What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20: A Crash Course on Making Your Place in the World by Tina Seelig

Major life transitions such as leaving the protected environment of school or starting a new career can be daunting. It is scary to face a wall of choices, knowing that no one is going to tell us whether or not we are making the right decision. There is no clearly delineated path or recipe for success. Even figuring out how and where to start can be a challenge. That is, until now. As executive director of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program, Tina Seelig guides her students as they make the difficult transition from the academic environment to the professional world, providing tangible skills and insights that will last a lifetime. Seelig is an entrepreneur, neuroscientist, and popular teacher, and in What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20 she shares with us what she offers her students—provocative stories, inspiring advice, and a big dose of humility and humor. These pages are filled with fascinating examples, from the classroom to the boardroom, of individuals defying expectations, challenging assumptions, and achieving amazing success. Seelig throws out the old rules and provides a new model for reaching our highest potential. We discover how to have a healthy disregard for the impossible, how to recover from failure, and how most problems are remarkable opportunities in disguise.

— Robert Sutton, author of The No Asshole Rule

When I Was 20

A Crash Course on Making

Your Place in the World

Tina Seelig

1 Buy One, Get Two Free 1

2 The Upside-Down Circus 15

4 Please Take Out Your W allets 55

5 The Secret Sauce of Silicon Valley 71

6 No W ay E ngineering 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 Experim ental Artifacts 175

BUY ONE,

GET TWO FREE

W hat 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

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

sm all chance at earning a big reward T he 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 m idst—problems they experienced or noticed others experiencing—problems they m ight 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 w inning teams brought in over $600, and the average return on the five dollar investment was 4,000 percent! If you take into account that m any of the teams didn’t use the funds at all, then their financial returns were infinite.

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 m ale students, probably because customers were more comfortable being approached

by the young women They adjusted their plan so that the

m ale students ran around town m aking 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 tim e 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 T heir 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 m aking restaurant reservations, experim enting along the way paid off The iterative process, where sm all 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 determ ined 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-m inute presentation tim e 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-m inute “com m ercial” for that company and showed it to the students during the time

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 w aiting to

be mined.

Each of the other eleven teams found clever ways to earn money, including running a photo booth at the annual V i­ ennese Ball, selling maps that highlighted local restaurants during Parents’ W eekend, 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 C hallenge” 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 com m unicate that value is always measured in terms of financial rewards So,

I added a twist the next tim e 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 M acD onald, 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 Colem an 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 tim e 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 m any 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 m ountain of paper clips linked together Appar­ ently the students in their dorm were so moved by the chal­ lenge that they com mitted 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.)

T he most entertaining and provocative team cam e 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 docum enting 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 am azed 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 sim ilar as­ signments, changing the starting m aterial from paper clips to Post-it® notes, or rubber bands, or water bottles Each tim e the students surprise me, and themselves, by what they accomplish with lim ited tim e and resources For example, using one small package of Post-it notes, students created a collaborative music project, a cam paign to educate people about heart disease, and

a public service com m ercial—called U nplug-It—about saving

energy This exercise ultim ately 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 becam e the foundation for a professional docum entary

called I m a g 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 m undane, such as scoring a table at

a popular restaurant or pum ping 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 w ill 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 m any 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 lim ited 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 M any 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 sm all 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 (STV P),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, M edi­ cine, Business, and Education The institute was envisioned and launched by Stanford m echanical 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, m anagem ent 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 G racefully 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 sm all 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 w ill be tested on the m aterial later For homework they are asked to read assigned m aterial 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 ultim ate 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

C hile, 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 num ber two pencils to make for easy grading In sharp contrast, in most situations outside of school there are a m ultitude of answers to every question, m any 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 inevitab le stum b lin g T h e key to succcss is the ab ility to cxtract the lessons out of each of these experiences and to move on w ith th at new knowledge.

