. 1 lerc arc two quick stories that probably sound

fam iliar, of people who worked incred ib ly hard to overcome

trem endous hardships.

Turn Lemonade into Helicopters 119

O uycn V uong was born in Saigon , V ietn am , w here her

father worked for the V ietnam ese governm ent and her m other

ran a pharm acy. As the daughter of professionals, her young

life was verv com fortable. However, when the C om m unists

overran the country in 1975, Q uvcn’s world was turned upside

down. I ler father was sent to a reeducation cam p, her fam ily ’s

pharm acy was shuttered, and her m other was sent to prison for

being a “cap ita list” because she ran her own business. W ith in

a few years it was c lcar their situation wasn’t im proving, and

her father left for the United States w ith two of Q uycn ’s sib

lings. T h e rest of the fam ily stayed beh ind in V ietnam .

T h e follow ing year, 1980, O uycn s m other felt com pelled to

send O m en , age sixteen, and her younger brother, age e leven ,

in search of a better life. She tearfu lly put them on a boat w ith

other refugees, hoping they would u ltim ate ly m ake it to the

United States. She had little confidence that they would com

plete the journey or that she would ever see her ch ildren again .

Follow ing m any days at sea, dodging pirates who tried to steal

the few belongings brought by the refugees, the boat finally

landed on an island off the coast of M alaysia . T h ere the boat’s

passengers jo ined m ore than forty thousand refugees, cach

struggling to survive and try ing desperately to obtain perm is

sion to im m igrate to another country.

After four long m onths, O uycn was perm itted to jo in her

father in Texas. She spoke no E nglish and was subsequently

held back in school by several years. I le r fam ily was so poor

that she and her sib lings cach worked at least th irty hours a


week after school. Q uyen often thought about dropping out to

better support her fam ily, w hich was surv iv ing on a week-to-

weck basis, often forccd to ca ll upon relatives for loans.

Despite the hardships, Q uyen worked as steadfastly as she

could . She had no th ing but her self-motivation to pull herself

out of poverty. She fin ished h igh school near the top of her

class and went on to Yale w ith a fu ll scholarship. After study

in g econom ics and then earn in g an M BA, Q uyen now runs

ICAN, a not-for-profit com pany that serves the V ietnam ese

com m un ity by help ing im m igrants bridge cu ltu ra l gaps, so

they can thrive in their new country. She now provides the

services she w ishes she had availab le w hen she m ade it to her

new hom eland.

As a young g irl, Q uyen had no idea w hat she w anted to ac

com plish as an adu lt, but she did know w ith certa in ty that she

w anted to pu ll herself out of poverty. She feels that by setting

the table w ith tim e and effort you ensu re that som eth ing ap

p ea lin g w ill land on your plate. Q uyen ’s experience has taught

her that, as she says, “You can m ake your own destiny by focus

in g on your goals and working incred ib ly hard.”

I heard a s im ila r story from Q u in cy D elight Jones III, aka

OD3, a succcssful m usic and film producer who has worked

w ith well-known artists such as T upac Shakur, L L Cool J,

and Ice C ube .1 As the son of the m usic legend Q u incy Jones,

you m ight th ink QD3 had an easy life. I le d idn ’t. I lis parents

divorccd when he was young and h is m other brought h im to

Sw eden, her native country, where th ey lived in near poverty.

I lis m other had an alternative lifestyle and struggled w ith drug

addiction . She d idn ’t p articu larly carc if QD3 w ent to school,

and she often d idn ’t con ic hom e from party ing until 4 :0 0 in

the m orning.

From the tim e QD3 was exposed to break d an c in g in his

ear ly teens he was hooked. He started perform ing on the

streets in Stockholm , pu tting out a hat to co llect donations

from passcrsby. I Ic practiced h is d an ce moves day and night,

perfecting each one. W ith “luck" he was discovered by a scout

from L ev i’s, who asked if lie would be interested in go ing on a

perform ance tour. QD3 jum ped at the chance.

O ncc he had his foot in the door, QD3 continued to work

as hard as he could . Besides dancing , he started developing

m usic beats for rap artists. A big break cam e w hen he was

asked to w rite the sound track for a m ovie about the rap scene

in Stockholm . O ne of his songs, “Next T im e," w ritten when

he was sixteen, becam e his first gold record and sold over fifty

thousand copies. QD3 w ent on to produce a triple p latinum

docum entary about Tupac Shakur, w hich sold m ore than

three hundred thousand copics.

ju st like Q uyen , QD3 was driven to pull h im se lf out of

poverty, to be self-sufficient and , u ltim ately, the best in the

world. H e “taps the fire in his h ea rt” to motivate h im self, and

oncc the flam e spreads, charges ahead w ith incred ib le com

m itm ent and effort. Both Q uyen and QD3 throw everyth ing

they have—physically, in te llectua lly , and em otionally—at the

problems confronting them , dem onstrating that hard work and



dedication arc key to tem pting luck your way. However, hard

work is just one lever at your disposal w hen it con ies to m ak ing

vour own luck. T here arc m anv other tools in vour toolbox that/ J j

can serve as luck m agnets. And I’m confident that both Quvcn

and QD3 used these, as well.

R ichard W isem an , of the U niversity of Hertfordshire in En

g land , has studied luck and found that “lucky people" share

traits that tend to m ake them luck ier than others. First, lucky

people take advantage of chance occurrcnccs that con ic their

way. Instead of go ing through life on cru ise control, they pay

attention to w hat’s happening around them and , therefore, arc

able to extract greater value from cach situation. T h ey ’re more

likely to pay attention to an announcem ent for a special event

in their com m unity , to notice a new person in their neighbor

hood, or even to sec that a co lleague is in need of som e extra

help. Lucky people are also open to novel opportunities and

w illin g to try th ings outside o f their u sual cxpcricnccs. T h ey ’re

more inc lin ed to pick up a book on an un fam ilia r sub jcct, to

travel to less fam ilia r destinations, and to interact w ith people

who arc different than them selves.

Not surprisingly, lucky people tend to be cxtravcrtcd. T h ey

m ake m ore eye contact and sm ile more frequently, lead in g to

more positive and extended encounters. T hese actions, in turn ,

open the door to more opportunities. Lucky people also tend

to be optim istic and to cxpcct good th ings to happen to them .

I bis bccom cs a self-fu lfilling prophecy, because even when

Turn Lemonade into Helicopters

tilings don’t go as expected , lucky people find ways to cxtract

positive outcomes from the worst situations. T h e ir attitude af

fects those around them , and helps to turn negative situations

into positive experiences.

In short, b e in g observant, open-m inded , friend ly, and

op tim istic invites luck your way. la k e th is sim ple story: sev

era l years ago I was at a sm all loca l grocery store frequented

m ostly by those who live nearby. A m an and h is young

daughter approached m e in the frozcn-food a is le and po

lite ly asked how to prepare frozen, can n ed lem onade. T h e

m an had an accen t I co u ld n ’t identify, and 1 was pretty sure

he m ust be new to the area . I told h im how to prepare the

lem onade and asked w here he was from. He said San tiago ,

C h ile . I asked h is n am e and w hat brought h im to our town.

I had no u lterio r m otive. 1 was just curious. He told m e his

n am e was E duardo and that he and h is fam ily w ere in the

area for a yea r so he cou ld le a rn about en trep reneursh ip in

S ilico n V alley. 1 Ic was in lin e to run h is fam ily 's business and

was in search of tools to m ake it m ore innovative. I told h im

about the en trep reneursh ip program at S tan fo rds School of

E n g in eerin g and said I'd be happy to do w hat I cou ld to be

o f help . O ver the next few m onths I in troduced E duardo to

various people in the en trep reneursh ip com m un ity , and he

expressed his thanks for m y assistance.

Fast-forward two years. I was head ing for a conference in

San tiago and sent Eduardo a m essage ask ing if lie wanted to

get together for coffee. At the last m inu te , he wasn’t able to


m ake it, but invited m e to go to a specific location in down

town San tiago w ith a few of m y co lleagues. W e showed up at

the officc bu ild ing and w ere led to the roof, w here w e were

picked up by E duardos fam ily’s private helicopter for a sim ply

spectacu lar ride above the city, up to the surrounding m oun

tains, and over h is fam ily ’s ski resort. It was incred ib le ! And to

th ink that it resulted from help ing h im figure out how to m ake

lem onade. O f coursc, I d idn ’t help Eduardo because I wanted

a helicopter ride. But by pu tting m yself out there, b e in g open

to help ing someone, and follow ing up years later, I becam e

quite “lucky.” E arlier I discuss the art of tu rn ing lem ons (prob

lem s) into lem onade (opportunities). But luck goes beyond

th is—it’s about tu rn in g lem onade (good things) into helicop

ters (am az ing th ings!).

T h e world is fu ll of doors through w hich wc can find a stagger

in g array of opportun ities—w e just have to be w illin g to open

them . C arlos V ignolo , from the University of C h ile , likes to

say that if you go som ewhere and don’t m eet someone new,

you have certa in ly m issed out on m ak ing a friend as w ell as on

the possibility of m ak in g a m illion dollars. I Ic tells his students

that every tim e they w alk onto a c ity bus, a m illion dollars is

w aitin g there for th em —they just have to find it. In this case

“a m illion dollars” is a m etaphor for learn in g som eth ing new,

m ak ing a friend, or, indeed , m ak in g a m illion dollars. In fact,

this book is the d irect result of m y ta lk ing w ith som eone sitting

next to m e on an a irp lane . If w e hadn ’t started a conversation,

I most certa in ly w ouldn’t have written this book. But th a t’s

another story.

E choing th is po int, 'I'om Kelley, author of T h e Art o f In n o v a

tion , says that every day you should act like a foreign traveler

by being acu te ly aware of your environm ent. In everyday life

w c tend to put on blinders anti c ru ise down well-worn paths,

rarely stopping to look around. But as a traveler in a foreign

country, you sec the world w ith fresh eves and d ram atica lly in-j ' j j J

crcasc the density of your experiences. By tun ing in, you find

fascinating th ings around every turn.

Jam es Barlow, the head of the Scottish Institute for Enter

prise, docs a provocative cxcrcisc w ith his students to dem on

strate th is point. I le gives jigsaw puzzles to several team s and

sets a tim er to sec w hich group can finish first. The puzzle

pieces have been num bered on the back, from 1 to 500, so it ’s

easy to put them together if you just pay attention to the num

bers. But, even though the num bers arc right in front of them ,

it takes most team s a long tim e to see them , and some never

sec them at a ll. E ssentially, they could eas ily bolster their luck

just by pay ing closer attention.

Paying carefu l attention to your environm ent actu a lly takes

a lot of effort. You have to teach yourself to do it w e ll, and even

w hen you’re paying atten tion , you can miss rea lly in teresting

and im portant inform ation tha t’s right in front of you. A w idely

distributed video shows th is a ll too clearly. An aud ience is

asked to watch a group of m en and women tossing around a

basketball. T h ey ’re told to count the num ber of tim es the teamj


in w hite shirts passes the ball. At the end of the video, view

ers can easily answer that question , but arc oblivious to the

fact that som eone in a bear suit m oonwalks right through the

gam e.2 Even w hen w e th ink w ere pay ing fu ll attention , there’s

u su a lly so m uch m ore to see.

I do a sim ple cxcrcisc in m y class that illustrates th is clearly.

I send students to a fam iliar location , such as the local shop

p ing center, and ask them to com plete a “lab" in w hich they

go to several stores and pay attention to a ll the th ings that arc

norm ally “invisible.” T h ey take the tim e to notice the sounds,

sm ells, textures, and colors, as w ell as the organization of the

m erchandise and the w ay the staff interacts w ith the custom

ers. T h ey observe endless th ings they never saw when they

previously zipped in and out of the sam e environm ent. T h ey

con ic back w ith their eyes w ide open, rea liz in g that we a ll tend

to w alk through life w ith blinders on.

L ucky people don’t just pay attention to the world around

them and m eet in teresting ind iv iduals—they also find unusual

ways to use and recom bine their know ledge and experiences.

M ost people have rem arkab le resources at their fingertips, but

never figure out how to leverage them . I lowcvcr, lucky people

appreciate the value of their knowledge and their network,

and tap into these gold m ines as needed. Here’s a powerful

exam ple from the 2005 com m encem ent address that Steve

jobs delivered at Stanford. In short, he’d dropped out of col

lege after six months because he w asn’t sure w hy he was there.



and the tu ition was m uch m ore than h is parents could afford.

I le rc ’s how Steve tells it:

After six m onths, I cou ldn ’t see the va lue in [co llcgc). 1

had no idea w hat I wanted to do w ith mv life and no ideaj

how co llcgc was go ing to help m e figure it out. And here

I was spending a ll of the m oney m y parents had saved

the ir entire life. So I dccidcd to drop out and trust that

it would a ll work out OK. It was pretty s c an - at the tim e,

but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever

m ade. T h e m inute I dropped out I could stop tak ing the

required classcs that d idn ’t interest m e, and begin drop

p ing in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn’t a ll rom antic. I d idn ’t have a dorm room, so

I slept on the floor in friends’ rooms, I returned Coke

bottles for the five ccnt deposits to buy food w ith , and

I would w alk the seven m iles across town cvcrv Sunday

night to get one good m eal a w eek at the I larc Krishna

tem ple. I loved it. And m uch of w hat I stum bled into by

fo llow ing m y curiosity and intu ition turned out to be

priceless later on. Let m e g ive you one exam ple:

Reed C o llcgc at that tim e offered perhaps the best

ca llig rap h y instruction in the country. T hroughout the

cam pus every poster, every label on every drawer, was

beau tifu lly hand callig raphcd . Because I had dropped

out and d idn ’t have to take the norm al classcs, I dccidcd

to take a ca llig rap hy class to learn how to do this. I


learn ed about serif and san serif typefaces, about vary ing

the am ount of space betw een different letter com bina

tions, about what m akes great typography great. It was

b eau tifu l, h istorical, a rtis tica lly subtle in a w ay that sci

cncc can ’t cap ture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of an y practical app lica

tion in m y life. But ten years later, w hen w e w ere design

ing the first M acintosh com puter, it a ll cam e back to me.

