“Introducing Long Reids”
April 26, 2023
Originally posted in our April 2023 Top of Mind Newsletter. In the same vein as the previous piece, we wanted to highlight Reid Hoffman’s newsletter, Long Reids. From a recent publication: “All humans are entrepreneurs not because they should start companies but because the will to create and take control of our destiny is encoded in human DNA—and creation is the essence of entrepreneurship.” Hoffman’s newsletter focuses on career development, but he often elaborates on what…
Read more“The Origins of Creativity”
Originally posted in our April 2023 Top of Mind Newsletter. What does it mean to be creative? Why do we need creativity in our lives? Samuel W. Franklin suggests in his new book, The Cult of Creativity, that creativity is a relatively recent idea. Sure, we’ve been creating things since before we were human, but Franklin posits that creativity as a characteristic to be measured and considered has only been around since the 1940s. This was…
Read more“Empathy Mapping: The First Step in Design Thinking”
March 29, 2023
Originally posted in our March 2023 Top of Mind Newsletter. So you’re setting out to test an assumption that you hope will solve a problem in the world that others will value. As we reflected in the previous article, it is important to start testing ideas rather than carefully planning, especially in the early stages of an idea. But knowing how potential users will interact with the concept is also essential. If you’re establishing a new…
Read more“Kindergarteners Beat CEOs at This Engineering Challenge. The Reason Why Is an Essential Lesson in Leadership”
Originally posted in our March 2023 Top of Mind Newsletter. At some point in your life, there’s a decent chance a teacher or facilitator has given you some simple household items and asked you to build a tower with a group of your peers. A famous experiment pits groups of kindergarteners against CEOs and other high-performing professionals, and the kindergarteners tend to win. Why? Simply put, the children go out and try lots of things quickly…
Read more“Why the Lean Start-Up Changes Everything”
February 28, 2023
Originally posted in our February 2023 Top of Mind Newsletter. If you’re in the entrepreneurship education space, you will have heard of the lean start-up methodology many times. But, it bears repeating in the context of designing processes that serve everyone involved. “The lean definition of a start-up: a temporary organization designed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model.” Rather than excessively planning, entrepreneurs use their most incredible resource—potential customers—to discover the best path…
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