For m ost people, the world is q uite different than a typical classroom T h ere isn’t one right answ er that leads to a clear rew ard, and facing the w all of choices in front of cach of us can be q u ite overw helm ing A lthough fam ily, friends, and neighbors w ill happily giv e us pointed advice about w hat to

d o , it is e s s e n t i a l l y o u r r e s p o n s ib il it y to p ic k o u r o w n d i r e c t i o 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 an y opportunities to experim en t and recom bine our skills and passions in new and surprising ways

T h e concepts presented in this book tu rn m any well-worn ideas on th eir heads M y hope is to ch allen g e you to sec your­self and the world in a fresh light T h e ideas arc straightfor­

w ard, but not n ecessarily intuitive As an educator focusing

on innovation and entrepreneurship, I have seen firsthand

th at these ideas arc relevant to those w orking in d yn am ic en ­vironm ents, w here situations change rapidly, req u irin g those involved to know how to identify opportunities, b alan ce priori­ties, an d learn from failure A dditionally, the concepts arc valu­able to anyone who w ants to squeeze th e most ju ice out of life

In the co m in g chapters I w ill tell stories that com e from a

w ide variety of sources, from recent co lleg e graduates to sea­soned professionals I lop efu lly, some o f th eir cxpcricnccs w ill resonate w ith you, providing insights and inspiration as you

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 enco un ter every d ay w h ile chart ng your course into the future It is designed to give you perm is­sion to question conventional wisdom and to revisit the rules around you T h ere w ill alw ays be u n certain ty at each tu rn , but arm ed w ith the confidence that com es from seein g how others have coped w ith sim ilar am b igu ities, th e stress w ill m oiph into excitem ent, and the ch allen g es you face w ill becom e opportunities

W e’re taught th at problem s arc to be avoided, or som ething

to com plain about In fact, w h ile sp eak in g at a conference for business executives, I presented video clips from the Innovation

T ournam ent as part of m y talk Later th at afternoon the CKO

of a com p an y approached m e and lam ented that lie wished

he could go back to school, w here he would be given open- ended problem s anti be ch allen g ed to be creative I looked at

h im w ith confusion I’m pretty confident that ev en - d a y he faces re a l-life c h a lle n g e s th at w o u ld b e n efit from creative

th in kin g U nfortunately, he didn’t see that the concepts easily relate to his life and business He view ed m y assignm ents as som ething that could only happen in a controlled, acad em ic environm ent O f course, that isn't and shouldn't be the ease

at all

W e c an ch allen g e ourselves every single day T h a t is, we can choose to view the world through different lenses—lenses

th at allo w us to see problem s in a new ligh t T h e m ore w e take

on problem s, the more confident and proficient w e becom e

at solving them And the better able w e arc to sec them as opportunities

A ttitude is perhaps the biggest d eterm in an t of w hat w e can accom plish T rue innovators face problem s d irectly and turn traditional assum ptions on their head A w onderful exam ple

is Jeff I law k in s, who revolutionized the w ay people o rgan ize their lives w ith the Palm Pilot Jeff was draw n to the problem

of creatin g sm all personal com puters that w ere easily accessi­ble lu the g c u c ial public rI liis was a g ia u d goal, and alo ng lliu

w ay he faccd an endless array of additional ch allen ges In fact,

he adm its that b ein g an entrepreneur m eans constantly facing big problem s and fin d ing creative ways to tam e them

Je ffs problem s began a t th e very b eg in n in g W h e n Palm re­leased its first product, the Zoomer, it failed m iserably Instead

of w alk in g aw ay in defeat, Jeff and his team c a lle d the custom ­ers who had purchased the Zoomer, as w ell as those who had purchased its rival, the Apple Newton, and asked w hat they had hoped it w ould do T h e custom ers said th ey had cxpcctcd

th e product to o rgan ize th eir com plicated schedules, helping them integrate several calen d ars into one T hat's w hen Jeff realized the Z oom er w as co m p etin g m uch m ore w ith paper calendars than w ith other com puter products This surpris­