And we designed it a ll into the M ac. It was the first com

puter w ith beautifu l typography. If I had never dropped

in on that single coursc in co llcgc, the M ac would have

never had m ultip le typefaces or proportionally spaccd

fonts. And sincc W indow s just copicd the M ac, it ’s likely

that no personal com puter would have them . If I had

never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on

this ca llig rap hy class, and personal com puters m ight not

have the wonderful typography that they do. O f coursc it

was im possible to connect the dots looking forward when

I was in collcgc. But it was very, very c lcar looking back

wards ten years later./

T h is story em phasizes that you never know w hen your

cxpcricnccs w ill prove to be valuab le . Steve jobs was open-

m inded and cu rious about the world, co llcctcd diverse ex

periences independent o f their short-term benefits, and was

ab le to tap into his know ledge in uncxpcctcd ways. T h is is a

sharp rem inder that the m ore experien ces you have and the


broader your base o f know ledge, the m ore rcsourccs you have

from w hich to draw.

In m y course on creativ ity I focus a great deal on the value

of recom bin ing ideas in unusual ways. T h e m ore you practice

this sk ill, the m ore natural it bccom cs. For exam ple, using

sim iles or m etaphors, to describe concepts that on the surfacc

seem com pletely unrelated offers tools for revealing fresh solu

tions to fam ilia r problems. W e do a sim ple cxcrcisc to illustrate

this point. Team s arc asked to com c up w ith as m any answers

as possible to the fo llow ing statem ent:

Ideas arc l i k e ______________________________________

b e c a u se ___________________________________________ ,

therefore__________________________________________ .

Below is a list of som e of the hundreds of creative answers

I’ve seen. In each ease the s im ile unlocks a new w ay o f looking

at ideas:

• Ideas arc like babies because everyone thinks theirs is

cute, therefore be objcctivc when judging your own ideas.

• Ideas arc like shoes bccausc you need to break them in,

therefore take tim e to evaluate new ideas.

• Ideas arc like m irrors bccausc they rcflcct the local en

v ironm ent, therefore consider ch an g in g contexts to get

m ore diverse co llections of ideas.

no W hat I W ish I Knew W hen I W as 20

• Ideas arc like h iccups because w hen they start they don’t

stop, therefore take advantage o f idea streaks.

• Ideas arc like bubbles because they eas ily burst, therefore

be gentle w ith them .

• Ideas arc like cars bccausc they take you p laccs, there

fore go a long for the ride.

• Ideas arc like chocolates bccausc everyone loves them ,

therefore m ake sure to serve them up frequently.

• Ideas arc like the m easles bccausc th ey arc contagious,

therefore hang out w ith other people w ith ideas if you

w ant to get them yourself.

• Ideas arc like waffles bccausc they arc best w hen fresh,

therefore keep new ideas com ing a ll the tim e.

• Ideas arc like spider webs bccausc they arc stronger than

they appear, therefore don’t underestim ate them .

T h is cxcrcisc encourages you to stretch your im agination

by tapping into the world around you for inspiration. Som e

people m ake these connections natura lly and find unusual

ways to cxtract value from them . Like Steve Jobs, those people

arc always scouting for ways to bring ideas together in interest

ing ways and then m ake the effort to bring their ideas to life.

A great exam ple is Perry K lcbahn, who broke his ank le in

1991. T he in jury was especially disappointing to this avid skier

who d idn ’t want to m iss a season on the slopes. However, he

found a w ay to turn his bad fortune into good luck. W h ile re

covering from the injury, h e discovered an old pair of wooden

snowshocs and took them out for a spin, hoping this would pro

vide an alternative to skiing. T hey d idn’t work well at a ll, which

was another disappointm ent. But instead of throwing them back

into his closet and w aiting for his ankle to hea l, Pern.- dccidcd to

design a new snowshoc. I Ic was a product design student at the

tim e and figured he could use these new skills to solve his own

problem. Over the coursc o f ten weeks, he designed and built

eight different versions of snow shocs. On weekdays he built pro

totypes in the school m ach ine shop, and over weekends he went

to the m ountains to try them out. By the end of the tenth week

he was ready to file patents on his innovations.

O ncc the design was pcrfcctcd . Perry hand-built some

snowshocs and set out to sell them to sporting goods stores.

T h e buyers took one look at them and asked, “W h a t arc

these?" T hey were un like an yth in g they had seen before and

there was n o m arket for snowshocs. But Perry persevered,

know ing there m ust be lots of people w ho cou ldn ’t ski for one

reason or another but still wanted a way to spend tim e in the

m ountains du ring the w inter. In the end , he dccidcd to build

the m arket him self.

Perry personally took sporting goods salespeople to the

snow-covered m ountains each weekend to let them try out his

invention. He told them there was no obligation to promote

snowshocs to their custom ers; he just wanted them to get a



taste o f this new sport. T h e salespeople loved the experience

and passed the new s on to the buyers at their stores. As a result,

sporting goods stores started stocking Perry’s new product. But

the ch a llenge d idn ’t stop there.

After custom ers purchased Perry’s new snowshocs, they

had no d u e w here to use them . So Pcrrv had to convince skij

resorts around the United States to promote snowshoeing. l i e

encouraged them to create spccial snowshoc trails, to m ake

maps for their custom ers, to provide trail passes, and to m oni

tor the trails to keep them safe. O nce done, the pieces were

in p lace for the snowshoc m arket to balloon, and it grew from

zero dollars to $50 m illio n . Perry’s com pany, Atlas Snowshoc,

was subsequently sold to K2, and snowshocs and well-m arked

trails for snowshoeing arc now w ide ly availab le.

Perry turned a scries o f bad breaks—literal and figurative—

into a w in n in g streak by see in g opportunities and connecting

the dots betw een h is broken ank le , h is desire to spend tim e

in the snow, his new product design skills, and h is astute ob

servation that others would benefit from a better snowshoc.

I le u ltim ate ly m ade out w ell, but only after huge investments

of tim e, energy, and perseverance. M any people would have

given up a long the way, ba lk ing or even stopping at cach new

obstacle. But Perry saw opportunities in every cha llenge , and

as each hurdle was overcom e anti a ll the picccs were put in

p lace, his chances of see in g a positive end result increased.

T h is on ly happened bccausc Perry used every skill described by

R ichard W isem an . 1 le was observant, outgoing, adventurous,


and optim istic, as w ell as hard-working. Each of these traits

was im portant in contributing to his u ltim ate good.

W h ile Pern- worked incrcdiblv hard to overcome obstaclesJ J

in order to create his own luck, there arc m any exam ples of

individuals m aking luck by fearlessly looking for exciting oppor

tunities. A com pelling exam ple is found in Dana Calderw ood’s

story. D ana loved the theater and spent countlcss hours involved

in school plays, starting when he was in h igh school. W e were

classmatcs at Sum m it High School in N ew Jersey, where we

were both serious “dram a freaks." A cting was a hobby for me,

but Dana had dream s of be in g a director, and started cooking

up his own luck in order to optim ize the chances of m ak ing that

happen long before he left high school.

As stated above, D ana was fearless. He had the gum ption to

ask the head of the dram a departm ent if he could d irect the

next m ajor school play. No student had ever asked for that role

before, but the teacher agreed. D ana d idn ’t w ait to be anointed

by someone in authority; he sim ply asked for what he wanted.

T h at m om ent launched D ana’s d irecting carccr. I Ic w ent on to

d irect plays a t the local M etropolitan M usica l T heater, where

a v isiting a lu m n i director, who had sincc gone on to a success

ful carccr in Hollywood, gave h im some sage advice. He told

D ana that the skills he was u sin g at the theater com pany were

the sam e skills needed in the b ig leagues. T h is advice gave

D ana the confidence to set his sights even higher.

D ana went on to study at New York University’s film school,

and w h ile there squeezed the ju ice out of every opportunity.

D ana always stayed after classes to m eet guest speakers, and he

asked them for follow-up m eetings and nam es o f other people

he should contact. 1 Ic also learned to m ake the most of every

film assignm ent. At first, like h is classm ates, he used his friends

as actors in his film s (this is how I got m y film debut in D ana’s

version of the famous shower scene in P sy ch o ) . I lowcvcr, D ana

soon rea lized there was an opportunity to invite famous actors

to star in his p icccs. O ne T V production class assignm ent in

volved creatin g a short program for television. M ost of D ana’s

classm ates conducted sim ple interviews w ith one another to

satisfy the requ irem ent, but D ana asked the A cadem y A w ard-

w in n in g actress, Kstcllc Parsons, who was in the m idst of

perform ing in a T'ony-nominatcd play, to partic ipate—and she

agreed . A gain , he m ade h im se lf lucky by pay ing attention to

nonobvious but cxciting alternatives. He put h im se lf out there

by ask ing for w hat he wanted.

As tim e went on, D ana took on bigger and b igger ch a l

lenges, and even tually , he was asked to be the director for

L ate S i g h t w ith C o n a n O 'B rien , w hich he did for years before

d irec ting m any m ore shows, in c lud ing R a ch e l R a y and T h e

Iron C h e f . I lad D ana seen his adult se lf w hen he was twenty,

he would have been in aw e of his good luck. D ana’s fortune

com es from putting everyth ing he knows into everyth ing he

docs. I Ic is fearless about ask ing for opportunities to do things

he has never done before, and with each successful leap gains

add itional insights and knowledge that help h im take on the

next b igger challenge.



D ana long ago internalized the idea that d irecting on a sm all

stage is sim ilar to d irecting on a big stage, and this gave h im the

confidence to jum p to cvcr-largcr stepping-stones as he literally

m ade opportunities present themselves. M any people don’t

feel comfortable m aking such leaps, preferring instead to stay

in sm aller venues. And one could argue that there arc m any

advantages to working w ith intim ate team s on sm all projects.

Others dream of a b igger stage, but arc daunted by the perceived

distance between where they are and where they want to go.

D anas story shows that by seiz ing all the opportunities around

us, w e can slowly but surely pull ourselves from stage to stage,

cach tim e draw ing ourselves closcr to our final objective.

As w c have seen , w e can m anufactu re our own luck by work

in g incred ib ly hard and focusing on our goals. But wc have

m any other tools at our disposal, in c lu d in g be in g open to op

portunities that com c our way, tak ing fu ll advantage of chance

occurrences, paying carefu l attention to the world around us,

in teracting w ith as m any people as w e can , and m ak in g those

interactions as positive as possible. M ak in g one’s own luck is

u ltim ate ly about tu rn in g bad situations around and m ak in g

good situations m uch better. W e d ram atica lly increase the

chances that w c w ill be lucky by exposing ourselves to as m any

diverse experiences as possible, bo ld ly recom bin ing these ex

periences in unusual ways, and fearlessly striv ing to get to the

stage on w hich wc want to p lay out our life.

C h a p te r 8

PAINT THE

TARGET A R O U N D THE A R R O W

W ho would have thought that the package of notccards my

m other gave m e for m y tenth b irthday would have been one

of the most valuab le gifts I have ever received. T h ey were light

b lue and said “ 1’ina" in block letters on the top. At that age my

m other taught m e how to w rite a thank-you note and how im

portant th ey arc. She cou ldn ’t have been m ore correct. In fact,

as I grew up and u ltim ate ly entered the work world, I often

tried to chan n e l m y m other, who alw ays seem ed to know what

to do in social settings. But the im portance of w riting thank-

vou notes rem ains one of her most valuab le lessons.

Show ing appreciation for the th ings others do for you has

a profound cffcct on how you’re pcrccivcd. Keep in m ind

that everyth ing som eone docs for you has an opportunity

cost. T h at m eans if someone takes tim e out of his or her

day to attend to you, there’s som eth ing they haven’t done for

them selves or for someone else. It’s easy to fool vourself intoj /

th in k in g your request is sm all. But w hen som eone is busy

there arc no sm all requests. T h ey have to stop what they’re

do ing, focus on your request, and take the tim e to respond.

W ith that in m ind , there is never a tim e w hen you shouldn’t

thank som eone for do ing som eth ing for you. In fact, assum e

a thank-you note is in order, and look at situations w hen you

don’ t send one as the exception. Bccausc so few people actu

a lly do th is (unfortunately), you w ill certa in ly stand out from

the crowd.

Som e of the other little things that m ake a big diffcrcncc in your

life arc simple, w h ile others arc more challeng ing . Som e arc

intuitive and others surprising. Som e arc taught in schools but

most arc not. Over the years I’ve stum bled m any times, some

tim es irreversibly, by not understanding these “little things.”

First and foremost, rem em ber that there arc only fifty people

in the world. O f course, this isn’t true literally. But it often feels

that w ay because you’re likely to bum p into people you know,

or people who know the people you know, a ll over the world.

T h e person sitting next to you m ight bccom c your boss, your

em ployee, your custom er, or your sister-in-law. O ver the course

of your life , the sam e people w ill qu ite likely p lay m any differ

ent roles. I’ve had m any occasions w here ind iv iduals who were

oncc m y superiors later cam c to m e for help, and I’ve found

m yse lf go ing to people who w ere once m y subordinates for

gu id an ce . T h e roles wc play continue to changc in surprising


ways over tim e, and you w ill be am azed by the people who

keep show ing up in your life.

Bccausc w c live in such a sm all world, it rea lly is im portant

not to burn bridges, no m atter how tempted you m ight be. You

aren ’t go ing to like everyone and everyone isn ’t go ing to like

you, but there’s no need to m ake enem ies. For exam ple, when

you look for your next job, it’s qu ite like ly that the person in

terview ing you w ill know someone you know. In this w ay your

reputation precedes you everyw here you go. This is beneficial

w hen you have a great reputation, but harm fu l w hen your

reputation is dam aged .

I’ve seen the fo llow ing scenario p lay out innum erab le tim es.

Im agine you’re interv iew ing for a job that has dozens of can

didates. T h e interview goes w ell and you appear to be a great

m atch for the position. D uring the m eeting , the interviewer

looks at your resum e anti realizes that you used to work w ith

an old friend of hers. After the interview , she m akes a quick

ca ll to her friend to ask about vou. A casual com m ent from

her friend about your past perform ance can seal the deal or

cu t you off a t the knees. In m any eases you w ill believe the job

was in the bag, right before you receive a rejection letter. You’ll

never know w hat hit you.

Essentially, your reputation is your most valuable asset—so

guard it well. But don’t be terribly dem oralized if you m ake

some m istakes along the way. W ith tim e it is possible to repair a

stained reputation. Over the years I’ve con ic up w ith a metaphor

that has helped m e put this in perspective: every cxpcricncc

Paint the Target around the Arrow 139

you have w ith som eone else is like a drop o f water fa llin g into

a pool. As your experiences w ith that person grow, the drops

accum u late and the pool deepens. Positive interactions arc

c lear drops of water and negative interactions arc red drops of

water. But they aren’t eq ua l. T hat is, a num ber of c lear drops

can d ilu te one red drop, and that num ber differs for different

people. T hose w ho arc very forgiving on ly need a few positive

experiences—clear drops—to d ilu te a bad experience, w h ile

those who arc less forgiving need a lot m ore to wash away the

red. Also, for most people the pool drains slowly. As a result,

w e tend to pay attention to the cxpcricnccs that have happened

most recently, as opposed to those that happened a long tim e

ago. T his m etaphor im plies that if you have a large reserve of

positive cxpcricnccs w ith someone, then one red drop is hard ly

noticed. It’s like pu tting a drop of red ink into the ocean . But

if you don’t know a person w ell, one bad experience stains the

pool bright red. You can wash aw ay negative interactions by

flooding the pool w ith positive interactions un til the red drops

fade, but the deeper the red, the m ore work you have to do

to c leanse the pool. I’ve found that som etim es the pool color

never c lcars; w hen that happens, it’s tim e to stop in teracting

w ith that particu lar person.

T h is serves as a rem inder o f the im portance o f every experi

ence we have w ith others, w hether they arc friends, fam ily,

co-workers, or serv ice providers. In fact, som e organizations

ac tu a lly cap ture inform ation about how you treat them , and

that influences how they treat you. For exam ple, at some well-



known business schools, every interaction a cand idate has w ith

the school or its personnel is noted. If a cand idate is rude to

the receptionist, th is is recorded in his or her file and comes

into play w hen adm issions decisions arc m ade. T h is also hap

pens a t com panies such as JetB lue. A ccording to Bob Sutton’s

T h e S o A ssho le Rule, if you’re consistently rude to JetB lue’s

staff, you w ill get b lacklisted and find it strangely impossible to

get a scat on their planes.

Obviously, you can ’t m ake everyone happy a ll the tim e, and

som e of your actions are go ing to ruffle feathers. O ne w ay to

figure out how to hand le these situations is to im ag ine how

you w ill describe w hat happened later, w hen the dust has

c lcarcd . I’m rem inded of a ease a few years ago w hen a student

cam c to m e for advicc. He was lead in g the cam pus-w ide busi

ness plan com petition and one team d idn ’t show up for the

final round of judging . Like a ll the team s that reach that stage

of the com petition , the team had been w orking on the projcct

for seven months and had m anaged to m ake it over a lot of

hurdles to get to the fin ish lin e . T h e team hadn ’t rcccivcd the

m essage about the presentation tim e, in part bccausc it was

posted late and in part bccausc th ey w eren’t pay ing attention.

T h e student who cam e to ask m y opinion was torn about what

to do. I le felt there were two d e a r choices: he could hold fast

to the ru les and d isqualify the team , or he could be flexible

and find another tim e for them to present their work. 11 is gut

reaction was to stick to the ru les. Everyone else had m anaged


to show up, and it was go ing to be a burden to reschedule. T h e

on ly gu idan ce I gave h im was this: whatever he did, I hoped he

would be pleased w ith h is decision at a later date. I urged him

to consider how he would describe th is ch a llenge if du ring a

job interview he were asked how he hand led an am biguous

situation. T h e delinquen t team was subsequently allowed to

present, and I rea lized afterward that th in k in g about how you

w ant to tell the story in the future is a great w ay to assess your

response to d ilem m as in general. C raft the story now so you’ll

be proud to tell it later.

Everyone m akes m istakes, and floundering is part of life, es

pec ia lly w hen you’re do ing th ings for the first tim e. I’ve spent

countless hours k ick ing m yself for stupid th ings I’ve done.

However, I’ve a lso figured out that learn in g how to recover

from those m istakes is key. I'or instance, know ing how to

apologize is incred ib ly im portant. A sim ple acknow ledgm ent

that you m essed up goes a long way. T h ere ’s no need for long

speeches and explanations; just say, “I d idn ’t hand le that very

w ell. I apologize." T h e sooner you do th is after recogn iz ing

your m istake, the better. If you w ait a long tim e to apologize,

the dam age continues to grow.

I’ve had m any chances to practice recovering from errors.

'I bis story is p articu larly m em orab le: soon after I got out of

school, I read an artic lc in the local newspaper about plans

to bu ild the San Jose Technology M useum . It sounded like

an am az in g p lace to work. Jim A dam s, a Stanford professor


known for h is p ioneering work on creativ ity, would be the

m useum ’s director. I ca llcd the m useum office d a ily in an at

tempt to reach h im , but each tim e was told jim w asn’t there.

A lthough I d idn ’t leave m essages, the receptionist learned to

recogn ize m y voice and inform ed Jim every tim e I ca llcd . By

the tim e I read ied h im , Jim had a stack of m essages from m e

that was n early an inch tall.

Jim fin a lly ag reed to m eet w ith m e. I m an aged to pass

the test w ith h im d u r in g the in terv iew , bu t th ere re a lly was

no form al job to offer m e an d he u lt im a te ly suggested I

ta lk w ith the w om an who had recen tly been h ired to lead

the exh ib it design effort. It’s not u n lik e ly th a t her first as

s ignm en t was to get rid o f m e. S h e inv ited m e to lu n ch for

an in terv iew , but before w e’d even ordered she sa id , “I just

w an t to tell you that yo u ’re not a good m atch for th is o rgan i

zation . You’re ju st too pushy.” I felt tears w e llin g up an d had

to th in k fast to p u ll out o f the ta ilsp in . I apo lo g ized , told

her I app rec ia ted the feedback , and said that most people

w ou ld c a ll m e h igh en ergy and en th us iastic . I told her it

was help fu l to knowr I had in adverten tly m isrepresen ted

m yself. C lea r ly , m y en th usiasm had been m isin terp reted .

T h e tension m elted , w c had a fa sc in a tin g conversation , and

I w alked aw ay w ith a job offer.

T h is story dem onstrates that it is im portant to take respon

sib ility for your actions and be w illin g to learn from your cx

pcricnccs. O ncc that happens, you can qu ick ly move on. And

echo ing an earlier point, the course I now teach on creativ ity


at Stanford, in the School of E ngineering , was first taught by

Jim Adam s m any years ago. It rea lly is a very sm all world!

I recently learned from Jcann ic Kahwajy, an expert on

interpersonal interactions, that her research shows that those

who dem onstrate that they arc w illin g to learn can turn nega

tive situations around very effectively. Jcann ic ran experim ents

involving m ock interviews by recruiters of job candidates. T h e

recru iter was prim ed beforehand to have a negative bias toward

the candidate. O f the three groups of cand idates, one was in

structed to p r o v e they should get the job; one was told to l ea rn

from the in teraction ; and the final group, the control, was

g iven no specific instructions. She found that the recru iter’s

negative bias was reinforced for both the control group and the

group that tried to prove th ey should get the job. However, the

cand idates who set out to learn from the interaction reversed

the recru iter’s negative bias.

A nother essential life skill rarely taught in school is the ab il

ity to negotiate. Most of our interactions w ith others arc es

sen tia lly a series of negotiations, and w e do ourselves a huge

d isserv ice by not know ing the basic tenets. W e negotiate w ith

our friends about what to do on Saturday n igh t, wc negotiate

w ith our fam ily about who docs the dishes and who pays the

bills, w e negotiate w ith our co lleagues about who w ill stay late

to com plete an assignm ent, and wc negotiate w ith salespeople

on the pricc of a car. W e negotiate a ll day, but most of us don’t

even rea lize it, nor do wc have a c luc how to do it well.


I run an cxcrcisc in class that on the surface appears to he a

sim ple negotiation betw een a job cand idate and an em ployer.1

T h ere arc eight term s—includ ing salary, vacation tim e, and

job assignm ent—to na il down, and each person has point

values associated w ith cach of the terms. T h e ir ind iv idual goal

is to cach m ax im ize their own points. U sually, the pairs of

negotiators go down the list in order, try ing to agree on cach

item . T h ey qu ick ly rea lize , however, that this strategy isn’t

go ing to work. At the end of the th irty-m inute negotiation,

som e o f the negotiators have com e to a resolution and others

have dccidcd to w alk aw ay w ithout a deal. Those who have

reached an agreem ent fall into one of two categories: those

who arc eager to work together, and those who feel uncom fort

able w ith the outcom e. Som e pairs end up w ith sim ilar point

totals at the end, w h ile others have w ild ly d ifferent totals. So

w hat happened?

'The most com m on m istake in this negotiation is m aking in

accurate assumptions, and the most com m on assumption is that

the recruiter and the candidate have opposing goals. 'The candi

date assum es the rccruitcr wants the cxact opposite of everyth ing

the candidate wants, when in actuality' they have two objectives

in com m on, two that arc opposing, two that arc m uch more im

portant to the candidate, and two that arc m uch more important

to the rccruitcr. Though contrived, th is ease mirrors most situa

tions in life. Parties often share interests, even w hen they believe

they’re on opposite sides of an issue, and some issues arc usually

more important to one person than to the other.

T h e key to a successful negotiation is to ferret out everyone’s

interests so you can m ax im ize the outcom e for everyone. T h is

is easier said than done, since most people hold their interests

elose to the vest, b e liev ing th is gives them a stronger negotiat

ing position. But oftentim es th is strategy is m isgu ided , because

in a c tu a lity what you w ant m ight be right in line w ith w hat the

other party wants.

L et’s take m y recent experience purchasing a car. I assum ed

the salesperson wanted m e to spend as m uch as possible, be

cause I w anted to spend as little as possible. But I dccidcd to

test th is assum ption. W h ile test-driving the car, 1 asked a lot

of questions about the autom obile industry, in c lud ing how

salespeople arc com pensated. I learned that this salesperson’s

com m ission had no th ing to do w ith the pricc I paid. I lis bonus

was based upon getting an excellen t evaluation from each

custom er regardless of the pricc of the car. I told h im that

wasn’t a problem for m e, and that I'd be deligh ted to give him

a fabulous review in return for a great pricc. W e found a w in-

w in situation. I would never have known or im agined that our

interests were a ligned un less I took the tim e to explore them .

T h e good news is that you get opportunities to negotiate

every day and so have m any chances to practice th is skill.

I Icrc’s a story illu strating that negotiations can happen any

where. A couple of years ago I was in B eijing for a confcrcncc

and m y co lleague , Ed Rubesch, m et up w ith som e of his stu

dents from T ham m asat University in Thailand who were p lan

n in g a sunrise trip to the G reat W all. T hat sounded fantastic,


and I becam e intent on find ing a way to see the G reat W all at

sunrise, too. I thought such a trip would be easy to arrange, but

for som e reason it turned out to be nearly impossible. 1 started

w ith the concicrgc at the hotel, then a local professor, and then

the taxi drivers near m y hotel. No one was able to help m e with

m y quest. At the sam e tim e, I was ta lk in g up th is idea with

other co lleagues, m any o f whom w anted to jo in the excursion.

W e agreed to m eet in the lobby of the hotel at 3 :00 a .m . for the

trip, and it was up to m e to m ake it happen. I w asn’t go ing to

let them down, but 1 had no idea w hat to do. I had used up all

the obvious solutions.

Across the street from m y hotel was a school that taught

E nglish , and I thought that at the very least I'd be ab le to

find som eone w ith whom I cou ld speak. T h e rcccptionist

suggested I ta lk w ith a seventeen-year-o ld student who was

in the lobby. I in troduced m yse lf and sat down to chat w ith

h im . M y goal was to negotiate w ith h im so he would help

m e reach m y goals. A fter a short t im e , I learn ed he was an

accom plished student, m usic ian , and ath le te who was in the

m idst of app ly in g to co lleges. E ureka! I‘d found the w ay I

cou ld help h im . I told h im that if he w ould help m e get to

the G reat W a ll at sun rise , then I would w rite a letter of rec

om m endation for h im for co llcge . It sounded like a great deal

to h im , too. W ith a few hours of effort he solved m y problem ,

and I was on ly too p leased to w rite a le tter that described his

in itia tive , creativ ity , and generosity. T ogether w e crcatcd a

w onderfu l w in-w in situation .



Stan C hristensen , who teaches a course on negotiation at

Stanford, has bu ilt h is carccr around extracting the most value

from negotiations.2 He has found that most people leave a

lo t of value on the table because they m ake assum ptions that

aren ’t correct. S tan recom m ends looking for surprises when

you negotiate, bccausc surprises ind icate you’ve m ade in accu

rate assum ptions. I Ic also advises you to pick your negotiating

approach based on the interests and style of the person w ith

whom you’re negotiating , not on your own interests. Don’t

w alk into an y negotiation w ith a c learly defined plan, but

instead listen to w hat’s said by the other party and figure out

w hat drives them . D oing so w ill help you craft a positive out

com e for both sides.

B eing a parent offers endless opportunities to hone nego

tiating skills. For exam ple, several years ago, Josh wanted to

purchase a new bicycle. He was interested in com peting as a

road cyclist and “needed" a fancy new bike. I Ic cam e to M ike

and m e and said , “I’ve done a ll m y research and have found

the pcrfcct bike. It’s rea lly im portant to me.” O ur response was,

“T hat's n ic e . . . T h ere ’s no w ay w e’re go ing to spend that m uch

m oney on a bike. W c would be w illin g to spend h a lf that

am ount. But perhaps you can find a w ay to m ake purchasing

the bike m ore attractive to u s?” I urged josh to th ink of things

he could do for M ike and m e that would be worth the pricc of

the bike. W h at could he do to m ake our lives easier?