in g fccdback, w h ich contradictcd his o rigin al assum ptions, 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 daun tin g prob­lem of determ inin g how users would enter inform ation into the new, sm all device Jeff felt it was critically im portant to allow people to use a pen to enter inform ation, in addition to a tiny keyboard, to m ake this proccss m ore natural But handwriting- rccognition program s of the d ay w eren’t up to the task S o Jeff and his team crcatcd a new w ritten lan gu ag e, Graffiti, which was easier for the com puter to recognize T h ere was consider­able resistance inside the com pany to m an d atin g the use of a new lan guage, but Jeff was confident custom ers would spend a

s m a ll a m o u n t o f l i m e u p f io n l in l e l u m foi s a v i n g lo ls u f lim e

going forward Graffiti was a radical innovation that challenged

a ll the rules and solved a real problem

Jeff I law k in s is a perfect exam p le of a problem solver who

is w illin g to look at the world w ith a fresh eye I lis most rcccnt com pany, N um cnta, is built around his own theories about how the brain works Jeff spent years teach in g h im se lf ncuro- scicr.cc in an attem pt to understand how w e th in k , and cam e

up with a co m p ellin g and provocative theo ry about how the neocortex processes inform ation, w hich h e describes in his

book O n I n telligen ce W ith these theories in hand, Jeff cleciclecl

to use his ideas as the foundation for a “sm arter" com puter that processes inform ation like the hum an brain O f course, one could argue th at Jeff I lavvkins is one-of-a-kind, and that we

c a n ’t all develop revolutionary theories and groundbreaking in­ventions But it is m uch m ore productive to sec Jeff as a source

of inspiration, as som eone who dem onstrates that problems can be solved if w e give ourselves perm ission to look a t them

W h y don’t w e a ll focus on the opportunities that surround us each d ay and take full advantage of th em ? O ne projcct that cam e out o f the second Innovation T ournam ent sheds some light on this idea D u ring the tournam ent, participants w ere

ch allen g ed to create as m uch value as possible w ith rubber bands O n e team cam e up with the idea for “Do Bands,” bracelets that give people a sim ple incentive to “do” the things

th ey often put off doing Do Bands is a clever idea, inspired by

a cau se, such as L an cc Arm strong’s Live Strong bracelets Do Bands have a few g u id in g principles:

• Put on e around your w rist v ith a prom ise to do

som ething

• l ake it off w hen you have com pleted th e task

• Record yo u r success o n lin e at the Do Bands W eb site Each Do Band com es w ith a num b er printed on it so you can look up a ll the actions it has inspired.

• Pass the Do Band alo ng to som eone else

Do Bands give individ uals an incentive to do w hat they

w anted to do a ll along In reality, a Do Band is just a rubber band But som etim es som ething as sim ple as a rubber band is

a ll th at’s needed to m o b ilize people to a c tu a lly do som ething,

to bridge the gap betw een inaction and action T h e Do Bands cam p aign only lasted a few days, but in that short tim e it in­spired a long list of actions: Som e people c a lle d th eir m others, som e showed th eir appreciation to others by sen d in g thank-you notes, and one began a new cxcrcisc program O ne participant used the Do Band as an im petus to start a su m m er cam p , one

w as inspired to reach out to long-lost friends, and some do­nated m o ney to charities of th eir choice It’s fascin atin g that a rubber band was a ll that was needed to move people to act It’s also a clear rem ind er th at there is just a tin y sw itch betw een

d oin g no th in g and d oin g som ething, but that the two options have w ild ly different outcom es

I assign a sim ple ch allen g e in m y class, u sin g a related concept, th at’s d esigned to give students experien ce looking