I Ic thought for a few days and cam e back w ith a proposal.

I Ic offered to do a ll o f h is own laundry and to both shop for


food and cook d in n er for the fam ily three nights a w eek. M ike

and I took this under consideration and dccidcd it w as a good

deal. By do ing his laundry and m ak in g d inner, he was saving

us a lot of tim e, and he would be learn in g some im portant

skills. W e agreed to the deal. Josh got the bike and took his

new responsibilities seriously. L ike a ll parents, w evc had m any

other opportunities to negotiate future “deals ,” w hich goes to

show that the most im portant outcom e o f an y negotiation is to

get to the next negotiation . T h e first deal is just the beg inn ing .

If the first negotiation is fair and b a lan ced , and both parties

follow through on their com m itm ents, then chanccs are the

next negotiation w ill go even m ore smoothly. As m entioned

several tim es, w e live in a very sm all world, where repeat ap

pearances arc the norm.

T here arc some eases that offer no w in-w in solution, and it’s

actu a lly better to w alk away. Stan gives his students a case in

volving a real estate deal that demonstrates this point. W hen

you uncovcr the interests of the different players, it’s pretty clear

there’s no intersection between their goals, and w alk ing away is

the best choice. Despite this, most students strike a deal anyway,

even though it’s suboptim a] for both parties. M any of us hold

to the m istaken assumption that an y deal is better than walk

ing away. T h is certa in ly isn’t always the case, and w alking away

from a deal should always be considered a viable option.

T he best wav to know w hether y o u should \Ya lk avYaYr from aJ J m

d ea l is to understand vou r o th e r cho iccs , so yo u can accuratc lv

com pare them to the deal at hand. In negotiation lingo this

is ca llcd a BATNA (Best A lternative to a N egotiated A gree

ment).* A lways know your BATNA w hen you start to negotiate.

Stan uses a case study involving D isney and a group of envi

ronm entalists to illustrate this point. D isney wants to bu ild a

new them e park and the environm entalists arc opposed. T h ey

go around and around on w hat D isney could do to protcct the

environm ent w h ile still b u ild in g the park. T h e two sides arc

unab le to reach an agreem ent, and the deal falls apart. T h e

result? T h e new park isn’t built. I lowcvcr, shortly thereafter,

the land is sold to a developer who builds tract housing on the

sam e spot. T h e im pact of the housing is m uch worse than that

of the them e park would have been . I lad the environm ental

ists taken their BATNA into account, they would have realized

that reach ing a deal w ith D isney was the preferred outcome.

In general, to negotiate effectively you should work to un

derstand your own goals as w ell as the goals of the other party;

attem pt to com c up w ith a w in-w in outcom e, and know when

to w alk away. It sounds sim ple, but it takes a lot of effort to

m aster these sk ills and to ensure that both parties arc satisfied.

A nother valuab le skill is the art of help ing others. W hen I was

in co llcge I spoke w ith m y parents about once a week. At the

end of every ca ll m y m other would say, “W h a t can I do to be

helpful to yo u ?” The generosity of this gesture m ade a huge

impression on m e. In most cases there was no th ing she could

do to be helpfu l, but just know ing she was w illin g to help if


needed was com forting. As I got older, I have rea lized that we

can a ll do th is for our friends, fam ily, and co lleagues. W hen

you ask others if you can help, they arc always pleased that

you offered. A sm all num ber w ill a c tu a lly take you up on your

offer, and the th ings they ask for arc u su a lly modest. O n rare

occasions, som eone w ill ask for som eth ing that you can ’t or

don 't want to do. Even w hen you tu rn them down, they arc

gratefu l that you offered and graciously acccp t the fact that you

aren ’t able to help.

I suggest that you try th is approach som etim e, if you don’t

do it routinely already. But you must be sincere ly w illin g to

help if your offer is acccptcd. As G uy Kawasaki says, “You

should always try to be a ‘m ensch.’ ” 1 le continues, “A m cnsch

helps people who can ’t necessarily help them back. O f course,

it ’s easy to be generous to som eone whom you th ink w ill be

able to help you, but be in g a m cnsch m eans help ing others

even if you ’re pretty sure they can ’t help you. You can ca ll it

karm a if you like, but people w ho arc generous and helpful to

others arc those that others w ant to help in return.

I c lcarly rem em ber w hen I d idn ’t know how to do this.

W hen I was a freshm an in co llcgc there was a fellow in my

class who had a physical hand icap that required h im to use

crutchcs to walk. O ne day lie slipped w alk in g down a ram p to

class and fell to the ground. As he was strugg ling to get up, I

d idn ’t know what to do. I felt uncom fortable w alk ing by w ith

out help ing, but I was afraid that if I approachcd h im I would

em barrass h im by draw ing attention to his d isability. I felt the



sam e w ay w hen a classm ate lost his m other to a long illness. I

d idn ’t know what to say, fearing I would say som eth ing wrong,

and opted to say nothing. Years later, I was ru n n in g on cam pus

at Stanford. It had rained the day before and I fell hard in

som e m ud. Bruised, hurt, and muddy, I sat on the curb w ith

tears stream ing dow n m y face. At least a dozen people walked

by, and not one asked m e if I needed anyth ing. At that exact

m om ent I knew what I should have said to the fellow who fell

in front of class years earlie r and to m y classm ate w ho lost his

mother. A ll I needed was som eone to ask, “Arc you a ll right? Is

there an y th in g I can do for yo u ?” It nowr seem s so sim ple. It’s

rem arkable that it took m e so m any years to figure out.

T h is lesson is just as relevant when d ea lin g w ith strangers

as w hen w orking on team s. U nfortunately, most of us spend

so m uch tim e in situations w here w e’re cncouragcd to w in at

som eone clsc ’s expense that it’s hard to get practicc help ing

others. I rem em ber the first week of co llcgc, w hen I asked

a girl in m y dorm to help m e w ith a ca lcu lu s assignm ent.

W ithout skipping a beat, she sa id , “If I help you then you w ill

do better than I w ill and you’ll get in to m cd ical school and

I won’t." I’m not exaggerating . She wasn’t w illin g to help m e

because w c m ight be com peting four years in the future. Years

later, I listen to m y son lam ent that a ll of h is classcs arc graded

on a curve. T h is m eans that in addition to focusing on learn

in g the m aterial for an exam , he and his c lassm ates have to

th in k about how w ell they w ill perform relative to one another.

T h is is a huge d isincentive to help ing cach other.


After years of working in such an environm ent, I had no idea

how to be a good team player. It took m e a long tim e to realize

that this com petitive m ind-set, where you win at someone clsc’s

expense, is com pletely counterproductive. Almost everyth ing in

life is done in teams, and those who don’t know how to m ake

others successful arc at a huge disadvantage. T h e best team

players go to great lengths to m ake others successful. In fact, the

h igher you reach w ith in an organization, the less important your

individual contributions becom e. Instead, your job becomes

leading, inspiring, and m otivating others. Most of your work

is done by colleagues tasked with im plem enting your ideas.

Therefore, if you can ’t work well w ith others, then your ability

to execute d im inishes. Successful team players understand what

drives cach person on the team and look for ways to m ake them

successful. Additionally, great leaders figure out a way for every

one to play to his or her individual strengths.

I’ve been on team s in w hich everyone on the team feels asj

though he or she got the “easy” job. If you th ink about it, this

is the pcrfcct work environm ent. Each person is do ing what

he or she docs best, and is extrem ely appreciative o f what the

other people on the team bring to the tabic. Everyone has a

job perfectly tuned to his or her skills and interests. Everyone

feels great about h is or her contributions, and cclcbratcs the

contributions of others. The say ing “pain t the target around

the arrow” sum m arizes th is wonderfully. I first heard this

from m y co lleagu e Forrest G lick. It had been a m antra in

his group w hen he worked at I Iarvard University. T h e idea is


that you should pick the most talented person you can —th e

a r r ow —and then craft the job—th e t a r g e t—around what he

or she docs best. If you allow rea lly talented people to do what

they do best, then the results arc astonish ing. T h ey ’re fu lfilled

and , therefore, m uch more productive than if they were doing

som eth ing that d idn ’t fit their talents or interests. T h e key is

putting together a team w ith the right com plem ent o f skills.

As a job cand idate , your goal is to find out if the job you arc

exp loring is right for you. T h at is, arc you the right arrow for

the target? I'oo often, we focus on just getting the job instead

of figuring out if the job is a good m atch for our sk ills and

interests and , m ore im portant, w hether w e can work w ith the

other people on the team . O ne w ay to figure this out is to find

a w ay to ta lk about topics besides the job at hand. A great way

to do this is to include vour hobbies and interests at the bottom

of your resum e, a hook for the person in terv iew ing you and an

easy way to uncover shared interests. I've seen th is happen tim e

and again . It m ight be a com m on interest in Indian cu is in e , a

curiosity about your co llcction of petrified wood, the fact that

you belong to the sam e fraternity, or that you com peted in

the sam e sport in school. These kinds of hooks w ill draw your

interviewer in , and present you as a person rather than as a col

lcction of work cxpcricnccs. It’s also a terrific w ay to find out

more about your interviewer.

T h ere is a b ig pothole that sm art people often fall in to—they

rationalize doing the “sm art” th ing as opposed to the “righ t”


tiling . R andy Komisar, the author o f T h e M onk a n d t h e R idd le ,

em phasizes that these two concepts arc often confused. Intelli

gent people often overanalyze a problem , com in g up with a so

lution that th ey th ink is in their best interest (the sm art choice)

but that isn’t the right th in g to do. I Ic told a personal story to

illustrate the point. Randy had a contractor who had worked

on his house. T h e contractor did a terrible job, and the projcct

required a lot of follow-up work to corrcct the m istakes. Long

after the projcct was com pleted, the contractor ca llcd Randy

and told h im that he hadn ’t paid the final b ill. K nowing how-

disorganized the contractor was, R andy was fairly confident

he would never be able to prove this one w ay or another. But

looking back over his own records, Randy found that indeed

he had not paid the b ill. It would have been easy to question

the contractor s bookkeeping and to justify not paying the bill.

However, R andy knew that, despite his frustration w ith the

contractor’s work, he owed the contractor the m oney. He wrote

a chcck , know ing he did the right tiling .

W hen I th ink about do ing the right tilin g instead of the

sm art th ing , I’m rem inded of a legal case in w hich I served as

a juror. It was a w rongful term ination case, in w hich a woman

accuscd her em ployer o f firing her w ithout cause just days

before her stock options were go ing to vest. T his case w ent on

for ten very long weeks, and I had a lot of tim e to th ink about

the “right" outcom c. T h e law was on the em ployers side,

because the p la in tiff was an “at w il l” em ployee who could

be fired anytim e, but it wasn’t c lcar w hether the em ployer

had done the “righ t” tilin g w ith regard to the tim in g of her

d ism issal. 1'he ju ry deliberated for days. In retrospect, the de

liberation was so d ifficu lt because wc were torn betw een the

right and the sm art decision. U ltim ately, w c ru led in favor of

the plaintiff, but wc gave her a m uch sm aller award than she

was requesting. I later learned that the judgm ent was appealed ,

and another tria l ensued.

Both the contractor story and the trial story h igh ligh t the

fact that there is a sign ifican t d ifference between do ing the

right th ing and rationaliz ing a decision tha t’s best for you. Your

actions alw ays affcct how others sec you, and, as m entioned

innum erab le tim es now, you w ill like ly bum p into these sam e

people again . If no th ing else, you can be sure they w ill rem em

ber how y o u hand led voursclf./ /

O ne of the b iggest th ings that people do to get in their own

w ay is to take on way too m any responsibilities. T h is even tua lly

leads to frustration a ll the way around, l.ifc is a huge buffet

of en tic in g platters of possibilities, but pu tting too m uch on

your plate just leads to ind igestion , just like a real buffet, in

life you c a n do it a ll, just not at the sam e tim e. O ne approach

is to pick three priorities at an y one tim e, know ing that these

w ill changc as your life changes. T h is concept is not new . In

fact, the U .S. M arin e C orps and other m ilita ry services use

the “R u le o f T h ree” as a general p rincip le. T hrough years of

trial and error, they’ve found that m ost people can on ly track

th ree th ings at oncc. As a result, the entire m ilita ry system is



designed to reflect this. A squad leader is in charge of th ree fire

team leaders, a platoon leader is in charge of three squad lead

ers, and each com pany consists o f three platoons. T h e m ilitary

experim ented w ith a R ule of Four and effectiveness dropped

precipitously.

L im itin g ourselves to three core priorities can feel frustrat

ing. I Iowcvcr, you can avoid the “T yranny of the O r” (hav ing

to choose betw een this or that). Indeed som e th ings m ust be

done serially . For exam ple, w hen you’re a new parent you have

to le t other th ings slide. And w hen you facc a massive dead lin e

everyth ing else falls to the side. I Iowcvcr, there arc m any ways

to satisfy more than one desire a t oncc. For instance, if you

love to cook and want to spend tim e w ith friends, you can start

a cooking club. I m et a w om an several years ago who had a

group ca lled “C hop and C hat." Every Su n day six w om en got

together to cook at a m em ber’s hom e. E ach m em ber brought

the ingred ients to m ake a d ifferent recipe that was then split

into six large portions. M em bers took hom e six d ifferent m ain

courses for the week. C hop and C h at was an inventive w ay for

the wom en to cook together, sociali/.c, and prepare m eals for

the ir fam ilies.

You too can find innovative wavs to com bine your work and

other activ ities about w hich you feel passionate. lak e venture

cap italist Fern M andclbaum , for exam ple. You would assum e

that m eetings w ith Fern would take p lace in her office. But

Fern is also an avid ath lete, so w hen you want to discuss a newJventure w ith her, be prepared to join her for a strenuous hike.