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

to id entify a problem , and then pick a random objcct in their environm ent T h e y 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 ch allen ges, w hat objects they w ill select,

or w hether th ey w ill successfully solve th eir problem I lowcvcr,

in most eases th ey m an age to find a w ay to use random objects

in their environm ent to tackle a seem in gly unrelated problem

M y favorite exam ple is a yo u n g w om an who was mo\ing frorr one apartm ent to another She had to transport some large furniture an d had no idea how to m ake it happen If she couldn't move the furn iture, she would have to leave it in her uld ap ailm e n l S he looked a io iu id hci a p a ilm e iit and sa>v a ease of w in e that was left over from a party a few weeks car.icr

A ha! She w ent to craigslist*, an o n lin e co m m u n ity bulletin board, anti offered to trade the case of w in e for a ride across the Bay Bridge w ith her furniture W ith in a few hours, all of her furniture was m oved T h e leftover w in e co llectin g dust in

assignm ent didn't turn the w ine into curren cy, but it did give

T h ere is no lim it to the size of the problem s you can tacklc In fact, most of th e Innovation T ournam ent projects w ere craftcd

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

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

as saving energy, en co u ragin g people to stay h ealth y, or provid­

in g com m un ity support for disabled child ren

T he first step to solving big problem s is to identify them

In the world of product d esign, this is c allcd “need finding."

T his is a skill that can be learn ed In fact, it s a key com porcnt

of the cu rric u lu m for the BioD esign Fellows at Stanford.1 Postgraduates who have studied en g in ee rin g , m ed icin e, and business com e together for a ye a: to identify significan t needs

in m ed icin e and then design products to address them Paul Yock, a cardiologist, inventor, and entrepreneur, runs the BioD esign Program : Paul believes th at "a w ell-characterized need is the DNA of an invention." In other words, if w e clearly

d efin e a problem , th e solution w ill lo gically present itself

T h e BioD esign Fellows spend three m onths shadow ing doctors in action and id en tifyin g problem s th ey appear to be facing T h e y w atch c arefu lly; talk w ith a ll o f the stakeholders,

in clu d in g physicians, nurses, patients, and adm inistrators; and figure out w here things can be improved T h e y w h ittle a list of hundreds of needs to just a handful, w ith the goal of picking the biggest problem s they can find A fter th ey settle on the

ch allen g e, th ey design and q uickly build prototypes for a vari­ety of solutions After a focuscd, iterative proccss, th ey present

l l i e i i n e w p i o d u e l c o n ce p t:* to l h « k e y s t a k e h o l d e r to f in d o u t

if th ey have successfully m et the need

Interestingly, in m an y eases those who arc on the front lines arc so used to the problem s th ey experien ce every d ay that they don’t even sec th em , or c an ’t im agin e radical approaches to solving them Paul Yock shared a story about the developm ent

of balloon angioplasty, a technique that involves in sertin g 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 d eal w ith elogged arteries

was to do bypass surgery to rem ove th e dam aged blood vessels

T his procedure requires opcn-hcart surgery, w hich carries sub­stantial risks W h en the balloon angioplasty procedure, which

is m uch less dangerous and invasive, was first introduced, it was met w ith trem endous skepticism and resistance am ong physicians, e sp e c ially surgeons who “understood best" how to treat th e disease S ign ifican t roadblocks appeared in front of pioneers of the procedure For exam ple John Sim pson, one of

th e inventors of balloon angioplasty, wound up h avin g to leave the university to do his research at a private hospital However, over tim e, the efficacy of balloon angio plasty was firm ly estab­lished and b ecam e the standard of care for most patients with clogged arteries T his is a great exam ple of a case w here the status quo is so entrenched th at those closest to the situation

c a n ’t im a g in e a n y th in g different

“Problem blindness” applies to consum er product develop­

m ent as w ell For exam ple, it is w ell docum ented that auto­

m atic teller m ach in es (AT M s) failed in focus groups where potential custom ers w ere asked if they w ould use a m achine to deposit and withdraw' m oney from their accounts, as opposed to going into a local bank to com plete the transaction with a teller

T h ese custom ers co u ld n ’t im a g in e ch an g in g th eir behavior so dram atically B ut, in retrospect, A TM m ach in es represented a

r a d i c a l l y n r w a n d r f f r r H v r i m p r n v r m r n t for p e r s o n a l h a n k i n g ,

one that few of us can now im ag in e livin g w ithout

I’\e experienced problem blindness m yself About fifteen years ago m y husband, M ike, gave m e a cell phone This

was long before c e ll phones were ubiquitous, and I had no idea I needed one In fact, I got som ew hat an n o yed , flunk­

in g it was one more electronic gadget that would sit around unused M ike urged m e to try it for a w eek It took m e only two clays to figure out I co u ld n ’t live w ithout it I w as com ­

m u tin g at least two hours cach day and was able to catch up

w ith friends an d co lleagu es d uring the drive I cam e back to

M ike w ith 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 fin d ing is id en tifyin g and fillin g gaps—that

is, gaps in the w ay people use products, gaps in the scrviccs availab le, and gaps in the stories they tell w hen interviewed about th eir behavior I got a chance to talk w ith M ich ael Barry,

an expert in need fin ding a t Point Forward, and he told a tcr- rific story about his work w ith K im berly-C lark, the com pany that m akes K lee n e x ', S co tt'- paper towels, and H u ggics' d ia­

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

d iap er sales relative to d iap er giants such as Procter & G am ble (m akers of Pam pers), and brought in M ich ael s team to help figure out how th ey could improve th eir business By m akin g

d etailed observations on how diapers arc sold, assessing the

m essaging on the d iap er packages, and co n d uctin g interviews

w ith parents, M ich acl realized that K im berly-C lark was miss­

in g the point: th ey w ere sellin g diapers as though th ey w ere hazardous waste disposal devices But parents don’t view them that way To a parent, a diap er is a w ay to keep th eir children

com fortable D ealin g w ith diapers is part of the n u rtu rin g process A diaper is also view ed as a p iece of cloth ing T h ese observations provided a great starting point for im proving how

K im berly-C lark packaged and positioned I lu ggics T hen, upon

He noticed that parents becom e terribly em barrassed when asked if th eir child is “still in diapers.” Bingo! T his was a huge pain point for parents and for kids on the cusp of toilet train ­ing T here had to be a w ay to turn this around I low could

a d iap er becom e a sym bol of success as opposed to failure?

M ich ael cam e up w ith the idea for Pull-U ps*, a cross betw een

a diaper anti underw ear Sw itching trom diapers to Pull-Ups served as a big m ilestone for both children and parents A child can put on a Pull-U p w ithout help, and can feel proud of this accom plishm ent T h is insight led to a billio n-d o llar increase

in an n u al revenue for K im berly-Clark an d allow ed them to leapfrog ahead of th eir com petition T h is new product grew out of focuscd need finding, identification of a c lcar problem , and then tu rn in g it a n opportunity

In m y course, I use a case study about C irq u e d u SolciP that gives students a ch an ce to hone th eir skills at c h a lle n g in g assum ptions T h e backdrop is the 1980s, w hen the circus industry was in trouble Perform ances w ere predictable and stale, the num b er of custom ers was d im in ish in g , and an im al treatm ent was u n d er attack It c id n ’t seem like a good tim e

to start a new circus, but that is cxactly w hat G uy L alib crte, a

street perform er in C a n a d a, decided to do G u y started C irq u e

du S oleil by ch a lle n g in g every assum ption about w hat a circus could be and in doing so transform ed a problem —a dying

in d u stry—into an opportunity

A fter show ing video clips from th e 1939 M arx Brothers

sum ptions of a traditional circus: a big tent, an im als, chcap tickcts, barkers se llin g souvenirs, several acts perform ing at once, p layfu l m usic, clowns, popcorn, strong m en , flam ing hoops, ctc I then ask them to turn these things upside dow n—