Everyone who knows Fern knows to w ear w a lk in g shoes and

carry a bottle o f w ater to a m eeting w ith her. She finds that

th is strategy is a great w ay to rea lly get to know each entrepre

neur w h ile also gettin g fresh a ir and exercise. Also, consider

L inda Gass, an aw ard-w inn ing artist who specia lizes in paint

in g on silk. In addition to her carccr as a painter, she is an avid

environm entalist. O ver the years she has found ways to com

bine her interests by u sin g her artwork to com m un icate about

im portant environm ental issues.’

To sum m arize , w ith a little practice it ’s easy to avoid obstacles

and potholes that people often p lace in their own path. O ne

of the best ways is to always show appreciation to those who

help you. Keep a stack of thank-you notes on your desk and

use them frequently. Also, never forget that the world is very

sm all and you w ill like ly bum p into the sam e people tim e and

tim e aga in . Protect and cn h an cc your reputation—it’s your

m ost valuab le asset and should be guarded w ell. L earn how to

apo logize w ith a sim ple “I'm sorry." Keep in m ind that every

th ing is negotiab le and learn to navigate toward an outcom c in

w hich a ll parties w in . T ry to p lay to o ther’s strengths, m ak ing

sure they’re do ing what they do best. And do the right th ing,

as opposed to the sm art th in g , so you’ll be proud to tell your

story later. F inally , don’t take on too m uch, lest you disappoint

voursclf and those who count on you.

C h a p te r 9

WILL THIS BE

O N THE E X A M ?

I never use PowerPoint slides in m y class, except on the first

day w hen I describe w hat w e’l l cover over the ten-week quarter.

T h e final s lide lists m y com m itm ents and w hat 1 expect of the

students. T h e last bu llet point is, “Never m iss an opportunity

to be fabulous." I prom ise to deliver m y very best in cach class,

and 1 expect the sam e from them . I also tell the students that I

have no problem g iv in g everyone an “A," but that the bar is set

very h igh . T h is is the first and last tim e I m ention this.

So w hat happens? T h e students consistently deliver m ore

than I or they ever im agined . T h ey em brace the idea o f being

fabulous w ith rem arkable en thusiasm , and they raise the bar

repeated ly as the quarter progresses. In fact, a couple of years

ago I arrived at class a few m inutes early and found one of m y

students sitting outside listen ing to her new iPod nano. I hadn ’t


seen one before and asked to take a look. She handed it to m e

and turned it over. The back was engraved w ith the words,

“Never m iss an opportunity to be fabu lous!” Apparently, when

she ordered it on line , she had the option of hav ing it engraved.

Instead of add ing her n am e or contact inform ation , she chosc

th is m essage, w hich she w anted to rem em ber every day. She

certa in ly d idn ’t do th is for m e; she did it for herself.

I’ve been rem arkably surprised by the stickiness of this

m essage. It’s as though students a rc just w aiting to get this

instruction . T h ey ’re hungry' for perm ission to do their very-

best, to hit the ball out of the park and to sh ine the ir bright

est. Unfortunately, in most situations th is doesn’t happen.

W e’re encouraged to “satisfice.” T h a t is, w e’re subtly or not

so subtly cncouragcd to do the least am ount w e can to satisfy

the requirem ents. For exam ple, teachers g ive assignm ents and

c learly state w hat’s required to get specific grades. T h e classic

question posed to a teacher is, “W ill th is be on the ex am ?”

Teachers hate th is question. However, students have learned

through years of reinforcem ent that a ll th ey need to do is m eet

the m in im u m requirem ent to get the grade they w ant. I bis

happens at work as w e ll, w hen bosses ou tline specific objec

tives for the ir staff and crcatc rubrics and m etrics for g iv ing

bonuses and promotions.

It’s easy to m eet expectations, know ing cxactly w hat you w ill

get in return. But am az in g th ings happen w hen you remove

the cap. In fact, I be lieve there’s a huge pent-up drive in each

of us to blow off the cap . L ike a soda bottle th a t’s been shaken.

Will This Be on the Exam ? 161

ind iv iduals who rem ove perceived lim its ach ieve rem arkable

results.

C onsider A shw ini D osh i, who I first m et several years ago

w hen , as a graduate student, she app lied for a research assis

tant job in our departm ent. Despite m y openness, I was really-

taken aback w hen she w alked into m y office for the job inter

view. A shw ini is a b eau tifu l wom an, but she is on ly three and

a h a lf feet ta ll. 1 ler voice is that of a little g irl, but her ideas arc

those of a m ature adult. I’m em barrassed to say that I d idn ’t

h ire her for the position. I bis happens to A shw ini a lot. People

arc so surprised by her appcarancc that it u su a lly takes several

interactions before thcv ’rc com fortable enough to see past her

physical d ifferences. I’m fortunate that she decided to take m y

coursc, bccause it gave m e an opportun ity to get to know her

qu ite w ell. W h en another position becam e ava ilab le in our

group, I jum ped at the chance to h ire her. Ashwini s work was

exem plary, she was a tcrrific team player, and she always went

w ay beyond w hat was expected .

Born in M um bai (form erly Bom bay), A shw ini grew up in

a household of n in e teen —her father, his three brothers, their

w ives, a ll of their ch ild ren , and her grandparents. She was

born norm al si/c, but by the tim e she was a year old, it was

c lear that she w asn’t grow ing properly. T h e doctors in India

w eren ’t able to provide gu id an ce on her care, so her parents

sent X-rays of her tiny skeleton to specialists in the United

States. T he on ly m ed ica l option was to put bone extensions

in each of her extrem ities, a proccss that would have required


extensive surgery over six years. She also would have been bed

ridden for m onths at a tim e , w hich was out o f the question for

th is very active young girl.

A shw in i was fortunate that her fam ily was so open-m inded

and loving. In m any fam ilies, som eone so different would have

caused great em barrassm ent and , so, been hidden away. But

they d idn ’t do th is to A shw ini. In fact, she w ent to the best

schools in Bombay and alw ays excelled . She has a rem arkably

positive a ttitude , an d from a young age felt strangely em pow

ered by her d ifferences. A shw ini still th inks of herself as a

norm al person liv in g an extraord inary life.

A shw in i sincere ly feels there ’s no th ing she can ’t do and has

dem onstrated th is tim e and again . She cam e to C a lifo rn ia a ll

by herself to attend graduate school. In addition to the cu ltu ra l

differences and her physical lim itations, she d idn’t know anyone

w hen she arrived. M an y of her friends encouraged her to stay

put, say ing life would be m uch easier for her in India. But she

persisted. O ncc she arrived a t Stanford, the on ly accom m oda

tion she received was a sm all step stool in her apartm en t that

would enable her to reach the stove. O ut of necessity, she figures

out ingenious solutions to a ll the physical obstacles that face her

every single day.

W h en I asked A shw in i about the problem s she faces, she

had a hard tim e co m in g up w ith any. She just doesn ’t sec

them . W h en pressed, she sited the d iff icu lty of fin d ing a driv

in g school w ill in g to accep t her as a student. A fter years of

depen d ing on rides from friends and on public transportation ,


she d ec id ed to le a rn to drive and purchased a set o f pedal

extenders so she cou ld reach the gas and brake pedals. It took

dozens o f c a lls before she found a d riv in g school that would

take her.

W h a t is most im pressive is that A shw ini alw ays delivers

more than 100 percent of w hat she’s ca llcd upon to do. Her

on ly regret? She ac tu a lly w ishes she had taken even m ore risks

w hen she was younger. Despite a ll she has overcom e, Ashwini

still th inks she took the safe path. She em braces the idea that

life isn ’t a dress rehearsal, and that you on ly get one chance to

do the best job. A shw in i is the id ea l m odel of som eone who

never m isses an opportun ity to be fabulous.

B eing fabulous im plies m ak in g the decision to go beyond

w hat’s cxpcctcd a t a ll tim es. O n the flip side, if you do the least

you can to m eet a baseline expectation , then you’re ch eatin g

yourself of that opportunity. I bis sounds like the lec tu rin g

of a school p rin c ipa l, but it’s true. T h e co llection of m issed

opportunities adds up, le ad in g to a huge dcficit. Im agine the

d ifference betw een investing S100 w ith a 5 percent return

versus investing the sam e $100 w ith a 105 percent return . T h e

d ivcrgcncc in valu e continues to com pound over tim e. T h is is

w hat happens in life. You get out of life w hat you put in , and

the results arc com pounded daily.

B crn ic Roth, a Stanford m ech an ica l en g in eerin g professor,

docs a provocative cxcrcisc a t the d.school to h igh ligh t this

point. I le selccts a student to com e up to the front of the room

and says, “Try to take this em pty water bottle out o f m y hand .”

Bernie holds the bottle tigh tly and the student tries, and inev i

tably fails, to take it. B ern ie then changes the phrasing slightly,

saying , “Take the water bottle from m y hand." T h e student

then m akes a b igger effort, u su a lly w ithout result. Prodding

the student further, B ern ie insists that the student take the

bottle from h im . U sually the student succccds on the third at-

tempt. T he lesson? T here’s a b ig d ifference betw een try in g to

do som eth ing and ac tu a lly do ing it. W e often say w e re try ing

to do som eth ing—losing w eight, getting m ore cxcrcisc, find

in g a job. But the truth is, w e’re e ither do ing it or not do ing it.

T ry ing to do it is a cop-out. You have to focus your intention

to m ake som eth ing happen by g iv ing at least 100 percent com

m itm ent. A nyth in g less and you’re the on ly one to b lam e for

fa iling to reach your goals.

B ern ie also tells students that excuses arc irrelevant or, to

use the techn ica l term —bullsh it. W e use excuses to cover up

the fact that w e d idn ’t put in the requ ired effort to deliver. T h is

lesson is relevant in a ll parts of your life. T h ere ’s no excuse for

being late, for not h and in g in an assignm ent, for fa iling an

exam , for not spend ing tim e w ith your fam ily, for not ca llin g

your g irlfriend , and so forth. You can m anufactu re an excuse

th a t’s soc ia lly acccp tab le , such as hav in g too m uch work or

being sick, but if you rea lly w anted to deliver you’d figure out a

w ay to m ake it happen.

T hese arc harsh words, since w c’rc a ll so used to generat

in g and hearing cxcuses. B ern ie acknow ledges that m ak ing



and says, “Try to take this em pty water bottle out o f m y hand .”

Bernie holds the bottle tigh tly and the student tries, and inev i

tably fails, to take it. B ern ie then changes the phrasing slightly,

saying , “Take the w ater bottle from m y hand." T h e student

then m akes a b igger effort, u su a lly w ithout result. Prodding

the student further, B ern ie insists that the student take the

bottle from h im . U sually the student succccds on the third at-

tempt. T h e lesson? There's a b ig d ifference betw een try in g to

do som eth ing and ac tu a lly do ing it. W e often say w e re try ing

to do som eth ing—losing w eight, getting m ore cxcrcisc, find

in g a job. But the truth is, w e’re e ither do ing it or not do ing it.

T ry ing to do it is a cop-out. You have to focus your intention

to m ake som eth ing happen by g iv ing at least 100 percent com

m itm ent. A nyth in g less and you’re the on ly one to b lam e for

fa iling to reach your goals.

B ern ie also tells students that excuses arc irrelevant or, to

use the techn ica l term —bullsh it. W e use excuses to cover up

the fact that w e d idn ’t put in the requ ired effort to deliver. T h is

lesson is relevant in a ll parts of your life. T h ere ’s no excusc for

be in g late, for not hand ing in an assignm ent, for fa ilin g an

exam , for not spend ing tim e w ith your fam ily, for not ca llin g

your g irlfriend , and so forth. You can m anufactu re an excusc

th a t’s soc ia lly accep tab le , such as hav in g too m uch work or

being sick, but if you rea lly w anted to deliver you 'd figure out a

w ay to m ake it happen.

1’hesc arc harsh words, since w c’rc a ll so used to generat

in g and hearing excuses. B ern ie acknow ledges that m ak ing

excuses, or g iv in g reasons for not delivering , is socially accept

able bccausc it m akes vou sound “reasonable.” But even if von■ j

feel ob liged to m ake excuses to others, you shouldn’t m ake

them to voursclf. You need to com c to term s w ith the fact thatJif you rea lly w ant to accom plish som ething, it ’s up to you to

do so. M ake it a h igh priority or drop it from your list. To drive

hom e this point, B crn ic asks h is students to w rite down their

biggest goal and then to list every im ped im en t that prevents

them from reach in g it. It typ ica lly takes several m inutes to

com pose the list. I le then ch a llenges the students to sec that

the on ly item that should be on the list is their own nam e. W e

m ake excuses for not reach ing our goals by b lam in g others and

external factors for getting in the w ay or for not en ab lin g us.

A gain , ach iev in g is your responsib ility from start to finish.

These exercises, and the lessons they deliver, reinforce the

notion that vou arc u ltim ate ly in charge o f vour own life. You/ J ' J j

have no excuse for delivering an y th in g short o f your best effort

at a ll tim es. A wonderful exam ple is C hong-M oon L ee, a suc

cessful Korean A m erican entrepreneur.1 I lis story is a terrific

exam ple of push ing through every barrier in h is path in order

to reach his goals. M r. Lee had been tra ined in law , business,

and lib rary sc icncc and assum ed he w ould pass bis life as a

university lib rarian . However, he was pu lled into his fam ily ’s

p h arm aceu tica l business in Korea. U ltim ately, the tension

between the fam ily m em bers becam e so intense that Mr. Leej

dccidcd to leave the com pany. I le cam e to S ilico n V alley to

beg in a new carccr, se llin g A m erican goods to Japan. I Ic was


m ak in g a decen t liv in g , and decided to buy each of his ch il

dren a computer. I Ic gave his son an IBM PC and his daughter

an Apple He. In h is traditional view, lie assum ed that his son

needed a m ore “professional” com puter sincc he was be in g

groom ed for a business carccr and that his daughter would use

her com puter for school. It turned out that both kids spent a ll

of their tim e on the Apple com puter. Mr. Lee saw the power

of the Apple software and graph ical in terface, and was inspired

to crcatc a way for PCs to run Apple software. I Ic thought the

software cou ld easily be developed in twelve m onths—it ended

up tak ing six years. Mr. L ee put everyth ing he had into this

venture. D iam ond M u ltim ed ia , which m ade graph ics cards for

PCs. At tim es he was so broke he ate the cabbagc that grocery

stores had thrown out. But he stuck w ith his goal and after

fourteen long years D iam ond M u ltim ed ia becam e the top pro

ducer of graph ics accelerators in the U nited States. He believes

his success com es from being ab le to focus w ith unre len ting

persistence, and acknow ledges that he put his heart and soul

into everyth ing he did.