to im a g in e the cxact opposite of each one I*or exam ple, the new list would in clu d e a sm all tent, no an im als, expensive scats, no barkers, one act perform ing at a tim e, sophisticated

m usic, and no clowns or popcorn T h e y then pick the things

th ey w ant to keep from the traditional circus and the things

th ey w ant to ch an ge T h e result is a brand-new type of circus,

a la C irq u e du Soleil I then show them video clips from rcccnt

C irq u e du Soleil perform ances so they can see the im pact

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,

in clu d in g fast-food restaurants, hotels, airlin es, sporting events,

ed u catio n , and even courtship and m arriage

O ncc you get the h an g of it, this is an easy, back-of-thc- cnvclopc cxcrcisc you can use to reevaluate a ll aspccts of your life an d carccr T h e key is to take the tim e to clcarly identify every assum ption T his is usually the hardest part, sincc, as described in the ease about balloon angioplasty, assum ptions

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 becom es a useful w ay to look at your options in a fresh light.

S o m e people a rc p a rtic u la rly good at id en tifyin g and c h a l­

le n g in g assum ptions In th eir qi:cst to find creative solutions

to se e m in g ly im possible problem s, th ey question th e lim its

of w hat is reaso nab le an d possible T hey start th eir lives over

in exotic location s, th ey take on projects th at have a grand scopc, th e y m ake choiccs that srem ra d ica l, an d th ey carve out a new path th at leads th em into u n ch artcd territory W e often w atch in aw e, preventing ourselves from tak in g the sam e leaps

C o nsid er Sandra C o ok, who has successfully strctchcd the boundaries and ch allen g ed all traditional assum ptions as she crafted a m a z in g adventures for herself T h e b e g in n in g of

S an d ra’s carccr snapped into placc like clockwork She earned

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

of K conom ics to study and then teach , cam c back to the

U nited States to work at the Stanford Research Institute (SRI), took a job as a consultant at Booz A llen I lam ilto n , an d eventu­

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

M otorola S he could have c o n tiru cd on this path for the rest

of her carccr, but d ccid cd to jump out of this perfectly good airp lan e because it w as h ead in g in the w rong direction

S an d ra’s passion has alw ays been adventurous travel to w ild and rem ote placcs, and she m anaged to squeeze exotic trips to India, T ib et, M o ngo lia, and Nepal into two-week stints d u rin g

her bu sy work schedule But she even tually d ecided this w asn’t

en o ugh , an d so flipped her world on its head by q u ittin g her prestigious job at M otorola in 2002 in order to travel in Af­

gh an istan m ore extensively T h e country was in sham bles after the w ar b eg an , and she w anted to help in an y w ay she could She got a visa, purchased an a ir in c ticket, and went, hoping

to find some w ay to m ake a difference W h en she got off the plane in K abul, there w ere no taxis and little infrastructure

in place W ith som e effort, she found her w ay to a hotel fre­quented by reporters from around the w orld, and got to work

co n tactin g everyone she could to find out how she could get involved w ith the effort to rebuild the country S h e offered

to w rite grants, to prepare business plans, or even to sw eep floors—whatever w ould be helpful

San d ra ev en tu ally con nected w ith N ancy D upree, the di­rector of th e A fghanistan C en ter at K abul University N ancy was w orking tirelessly to rebuild the university lib rary and to

g e l books iu lo ih e h a n d s o f p eo p le ll u o u g h o u l ih e e o u n l i y

through their Box L ibrary Extension A fter th ey got to know each other a little better, Sandra wrote a business plan for the ccntcr and was ev en tu ally asked to serve on the o rgan iza­tion’s board of directors S he is now co-prcsidcnt of the board and spends most of her tim e b u ildin g aw areness of and rais­

in g m oney for this organization Besides her official duties, Sandra also takes on grassroots projects in A fghanistan, such as

d istrib utin g pom egranate trees throughout the city o f Kabul

S he person ally purchased tw enty thousand barc-root trees and

handed th em out to fam ilies so they could start rep lacin g trees destroyed d u rin g the war.

Most people do not leave com fortable lives to tackle enor­mous problem s in far-flung lands But, in m an y eases, much

sm aller ch allen g es seem just as d aun tin g For m any, changing jobs Dr m oving across town feels just as risky as traveling to an exotic location to perform relief work It is m uch m ore com ­fortable to stay loeked in a role that's “good enough" than to reach for an altern ative that has a higher degree of uncertainty

M as! o f us arc content takin g sm all, reliable steps W e don’t get very far, but wc don’t rock th e boat either

Venture capital firms that invest in early stage businesses pride them selves on id en tifyin g big problem s and tak in g significant risks w ith the goal of tack lin g them T h e y arc alw ays scann ing

th e horizon for the next big opportunity, as opposed to looking for sm all problem s w ith increm en tal solutions T h e y attempt

to look into the future for ch allen g es that arc just beyond the next h ill so they c an invest in rad ically innovative approaches

to m eetin g them head-on A great exam ple is K leiner Perkins

C anfield & Byers (K P C B ), a firm w ith a rem arkable trick

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

solutions T h e y invested in biotechnology, Internet com m cice, and alternative cncrgv long before these w ere household topics, and :h ey anticipated the future im pact of businesses such as

G cnentcch, Sun M icrosystem s, A m azon, G oogle, N etscape, Intuit, and E lectronic Arts As R andy Komisar, a partner at

KPCB, notes, b ein g en trep ren eu rial m eans seein g the world as opportunity rich He and his co lleagu es have found that iden­tifying and solving big problem s leads to sign ifican t rewards for everyone involved.

Despite the fact that o n e can m ake a profit by solving big

R iddle, th e im portance of havin g the zeal to solve a grand

problem, as opposed to b ein g m otivated to m ake money.4 To explain the difference, he com pares a m issio nary w ho passion­ately pursues an im portant cause to a m ercen ary whose drive

is only to serve his or her own interests By focusing on finding solutions to significan t ch allen g es w ith m issionary-like energy, successful com panies arc born T his m essage is echoed by author G uy K awasaki, who says it is better to “m ake m eaning

th an to m ake m oney.”’ If you r goal is to m ake m ea n in g by trying to solve a big problem in innovative ways, you arc more likely to m ake m oney than if you start w ith the goal of m aking money, in w h ich case you w ill probably not m ake m oney or

m eaning

W h at do the entrepreneurs, ven ture capitalists, and inventors described above have to do w ith the students who started with five dollars, paper clips, or w ater bottles an d w ere challenged

to creatc as m uch v alu e as possible? A trem endous am ount All

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

to identifying problem s in your m idst and then relentlessly

w orking to solve them by ch a lle n g in g traditional assumptions

Problem s arc abundan t, just w aitin g for those w illin g to find inventive solutions T his takes acu te observation, coordinated teamwork, the ab ility to execute a plan, a w illin gn ess to learn from failu re, and creative problem solving But the lirst re­quirem ent is h avin g the attitu d e th at the problem c an be solved I have found, for m yself and m y students, that the more experience you have tack lin g problem s, the m ore confident you becom e that you can find a solution.

I was recently in Scotland teach ing in a w ceklong entre­preneurship boot cam p, run by Jam es Barlow at the Scobish Institute for Enterprise, for fifty collcgc students from across the country who w ere studying a w id e range of disciplines, from crim inology to cosm etics Most of them had no exposure to en ­trepreneurship at all At the b egin n in g of the w eek, m any were com pletely overwhelm ed by the first assignm ent, w hich required them to com e up w ith and then sell a new product or scrvicc Each team was given fifty British pounds of starting capital at

6 :0 0 p.m and had a total of eighteen hours to com plete the proj­ect T h e goal was to get them out of their comfort zone and into the real world M an y of the students told m e they were on the verge of going hom e (T hey d id n ’t need to tell m e this, because the panicked looks on their faces said it all.) But they a ll st ick

w ith it and w ere pleasantly shockcd by what they accom plished

O ne group becam e “um brella 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