A nother exam p le is Perry K lebahn , th e snow shoe designer

described previously. Perry is a m aster at de liverin g far beyond

w h a t’s cxpcctcd of h im . I le recen tly b ecam e the president

o f T im bukZ, a m aker o f m essenger bags and luggage . T he

San F ran c isco -b ased com pany was fa lte r in g b ad ly before

Perry arrived , m a in ly becau se it had outgrown its cap ac ity to

deliver. T h e in frastructu re w as stretched to its lim its , em ploy

ees were w ork ing in islands o f iso lation spread am o n g m an y



b u ild in gs , and m orale was low. Perry was brought in to tu rn

around the business. He scru tin ized the situation w ith an

eye toward m ak in g every aspcct o f it top-notch. 11 is first step

was to conso lidate em ployees under one roof, in an effort to

bu ild a stronger sense of com m un ity . I Ic then took the m an

agem ent team on a seven-day w ilderness exped ition , d u rin g

w hich th ey had to re ly on each other in the raw est sense.

This m ade officc issues seem m u n d an e by com parison . Next,

Perry d ec ided to rew ard em ployees in a w ay that reflected and

reinforced the com pany’s goals. Each m onth a ll em ployees fill

out a survey about the ir interests and activ ities , and a n am e is

draw n v ia a lottery. T h e chosen em ployee receives a custom

m essenger bag designed around h is or her passions. T h e bags

arc w ild ly u n iq u e and a terrific physical a rtifac t th a t dem on

strates the creativ ity and innovation that arc the h a llm ark s of

the business.

Then, inspired by open-source design at com pan ies like

M o zilla , w here the users arc em powered and encouraged to

improve the product. Perry opened up T im bukZ ’s design pro

cess to an on line com m unity, inv iting custom ers to w eigh in

on the features for the next wave of products. I lundreds o f cus

tomers partic ipated in the proccss the first tim e around , look

ing at draw ings and provid ing great ideas that stretched the

boundaries of T im bukZ s products. T h e result is a constantly

refreshed set of insights and ideas.

T im bukZ would lik e ly have beco m e a successfu l com pany

even if P errys team had just taken steps to fix the broken


in frastructu re , but h e pushed those lim its in h is quest to

m ake the com pany fabulous.

Those who accom plish am az in g feats, such as Chong-M oon

Lee an d Perry K lebahn, arc often assum ed to be com petitive.

M an y guess they accom plished their goals at the expense of

others. But, th is ce rta in ly isn’t the case. There’s a sign ifican t

d ifference betw een be in g com petitive and be in g driven toward

an objective. B eing com petitive im plies a zero-sum gam e in

w hich you succeed at som eone c lsc ’s expense. B eing driven

involves tapping into your own passion to m ake th ings happen.

But m any great leaders arc inspired and m otivated by the suc

ccsscs of those around them .

I would argue that to be successful in an en trepreneurial

environm ent, it ’s m ore productive to be driven than to be

com petitive, and I designed a sim ulation exercise to h igh ligh t

this point. In the cxcrcisc I divide a group into six team s. I then

unveil five com pleted jigsaw puzzles, each w ith a hundred

p ieces.2 Participants arc allow ed to sec the puzzles for a m inute

or so, and then a ll the p icccs from the five puzzles arc dum ped

into a p illow case and m ixed up. A ll but a few picccs, w hich

I bold back, arc then random ly distributed to the six teams.

Each team is also given tw enty poker ch ips to use as currency.

The team s arc responsible for com pleting a puzzle w ith in an

hour. W h en the tim e is up, points arc ca lcu la ted . Each team

counts the num ber of p ieces in the largest com pleted section

of the puzzle and receives one point for cach p iccc. 'They then


count the num ber of p icccs in sm all islands o f connected

p ieces and receive h a lf a po int for each p iece . E ach team that

com pletes an entire jigsaw puzzle in an hour earns a twenty-

five-point bonus.

S incc there arc fewer puzzles than there arc team s, partic i

pants have to d ec ide if they’re go ing to com pctc, co llaborate,

or both to co llect the necessary puzzle p icccs. T his situation

is m ean t to m im ic the real world: participants know a ll the

p ieces exist to com plete the task, but no one team controls

them a ll. Team s have to find ways to get the resources th ey

need to be succcssful. A dditionally, sincc there aren ’t enough

puzzles for every team , som e team s have to find an alternative

w ay to crcatc value. As in the real world, there arc m any dif

ferent roles to be p layed w ith in an ecosystem . Also, the world

is not static. After the gam e begins, every ten m inutes or so

som eth ing happens. I m ight auction off the puzzle p icccs that

I held back, or sell photos of the com pleted puzzles, or require

one person from each team to move to another team , tak ing

a few puzzle p icccs w ith h im . T he ch an g in g environm ent re

quires both creativ ity and flexibility.

In order to be succcssful, the team s m ust work together.

T h ey start the gam e by trad ing and bartering , try in g to figure

out how to m ax im ize their own benefits w ithout g iv ing aw ay

too m uch . T h is requires b a lan c in g strategy w ith action , figur

in g out how to d iv ide the labor am ong team m em bers, and

how to w alk the lin e betw een com petition and collaboration,

a ll in an ever-changing environm ent. S in cc they know there


arc fewer puzzles than there arc team s, a t least one team has to

decide to n o t bu ild a puzzle and to instead take on a different

role. Som etim es one team chooscs to d iv ide up and join other

team s. Som etim es two or three team s m erge. At other tim es a

team m ay take on the role of broker, buy in g and se llin g puzzle

p ieces from the other team s. And som etim es a ll of the team s

m erge into one huge team and work on a ll of the puzzles to

gether. I like to do th is cxcrcisc w ith larger groups that 1 can

divide into two or m ore ecosystem s, cach w ith six team s and

five puzzles. D oing so allow s d ifferent strategies to evolve in

para lle l, w hich m akes for in teresting com parisons afterward.

The vcrv worst outcomc results w hen all of the team s decide

to com pctc against one another. T h ey hold back puzzle pieces

and refuse to trade pieces needed by other teams. T hese groups

becom e so focused on w in n in g that they a ll lose. Som etim es

the team s actu a lly acknow ledge that they would do better if

they collaborated, but u ltim ate ly decide to com pctc anyway.

Com petition is so built into our cu ltu re that it becom es the

natural response. Additionally, those team s that work hard to

m ake other team s lose end up losing themselves. For exam ple,

the first tim e I ran this sim ulation, one team dccidcd to hold

on to a handful of pieces that other team s needed. Toward the

end of the hour they p lanned to sell them to the other teams.

T h is backfired. W h en the tim e was up, the team s had spent so

m uch tim e com peting w ith cach other that they weren’t even

close to com pleting a puzzle. T h is m eant the final p ieces d idn’t

offer any additional value.'


This cxcrcisc offers a strong rem inder that in environm ents

w here there arc lim ited rcsourccs, b e in g driven to m ake your

se lf and others successful is often a m uch m ore productive

stratcgv than be in g pu re ly com petitive. T hose who do th is arc

better able to leverage the sk ills and tools that others bring to

the tab le, and to celebrate other people’s succcsscs a lo n g with

their own. T h is happens in sports as w ell as in business set

tings, w hich arc both often thought to be purely com petitive

environm ents. For exam ple, in I t s \ 'o t a b o u t t h e Bike, L ance

A rm strong provides details about how com petitors in the lo u r

dc F rance work together over the course of the racc in order to

m ake everyone successfu l. And m any com petitive com panies,

in c lu d in g Yahoo! and G oogle, em brace “coopctition" by find

in g creative ways to work together, leverag ing each business’s

strengths.

W h en it com cs to be in g fabulous, m any businesses sclcct

one area w here th ey rea lly sh ine. B M W focuses on top-notch

en g in eerin g ; W ahnart prom ises the lowest priccs; D isneyland

strives to be the happiest p lacc on earth ; and Nordstrom works

bard to deliver a world-class custom er experience. If you ask

people fam ilia r w ith the store w hat th ey th in k about Nord

strom, most w ill offer at least one story about the incred ib le

serv ice they have received.

I had an opportun ity to m eet w ith two of the three

Nordstrom brothers, F.rik and B lake, who now run the com

pany, and learned how th ey instill their em ployees w ith


custom er-centric values. Surprisingly , there arc no specific

ru les or secret rccipcs for providing an ou tstand ing custom er

experience at Nordstrom. Essentially, after on ly a short orienta

tion, salespeople arc charged w ith using their best judgm ent in

solving the problem s that com e their way, and arc em powered

to act on their custom ers’ behalf. B ecause each salesperson

is d ifferent, they deal w ith their custom ers in u n iq ue ways,

lead in g to a w ide array of approaches to s im ila r challenges.

T h ere ’s a lso a cu ltu re of te llin g stories at Nordstrom, and great

custom er serv ice stories serve as lessons and inspiration. By

em pow ering em ployees to be inventive in solving problems,

the Nordstroms also give them the freedom to m ake m istakes.

B lake and Erik both pointed out that if an error is m ade in

an effort to serve the custom er, it ’s qu ick ly forgiven—and the

sam e m istake is rarely repeated.

At Nordstrom, a ll incentives arc a ligned to crcatc a tcrrific

custom er cxpcricncc. Each m anager works to m ake h is or her

own team succcssful, and a ll em ployees v iew their custom ers

as the u ltim ate “boss." T he senior m anagers of the com pany,

in c lu d in g B lake, E rik, and their brother Pete, spend h a lf their

tim e v isiting stores, w here th ey w alk the sales floor, interact

w ith custom ers, and talk w ith the sales personnel. T hey’re very-

fam iliar w ith th is environm ent, each hav in g started his carccr

w orking in the Nordstrom stockroom, se llin g shoes, m anag

ing shoe departm ents, serving as buyers, m an ag in g ind iv idual

stores, and then as regional m anagers. Now, as leaders of this

m u ltib illion -do llar business, they’re still constantly looking for


ways to improve. T h e y watch and listen carefu lly , w ith great

hum ility , and then , based on the inform ation they have gath

ered , act w ith confidence an d conviction. T hcv ’re so intent on7 j

con tinu ing to en h an ce custom er satisfaction that they've m ade

it rem arkably easy for any custom er to reach eac li of them . A ll

three brothers answ er their own phones, read the ir own e-m ail,

and respond to m essages personally.

T h e idea that the custom er con ics first is so em bedded into

the cu ltu re of Nordstrom that the brothers describe the orga

n ization as an upside-down pyram id , w ith the custom er at the

top and the senior m anagem ent at the bottom. W hen you ad

vance in the com pany, you litera lly m ove d o w n the corporate

ladder. T h ere ’s also no ch ic f executive officer a t the bottom.

B lake is the president, Erik is the president of stores, and Pete

is president of m erchandising. T h ey work as a very tight team ,

each brother p lay ing to his own strengths. T h ey share a vision

for the business and work in a concerted and collaborative

m anner.

M v favorite custom er service story from Nordstrom is of

a custom er who asked the m en ’s departm ent for two blue

button-down shirts w ith w hite collars. T h e salesperson help ing

h im cou ldn ’t find these in stock or at an y of the other Nord-/strom stores. But, instead o f te llin g the custom er th ey cou ldn ’t

m eet his request, she took two w hite shirts and two b lue shirts

to the store tailor and asked to have the co llars sw itched so

there w ere two b lue shirts w ith w h ite co llars and two white

shirts w ith b lue collars. She presented the b lue shirts to the


custom er and told h im that if he w anted the reverse, that was

now availab le , too!

Both B lake and Erik po int out that ever)- experience w ith

cach custom er is like a fresh chance at bat. Each interaction

is another opportun ity to deliver a great cxpcricncc for the

custom er and to en h an ce the salesperson’s reputation. Even if

their actions don’t lead to a specific sale , the investm ent even

tu a lly pays off.

As you can see, b e in g fabulous con ics in m any flavors, but

it a ll starts w ith rem oving the cap and being w illin g to reach

for your true potential. 1’h is m eans go ing beyond m in im um

expectations and acknow ledging that you arc u ltim ate ly re

sponsible for your actions and the resu lting outcom es. Life

isn’t a dress rehearsal, and you won’t get a second ch an ce to do

your best.

C h a p te r 10

EXPER IMENTAL

ARTIFACTS

I have a confession to m ake—I eas ily could have titled a ll of

the previous chapters “Give Yourself Perm ission.” By that I

m ean , give yourself perm ission to ch a llenge assum ptions, to

look at the world w ith fresh eyes, to experim ent, to fa il, to plot

your own coursc, and to test the lim its of your ab ilities. In fact,

th a t’s cxactly w hat I wish I had known w hen I was twenty, and

th irty , and forty—and w hat I need to constantly rem ind m vsclf

at fiftv.J

It’s incred ib ly easy to get locked into trad itional ways of

th in k in g and to block out possible alternatives. I'or m ost of us,

there arc crowds of people stand ing on the sidelines, encourag

in g each o f us to stay on the prcscribcd path , to color inside

the lines, and to follow the sam e d irections they followed. T h is

is com forting to them and to you. It reinforces the cho ices they

m ade and provides you w ith a recipe th a t’s easy to follow. But

it can also be severely lim iting .

In Latin A m erica there is a c tu a lly a phrase that translates

into “jacket puller" to describe people who try to p u ll others

down—presum ably by the tails of their jackets—to prevent them

from rising h igher than they have. People in other parts of the

world ca ll this the “ta ll poppy” syndrom e, w here those who

stand up ta ller than those around them arc cut down to size.

S tay ing w ith the pack is the norm , and those who get ahead risk

be in g dragged backw ard by their com m unity. Worse still, there

arc also regions of the world in w hich those who do things dif

ferently arc literally viewed as crim inals. In B razil, for instance,

the traditional word for entrepreneur, em p r e sa r io , translates

loosely into “thief." I listorically, there arc not m an y loca l role

m odels for successful entrepreneurs, and others assum e you’ve

done som eth ing illega l if you’ve successfully broken the mold.

T h is was a significant problem for Endeavor, the organization

whose goal is to enhance entrepreneursh ip in the developing

world. W h en they launched in Latin A m erica , Endeavor told

people they wanted to stim ulate entrepreneurship and they

were m et w ith great resistance. In response, they literally coined

a brand-new word, em p r en d ed o r , to capture the true essence of

innovation and entrepreneurial spirit. It took several years, but

even tually em prendedor entered the Icxicon. Endeavor now

faccs a sim ilar ch a llenge in Egypt, w here th ey aga in intend to

create and promote a new word for entrepreneur.

At the d.school m uch o f our work focuses on g iv ing students

perm ission to ch a llen ge assum ptions and to stretch their im ag-


Experimental Artifacts 177

illations by break ing free from trad itional ways of th ink ing.

Every assignm ent requires them to leave the ir com fort zones

and engage an ew w ith the world around them . T h e facu lty

poses the cha llenges, but w e don’t have the answers. A ddition

a lly , the d.school classroom space invites experim entation . A ll

of the furn iture is 011 wheels and moves about eas ily to crcatc

d ifferent workspaces. Each tim e students arrive, the space is

litera lly configured differently. Bins of paper, wood, plastic,

paper clips, rubber bands, eolored pens, pipe c leaners, and

tape invite them to bu ild prototypes to bring their ideas to life.

T h e rooms arc filled w ith m ovable white boards covered w ith

colored stickics for brainstorm ing. T h e w alls arc peppered w ith

photos and artifacts from past projects that serve as inspiration

for creative th inking.

O ur students arc given real, open-ended challenges. For

exam ple, they m ight be asked to figure out how to improve

bike safety 011 cam pus, or to find a w ay to cn ticc kids to cat

health ier food. Besides these local projects, d.school students in

the D esign for Extrem e Affordability class, taught by Jim Patell

and Dave B each , work w ith partners in developing countries to

identify problems and determ ine how to solve them in a cost-

cffcctivc way. T his project has led to a num ber of exciting prod

ucts that are a lready on the way to m arket. For exam ple, one

team designed a brand-new baby incubator, E m brace, after

v isiting hospitals in Nepal and find ing that traditional W estern

baby incubators, whose orig inal pricc tag was $20,000, were not

w ell suited for the local environm ent. M an y were broken or in


need o f unavailab le parts. The operating instructions and w arn

ing labels w ere in a lan gu age foreign to the nursing staff. Most

im portant, the m ajority o f b irths occur in v illages far from city

hospitals w ith incubators. T herefore, prem ature babies who

need to be kept warm w ith an incubator rarely get acccss to the

help th ey need.

T h e team identified the need for a low-cost, low-tcchnology

incubator. O ver the course of a few months th ey designed a

tiny sleep ing bag w ith a pouch-inscrt co n ta in in g a spec ia l wax.

T he m eltin g tem perature of the w ax is 37 degrees centigrade,

the tem perature needed to keep a newborn baby w arm .1 For

just $20 , as opposed to $20 ,000 , parents or local c lin ics can

now take carc of a prem ature baby on site or in transit. 1'hcy

remove the wax insert and placc it in hot w ater to m elt the

wax. T he insert is then put into the insu lated s leep ing bag,

w here it stays warm for hours. W h en it even tua lly cools down,

the wax can eas ily be w arm ed up again . No techn ical tra in ing

is needed , no e lec tr ic ity is requ ired , and the design is inex

pensive enough to be deployed in undcrscrvcd com m unities

w ithout acccss to urban hospitals.

T h e students leave these courscs changcd forever. T hey

have a new appreciation for the power of paying attention to

the problem s in the world around them , and learn that they’re

em powered to fix them . As David Kelley, the founding d irec

tor o f the d.school, would say, “T hey arc leav ing w ith creative

confidence.”2 T h ey know they have perm ission—both explicit

and im p lic it—to experim ent, to fa il, and to try again . W h at we

m ust a ll recogn ize is that every one o f us has the sam e perm is

sion—w c just need to recogn ize that it ’s ours to grant and not

som eth ing extended from outside.

T h e m essage that w e cach determ ine how w e v iew the world

was driven hom e to m e in an uncxpcctcd way. A few years

ago 1 took a creative w riting class in w hich the professor asked

us to describe the sam e scene tw ice , the first tim e from the

perspective of som eone who has just fa llen in love, the second

from the po int o f v iew of som eone who has just lost a ch ild at

war. You were not a llow ed to m ention fa llin g in love nor the

war. 1'his sim ple assignm ent revealed how com pletely differ

ent the world looks depen d ing on your em otional state. W hen

I im ag ined w alk ing through a crowded c ity in a state of bliss,

m y m ind was focused on the colors and sounds and m y v iew

was expansive. W hen stro lling through a s im ila r scene in a de

pressed state, everyth ing looked gray and a ll the im perfections,

such as cracks in the sidewalk, jum ped into focus. 1 cou ldn ’t

see beyond m y own feet, and the c ity seem ed daun tin g , as op

posed to stim ulating. I dug up w hat I wrote for that assignm ent

nearly a dozen years ago:

L inda lean ed over to adm ire the bouquet of peach-

colorcd roses she had just bought. Her m ind w andered

fanc ifu lly from the flowers to the wonderful sm ell of

fresh bread com in g from the bakery next door. S tand ing

to the side of the en trance was an am ateur juggler. W ith


liis w ild ly colored costum e, he attracted an aud ien ce of

ch ild ren who g igg led each tim e he m ade a m istake. She

w atched a few m inutes, and found herself g ig g lin g too.

I Ic fin ished his perform ance w ith a foppish bow toward

L inda. She took a deep bow in return , and handed h im

a rose.

joe w alked w ith his head down, protecting h im se lf

from the icy fog, as w ind-w hipped newspapers sailed

through the a ir, slapp ing aga in st the bu ild ings before

tak ing off aga in . “Step on a crack , break your m other’s

back. Step on a lin e , break your m other’s spine.” T hese

words kept ru n n in g through jo c ’s m ind as h e passed each

crack that disrupted the rhythm ic pattern of the sidewalk.

T h e ch ildhood taun t becam e a low drone in the back of

h is b rain as he focused on the uneven path that stretched

in front of him .

T his was a valuab le assignm ent not just for p ractic ing m y w rit

in g skills but for life in general, a po ignant rem inder that wre

choose howf w e v iew the world around us. T h e environm ent

is filled w ith flaws and flowers, and wc cac li decide w hich to

em brace.

I shared some of the stories from this book w ith m y father, who

then dccidcd to take som e tim e to rcflcct on his most impor

tant insights, looking back over the eigh ty-three years of his


life. Despite liis cu rren tly com fortable position, his path was

far from preordained. 1 Ic moved to the United States w hen

he was eigh t years old. His fam ily escaped from G erm any

in the 1930s, and they arrived w ith essen tia lly nothing. M y

father spoke no E nglish and his parents d idn ’t have enough

m oney to support their two ch ild ren , so he lived w ith relatives,

w ith whom he cou ldn ’t com m un icate , un til his parents could

afford to bring h im hom e. From these hum b le beg inn ings,

m y father bu ilt an impressive life and carccr, and retired as

executive v ice president and ch ie f operating officer at a large

m u ltin ational corporation.

R eflecting on h is life , m y father determ ined that h is most

im portant insigh t is that you shouldn’t take yourself too seri

ously nor judge others too harshly. He w ishes h e had been

m ore tolerant o f m istakes he m ade and those m ade by others,

and that he could have seen that fa ilure is a norm al part of

the learn in g proccss. I Ic rea lizes now that most of our errors

arc not earth -shattering, and shared the story that brought this

hom e for h im . W orking a t RCA early in his carccr, he and his

team had a project that was go ing very badly. M y father and his

co lleagues stayed up for days on end try ing to fix the problems.

W orking to find a solution becam c their en tire focus for weeks.

Shortly after the project was successfu lly com pleted , the

entire program was can ce lled . Even though the project was

the ccntcr of their un iverse, to others it was expendab le. He

learned m any tim es over that most th ings in life , espec ia lly our

failures, aren ’t as im portant as w e th ink they arc at the tim e.



M y father also rem inded m e that success is sw eet but

transient. W h en you’re in a position of influence, authority,

and power, the benefits arc w onderful. But oncc the position

is gone, the perks evaporate. Your “power” com es from the

position you hold. W h en you ’re no longer in that position, a ll

that goes w ith it qu ick ly fades away. T herefore, you should not

define yourse lf by your cu rren t position nor believe a ll your

own press. Savor the spotlight w hen you have it, but be ready

to y ie ld center stage w hen it ’s tim e to go. W h en you leave a

job, the organ ization w ill go on w ithout you , as you arc not in

dispensable. O f course, you w ill leave a legacy of a ll you have

accom plished , but that too fades w ith tim e.

Today, m y father is also acu te ly aw are o f the joy o f being

alive. Several years ago he had a heart attack, and his im

planted defibrillator is a constant rem inder o f h is m ortality.

W e a ll know in te llec tu a lly that each d ay is precious, but as

w e grow older or deal w ith a life-th reaten ing illness, this

sen tim ent grows increasing ly m ore palpable. M y father works

hard to m ake each opportun ity stand out, to appreciate every

m om ent, an d to avoid squandering even a s in g le day.

In looking for inspiration for this book, I literally and figuratively

opened every drawer and looked into every eloset of m y life. In

the proccss, I stum bled upon a canvas duffel bag I’ve been drag

g in g around for th irty years. T h e two-foot-long bag is filled with

“treasures” that seem ed im portant to m e over the years. W hen

I was twenty, this bag was one of m y few possessions. I carricd


it w ith m e from collcgc to graduate school and everywhere I’ve

lived sincc. Though I rarely open it, 1 always know where to find

it. T he bag and its contents arc a tangib le link to m y past.

W h en I opened the bag, I found a sm all co llection of un

rem arkable rocks and shells from far-off beaches, faded photo

IDs datin g back through m y years of h igh school and co llcgc, a

stack of old letters, and som e of m y early “ inventions,” inc lud

ing prototyped LE D jew elry that I craftcd out o f m odeling c lay

and watch batteries. I also found a sm all notebook of poetry,

titled “E xperim ental A rtifacts.”

W h en I wrote the poem s in th is book th ey represented the

flip side of the organ ized scien tific experim ents I was perform

in g in m y neuroscience lab w h ile in graduate school. O ne of

the poem s, ca llcd “Entropy,” jum ped out at m e. T his poem is

about the process of constantly reinventing oneself, of always

ch an g in g the gam e p lan , and of tak ing risks w ithout know ing

what w ill happen. I wrote that poem in Septem ber 1983. At

that tim e, the future was m urky, filled w ith vast uncerta in ty

because I cou ldn ’t see vcrv far into the future. Twenty-five

years later I sec it differently. U ncerta in ty is the cssence of

life, and it fuels opportunity. To be honest, there arc still days

w hen I’m not sure w hich road to take and am overw helm ed bv

the choices unfo ld ing in front of inc. But I now know that un

certa in ty is the fire that sparks innovation and the en g in e that

drives us forward.

I lopefu lly , the stories in th is book underscore the idea that

boundless possibilities result from extracting yourself from


your com fort zone, b e in g w illin g to fa il, hav ing a healthy dis

regard for the im possible, and se iz ing every opportun ity to be

fabulous. Yes, these actions in jcct chaos into your life and keep

you off-balance. But th ey also take you places you cou ldn ’t

even have im ag ined and provide a lens through w hich to see

problem s as opportunities. Above a ll, they give you grow ing

confidence that problems can be solved.

T h e poem I wrote twenty-five years ago is a po ignant re

m inder of th e an x ie ty I experienced in m y tw enties w hen I

looked ah ead , not know ing w hat lay around the next curve. I

w ish som eone had told m e to em brace that uncertain ty. As the

stories in th is book dem onstrate, the most in teresting th ings

happen w hen you get off the predictab le path , w hen you ch a l

lenge assum ptions, and w hen you give yourself perm ission to

see the world as opportun ity rich and fu ll of possibility.

A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S

Four years ago, w hen he tu rned sixteen, it daw ned on m e that

jo sli would be head ing to co llege in on ly two years. 1 w anted to

share w ith h im w hat 1 w ished I had known w hen I left hom e

and w hen 1 started m y carccr. So, I crcatcd a grow ing list of

th ings I now know arc cr it ica lly im portant in m ak in g one’s

p lacc in the world. T h is docum ent resided on the desktop of

m y com puter and w henever I rem em bered another lesson, I

added it to the list. A few months after I started this project,

I was asked to g ive a talk to students in a business leadership

program at Stanford and dccidcd to use these insights for in

spiration. I crafted a ta lk ca llcd “W h at I W ish I Knew W h en

I W as Twenty,” in w hich 1 wove together these concepts w ith

short v ideo clips o f en trepreneurial thought leaders who am p li

fied these ideas. T h e ta lk resonated w ith them , and soon there

after I was asked to give th is lec tu rc in other venues around the

world. Buoyed by the enthusiastic response, I crafted a book

proposal. But, busy w ith a z illion other th ings, I never sent it

out to potential publishers.

186 Acknowledgm ents

Two years later, I was s itting on an a irp lan e on an early

m orn ing flight from San Francisco, on m y w ay to Ecuador.

After breakfast was served, I started a conversation w ith the

m an s itting next to m e, M ark Tauber. H e is the publisher of

H arperO ne in San Francisco, and by th e end of the flight wc

had found several com m on interests related to education and

publish ing. W e stayed in touch and worked on a few sm all

projects together. A year later, after I sent h im a link to the In

novation T ournam ent W eb site, M ark brought several of his

co lleagues to Stanford to learn m ore about w hat’s happen ing

on cam pus. By the end of lunch , G ideon W eil, a senior editor

at I larperO ne, suggested that it m ight be in teresting to publish

a book that captures the lessons com in g out of our classcs. I

told h im I had a lready w ritten a book proposal on that subject.