B ui this assignm en t was just the b eg in n in g o f th eir experi­

en ce By the end of a w e e k s worth of c h a lle n g in g activities,

in clu d in g scouring new spapers to identify problem s, brain­storm ing to com e up w ith creative solutions, d esig n in g new ventures, m eetin g w ith potential custom ers, film in g com m er­cials, an d pitching their ideas to a panel of successful execu­tives, they w ere ready to take on just about an y ch allen ge

O ne team that stands out in m y m in d was com posed of three yo u n g w om en, for whom all of this w as brand-new T h ey

w ere sh ak in g in their shoes when the first assignm en t was given By the end of the w eek, however, th ey had com e up

w ith a fabulous idea th at earned high praise from the panel of judges as w ell as seed fu n d in g from investors T h e y developed

a m obile, at-hom e service for bra fitting, based on th eir obser­vation th at most wom en arc em barrassed by the process and often end up w ith ill-fitting bras T h e ir video com m ercial was tasteful and convinced everyone that this was an interesting

u p p u i l u n i l y

O n th e last day o f the workshop, one of the young women said to m e, “I now know that there isn’t a n yth in g I can ’t do.” She, alo ng w ith all the other students, alread y had the bu lk of the skills th ey needed to accom plish a m az in g things A ll we offered them w as tan gib le proof, alo n g w ith a h ealth y dose of perm ission, that they could turn the problem s around them into opportunities

BIKINI O R DIE

T h e fam ous psychologist B F S kin n er o n ce wrote that all hum an behavior can be view ed as b ein g adaptive to cither the ind ividual, th e gene pool, or to society at large.1 I lowever, these three forces are often at odds, cau sin g significan t tension

T h e rules m ad e by society are a huge presence in our li'c s , created by the governm ent, religious groups, our employers, our schools, our neighbors, and our fam ilies B ecause these social groups craft the explicit ru les around us, w e often find ourselves in situations w here w e arc driven to break them to satisfy' our personal desires or the drives of our spccics T hese social rules and norm s arc d esigned to m ake the world around

us more organized and predictable, and to prevent us from hurting one another

But w hen is a ru le really just a suggestion? And w hen do suggestions m orph into ru les? Every day, physical signs tell all

of us w hat to do, w ritten instructions d irect us how to behave,

an d social gu id elin es urge us to act w ithin specific param eters

In fart, w e also m ake lots o f rules for ourselves, in large part encouraged by others T h ese rules becom e woven into our individual fabric as wc go through life W e draw im agin ary lines around w hat w e th in k w e can d o —lin es that otten lim it

us m uch more than the ru les im posed by society at large Wc define ourselves by our professions, our incom e, w here we live, the car w e drive, our ed u catio n , and even bv our horoscope

E ach definition locks us into specific assum ptions about who

w c are and w hat wc can do I’m rem ind ed of a fam ous line

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

no Icnger have the cap acity to leave the prison th ey have

m ade, or even see it as a prison." W e alw ays m ake our own prisons, w ith rules that w c each crcatc for ourselves, locking

us into specific roles and out of an endless array of possibili­ties W h at if you c h a llen g e the u n d erlyin g assum ptions? W hat arc the co n seq uen ces—good and b ad —of gettin g off the pre­scribed path? W h a t happens to those who break the rules?

L srry Page, co-founder of G oogle, gave a lecture in which

he encouraged the au d ien ce to break free from established

gu idelin es by havin g a h ealth y disregard for the im possible.:

T h a t is, to th in k 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 w ays to reach them and more

w ays th ey can go wrong W ith big goals, you arc u su a lly allo­cated more resources and there arc m ore ways to ach ieve them

T h is is an interesting insight Im agin e th at you arc tryin g to get