T he good new s was that w ith in a few weeks I had a book con

tract. T he ch a llenge was that I had on ly four months in which

to w rite the book.

W ith six weeks of travel com ing up and a fu ll p late of other

com m itm ents, I needed to draw upon everyth ing and alm ost cv-

crvonc I know to get th is projcct done. I am incred ib ly indebted

to a l l those people who helped m ake th is projcct com e to life in

such a short period of tim e. T hey generously shared their suc

ccsscs and their failures, their disappointm ents and the lessons

th ey learned . T hey gave m e encouragem ent and suggestions,

and they provided m e w ith a w ealth of provocative stories.

First, I w ant to ca ll out a ll those people who talked w ith me

about their lives and carccrs, and shared im portant insights they

gained along the way. T h is includes Lisa Bcnatar, Soujanya

Bhum kar, Steve B lank, Teresa Briggs, Peggy Burke, Tom Byers,

D ana Calderw ood, Stan Christensen , Sandra Cook, M ichael

D caring, Ashwini Doshi, Debra D unn , A listair Fee, Nathan

Furr, Steve Garritv, L inda Gass, Jeff Hawkins, John Hennessy,

Q uincy Jones III, Jeanne Kahwajv, Guy Kawasaki, Pern Klcbahn,

Randy Komisar, Chong-M oon Lee, Fern M andelbaum , Karen

M atthys, Kevin M cSpaddcn, T ricia Lee, Blake Nordstrom,

Frik Nordstrom, E lisabeth Pate C ornell, Jim Plum m er, Bruce

Ransom , B ern ie Roth, M ichael Rothcnbcrg, David Rothkopf,

L inda Rottcnbcrg, Josh Schw arzcpcl, Jerry Scclig , Jeff Seibert,

C arla Shat/, John Stiggelbout, C arlos V ignolo, Q uyen Vuong,

and Paul Yock.

I also w ant to thank a ll those en trep reneuria l thought lead

ers who com e to Stanford to share the ir experiences. I m ined

the S T V P E ntrepreneurship C o rner W eb site for lessons

from the fo llow ing speakers: C aro l Bart/, M ir Im ran, Steve

Jurvctson, David Kelley, V i nod Khosla, M arissa M ayer, David

N cclcm an , Larry Page, and G il Pcnch ina. I a lso acknow ledge

Steve Jobs for h is rem arkable com m encem ent address a t S tan

ford in 2005.

M y w onderfu l co lle agu es a t the Stanford T echno logy V en

tures Program and the School of E n g in eerin g deserve con

siderab le crcd it for their con tributions to th is pro ject. T hey

provided m e w ith acccss to a long list o f fasc in atin g people

and opportun ities, and have cn rich cd m y life trem endously.

F irst, le t m e thank Tom Byers for in v itin g m e to jo in h im ten

Acknowledgm ents 187

years ago. Tom lias been a terrific role m odel, a fabu lous co l

leagu e , and a great friend. Secon d , 1 w ant to ca ll out m y fan

tastic co lleagu es , Forrest C lic k , T h eresa L in a Stevens, and

Bob Su tton , who provided valuab le g u id an ce on th is book,

and to acknow ledge L au ra Brcyfoglc, K athy E isenhardt,

R iitta K atila, Tom K osnik, E lisabeth Pate C o rn e ll, and jim

P lum m er, who m ake Stanford s School o f E n g in eerin g a re

m arkab le p lace to work. F in a lly , sp ec ia l thanks go to ST V P 's

sponsors, whose generosity allow s us to educate the next gen

eration o f en trepreneurs.

A lso, I need to pay tribute to m y inspirational co lleagues at

the I lasso P lattncr Institute of D esign at Stanford, or d.school.

Specifically, I want to ca ll out M ichacl Barry, C harlo tte Burgess

A uburn, L iz G erber, Uri G eva, Ju lian Gorodsky, N icole Kahn,

David Kelley, G eorge K em bel, Jim Patell, B ern ie Roth, and

Terry W inograd .

I also w ant to acknow ledge a ll the students w ith whom 1

have the p leasure of working, in c lu d in g the M ayfield Fellows,

B ioD csign Fellows, the d.school Bootcamp and Sum m er C o l

lege students, and a ll those in m y coursc on C reativ ity and

Innovation. 'Their en trepreneurial spirit consistently cxcccds

a ll of m y expectations.

There arc also several people who read th is m anuscrip t in

various stages of its evolution and gave m e valuab le fccdback.

This inc ludes Jam es Barlow, Sy lv ine Bcllcr, Peggy Burke,

K atherine Em ery, C aro l E astm an , G regg G arm isa, Jonah


Acknowledgm ents 189

G reenberg, Boris Logvinskiy, Patricia Ryan M adson, Ju liet

Rothenbcrg, Jerry See lig , Lorra ine S ee lig , Robert S ee lig , and

A nand Subram an i. T heir com m ents and suggestions had a b ig

in fluence on the book.

Even w ith a ll th is inspiration and support, th is projcct

w ould never have m ateria lized w ithout the gu idan ce provided

by G ideon W eil at H arperO ne. He is a rem arkable coach , a

tcrrific teacher, and w onderful editor. 1 learn som eth ing new

in every one o f our conversations and alw ays look forwartl toj j

his ca lls . A dditionally, 1 w ant to thank L isa Z un iga for ed itin g

the book. She worked w ith m e, at breakneck speed, to m ake

sure that the nuances of a ll the stories were not lost as she pol

ished the prose. A nd, specia l thanks goes to M ark T auber for

befriend ing m e on that cross-country flight several years ago.

T hat story is a powerful rem inder that you never know w hat

w ill happen w hen you strike up a conversation.

O n a personal note, 1 w ant to give a huge shout-out to m y

parents, who la id the foundation of m y education . T hey have

been w onderful role m odels and teachers m y entire life. Ad

d itionally , m y husband, M ichael Tcnncfoss, has been a tcrrific

partner and a valuab le advisor w h ile I was w riting th is book.

He listened carefu lly as I read cach chapter no m atter what

tim e of day I fin ished w riting , w as the first editor of the m anu

script, and always provided cand id feedback a lo n g the way. I

am forever indebted to M ich ae l for his helpfu l suggestions,

unconditional support, and unend in g encouragem ent.


F inally , I am thankfu l to josh for in sp iring m e to m ake a

list of th ings I w ish 1 knew w hen 1 was his age. O ver the past

four years, josh has ch im ed in w ith his thoughtful responses

to the concepts in th is book, and 1 continue to be awed by his

w isdom. T h is book is m y tw entieth b irthday present to josh.

Happy B irthday . . . and m any m ore!

N O T E S

C H A P TE R 1 : BU Y O N E , G E T T W O FREE

1. You can find details about the one red paper clip project at http:// www.oneredpaperclip.eom.

2. You can watch winning videos from the Innovation Tournaments on the STVP Entrepreneurship Corner Web site, at http:// ecorner.stanford.edu. Search for “tournament” to find them. This Web site contains a growing collection of thousands of video clips and podcasts on entrepreneurship, leadership, and innovation.

3. The Imagine It movie can be downloaded for free at http://ww w .imagineitproject.com.

4. You can watch video clips of Vinod Khosla at http://eeorner .stanford.edu.

5. The Stanford Technology Ventures Program is hosted by the Department of Management Science and Engineering within Stanfords School of Engineering. The program Web site is http://stvp.stanford.edu. This site includes links to all the STVP courses, research projects, and outreach efforts.

6. I first heard the concept of T-shaped people from my colleagues at IDEO, a premier design consulting firm in Palo Alto, California.

http://www.oneredpaperclip.eom

http://ww

http://eeorner

http://stvp.stanford.edu

192 Notes

7. The d.school Web site is http://clschool.stanforcl.edu It includes extensive information about the liasso Plattner Institute of Design.

C H A P TE R 2: T H E U P S ID E -D O W N CIRCUS

1. You can find out more about the BioDesign Program at http:// innovation.stanford.edu.

2. You can watch video clips of Paul Yock at http://ecorner.stanford .edu.

3. This two-part case study is available through the European Case C learing House. The titles are: "The Evolution of the Circus Industry” and “Even a Clown Can Do It: Cirque du Soleil Recreates Live Entertainment.”

4. You can watch video clips of Randy Komisar at http://eeorner .stanford.edu.

5. You can watch video clips of Guy Kawasaki at http://eeorner .stanford.edu.

C H A P TE R 3: B IK IN I O R DIE

1. “Selection by Consequences,” S cien ce , vol. 213, 31 July 1981.

2. You can watch video clips of Larry Page at http://eeorner .stanford.edu.

3. You can find details about Endeavor at their Web site: http:// www.endeavor.org.

4. T his exercise is a modification of a project used by Terrence Brown, who used to teach at the Royal Institute of Technology (K i l l ) in Stockholm, Sweden.

5. You can watch video clips of Armen Berjikly at http://eeorner .stanford.edu.

6. You can watch video clips about Moto Restaurant on Youtube.

http://clschool.stanforcl.edu

http://ecorner.stanford

http://eeorner

http://eeorner

http://eeorner

http://www.endeavor.org

http://eeorner

Notes 193

C H A P TE R 4 : PLEASE TAKE O U T YO U R W A LLETS

1. You can watch video clips of Debra Dunn at http://eeorner .stanford.edu.

2. You can watch a seven-minute video summarizing this exercise at http://ecorncr.stanford.edu. Do a search for “wallet” to find it.

?. You can watch video clips of David Rothkopf at http://eeorner .stanford.edu.

C H A P TE R 5: TH E SECRET SAUCE O F S IL IC O N VALLEY

1. You can find the entire CEM report at: http://www.gem consortium.org.

2. “Spain's Showy Debt Collectors Wear a Tux, Collect the Bucks,” Wall Street journal, October 11, 2008.

?. You can watch video clips of Steve Jurvetson at http://ecomer .stanford.edu.

4. The Mayfield Fellows Program Web site is http://mfp.stanford .edu.

5. You can watch video clips of .Mir Imran at http://eeorners .stanford.edu.

6. You can watch video clips of Bob Sutton at http://ecorner .stanford.edu.

7. You can watch video clips of Gil Penehina at http://eeorner .stanford.edu.

8. You can watch video clips of Carol Bartz at http://ecomer .stanford.edu.

9. You can watch video clips of David Neeleman at http://ecomer .stanford.edu.

10. You can watch video clips of Marissa Mayer at http://ecomer .stanford.edu.

http://eeorner

http://ecorncr.stanford.edu

http://eeorner

http://www.gem

http://ecomer

http://mfp.stanford

http://eeorners

http://ecorner

http://eeorner

http://ecomer

http://ecomer

http://ecomer

194 Notes

C H A P TE R 6 : N O W A Y . . . E N G IN E E R IN G IS FOR GIRLS

1. There is an important caveat here: If you’re dedicated enough, it’s worth trying to build a market around your passions and your skills. Think of new artists or musicians who have generated public interest in their work. If you're creative and work hard, there is often a way to open up a whole new market. There is a story later in the book about Ferry Klebahn, who docs just this by creating demand for his new snowshocs.

C H A P TE R 7: TU R N L E M O N A D E IN T O HELIC O PTER S

1. You can listen to a podcast with QD3 and M C Hammer at http://ecorner.stanford.edu.

2. You can watch the video with the basketball players and the moonwalking bear here: http://www.youtube.com/wateh7vs2p K0BQ9CUI Ik.

C H A P TE R 8: P A IN T TH E TAR G E T A R O U N D T H E A R R O W

1. I modified this exercise from one done by M aggie Neal at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

2. You can watch video clips of Stan Christensen at http://ecomer .stanford.edu.

3. The concept of having a BATNA—Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement—was first described by Roger Fisher and W illiam Ur)' in the book Getting to Yes.

4. M ensch is Yiddish for someone who is admired and trusted and whose opinion is sought out by others.

5. You can see Linda Gass’s paintings at http://www.Iindagass .com. She has a new series of paintings devoted to water issues in California.

http://ecorner.stanford.edu

http://www.youtube.com/wateh7vs2p

http://ecomer

http://www.Iindagass

Notes 195

C H A P TE R 9: W IL L TH IS BE O N TH E E X A M ?

1. You cmi watch video clips of Chong-Moon Lee at http://eeorner .stanford.edu.

2. I was inspired to design this game after hearing about another game using jigsaw puzzles from my colleague Carlos Vignolo from Chile. I Iis game runs forty-eight hours.

?. You can watch a five-minute video that summarizes the two- hour exercise by going to http://ecorncr.stanford.edu and doing a search for “puzzle.”

C H A P TE R 10: E X P E R IM E N T A L AR TIFAC TS

1. W hen they were doing early experiments, the Embrace team used margarine instead of wax. it is inexpensive and easily obtained, and the temperature at which it melts is very close to body temperature.

2. You can watch video clips of David Kelley at http://eeorner .stanford.edu.

http://eeorner

http://ecorncr.stanford.edu

http://eeorner

About the Author

TINA SE E L IG has a Ph.D. in neuroscience from the Stanford School o f M edicine and is the executive director o f the Stanford Technology Ventures Program , w hich is the entrepreneurship center at Stanford U n iversity ’ s School o f Engineering. In addition , S e e lig teaches courses on entrepreneurship and innovation in the Department o f M anagem ent Sc ience and Engineering and in the Hasso P lanner Institute o f D esign at Stanford U niversity . She frequently speaks and runs workshops for executives in a w ide range o f d isc ip lines and has written several popular sc ience books for adu lts and children.

V isit the author online at w w w .harpcrco llins.com /tinascclig .

V isit w w w .A uthorTrackcr.com for exc lusive inform ation on your favorite H arperCollins author.

http://www.harpcrcollins.com/tinascclig

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W H A T I W ISH I K NEW W HEN I W A S 20: A Crash Course on Making Your Place in the World. Copyright © 2009 by Tina Seelig. A ll rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment o f the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text o f this e-book on-screen. No part o f this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission o f HarperCollins e-books.

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