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.
'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 W ish I Knew When I Was 20 Search | A Crash Course on Making Your Place in the World TIN A S E E L IG 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 Buy One, Get Two Free The Upside-Down Circus 15 Bikini or Die 33 Please Take Out Your W allets 55 The Secret Sauce of Silicon Valley 71 No Way Engineering Is for Girls 99 Turn Lemonade into Helicopters 117 Paint the Target around the Arrow 137 W ill This Be on the Exam? 159 10 Experimental Artifacts 175 A ck n ow led gm en ts 185 N otes 191 A bout th e A uthor C redits C o v er C o p y r ig h t A bout th e P u b lish er Chapter BUY ONE, GET TWO FREE W hat would you 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 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 W hat I W ish I Knew W hen I W as 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 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 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 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 many of the teams didn’t use the funds at all, then their financial returns were infinite Buy One, Get Two Free 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 male 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 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, W hat I W ish I Knew W hen I W as 20 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 twohour 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 m aking 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 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-minute “com m ercial” for that company and showed it to the students during the time 184 W h a t I W ish I Knew W h e n I W a s 20 yo u r com fort zone, b ein g w illin g to fa il, h av in g a h ealth y dis regard for the im possible, an d seiz in g every o p p o rtun ity to be fabulous Yes, th ese actio n s in jcct chaos into yo u r life an d keep yo u off-balance But th e y also take you places you co u ld n ’t even h ave im a g in e d an d provide a lens thro ugh w h ich to see problem s as op po rtun ities Above a ll, th ey give yo u grow ing co n fid en ce that problem s can b e solved T h e poem I w rote tw enty-five years ago is a p o ign an t re m in d er o f th e a n x ie ty I exp erien ced in m y tw en ties w h en I looked a h e a d , not k n o w in g w h at la y aro u n d the next curve I w ish som eone had told m e to em b race that u n certain ty As the stories in this book dem on strate, the m ost in terestin g th in gs happ en w h en you get off th e p redictab le p ath , w h en you c h a l len ge assum p tions, an d w hen yo u give yo u rself perm ission to see the world as o p p o rtu n ity rich an d fu ll o f possibility ACKNOW LEDGM ENTS Four years ago, w h en h e tu rn ed sixteen, it d aw n ed on m e that jo sli w ould be h ea d in g to co lleg e in o n ly two years w an ted to share w ith h im w h at w ish ed I h ad know n w h en I left hom e an d w h en started m y carccr So, I crcatcd a gro w in g list of th in gs I now know arc c ritic a lly im po rtan t in m a k in g one’s placc in th e world T h is d o cu m en t resided on the desktop of m y com p uter an d w hen ever I rem em b ered an o th er lesson, I added it to the list A few m onths after I started this project, I w as asked to giv e a talk to students in a business leadership program at Stanford an d d ccid cd to use these insigh ts for in spiration I crafted a talk c allc d “W h a t I W ish I K new W h e n I W as T w enty,” in w hich wove together these cepts w ith short video clips o f en trep ren eu rial thought leaders w ho a m p li fied th ese ideas T h e talk resonated w ith th em , an d soon there after I w as asked to give this le c tu rc in other venues around the world Buoyed by the en th u siastic response, I crafted a book proposal But, busy w ith a zillio n other thin gs, I never sent it out to po tential publishers 186 A ckn o w le d gm e n ts Two years later, I w as sittin g on an a irp la n e on an early m o rn in g flight from S a n Francisco, on m y w ay to E cuador A fter breakfast was served, I started a conversation w ith the m an sittin g next to m e, M ark T auber H e is the publisher of H arp erO n e in S an Francisco, an d by th e end o f the flight w c had found several co m m o n interests related to ed u catio n and p u b lish in g W e stayed in touch and w orked on a few sm all projects together A ye ar later, after I sent h im a lin k to the In novation T o u rn am en t W eb site, M ark brought several of his c o llea g u es to Stanford to learn m ore ab o u t w h a t’s h ap p en in g on cam p u s B y the end o f lu n ch , G ideon W e il, a senior editor at I larp erO n e, suggested that it m igh t be in terestin g to publish a book th at cap tures the lessons co m in g out o f our classcs I told h im I had a lrea d y w ritten a book proposal on th at subject T he good new s w as that w ith in a few w eeks I had a book co n tract T h e c h a llen g e w as that I h ad on ly four m onths in w hich to w rite th e book W ith six w eeks o f travel co m in g up an d a fu ll plate o f other com m itm en ts, I n eed ed to draw upon ev eryth in g an d alm o st cvcrvonc I know to get this projcct done I am in cred ib ly indebted to a l l those people w ho help ed m ake this projcct co m e to life in such a short period o f tim e T h ey gen erou sly shared th eir suc ccsscs an d th eir failures, th eir disapp oin tm ents an d the lessons th e y learn ed T h ey gave m e en co u ragem en t an d suggestions, an d they provided m e w ith a w ealth o f provocative stories First, I w an t to c a ll out a ll those people who talked w ith me about their lives and carccrs, an d shared im portant insights th ey A ck n o w le d g m e n ts 187 gain ed alo n g the way T h is includes Lisa B cnatar, Soujanya B hum kar, Steve B lank, Teresa Briggs, P eggy Burke, Tom Byers, D ana C alderw oo d, Stan C h risten sen , San dra C ook, M ich ael D caring, A shw ini D oshi, Debra D u n n , A listair Fee, N athan Furr, Steve Garritv, L inda Gass, Jeff H awkins, John Hennessy, Q u in cy Jones III, Jeanne Kahwajv, G uy Kawasaki, Pern Klcbahn, R andy Komisar, C h ong-M oon L ee, Fern M an d elb au m , Karen M atthys, Kevin M cSpaddcn, T ricia L ee, Blake Nordstrom, F rik Nordstrom, E lisabeth Pate C o rn ell, Jim P lum m er, B ruce R ansom , B ern ie Roth, M ich ael Rothcnbcrg, David Rothkopf, L in da Rottcnbcrg, Josh Schw arzcp cl, Jerry S cclig , Jeff Seibert, C a rla Shat/, John Stiggelbo ut, C arlo s V ignolo, Q uyen V uong, and Paul Yock I also w an t to th an k a ll those en trep ren eu rial thought lead ers w ho co m e to Stanford to sh are th eir exp erien ces I m in ed the S T V P E ntrepren eurship C o rn e r W eb site for lessons from the fo llow in g speakers: C aro l B art/, M ir Im ran , Steve Jurvctson, D avid K elley, V i nod K hosla, M arissa M ayer, D avid N cclcm an , L arry Page, an d G il P cnch ina I also ackno w ledge Steve Jobs for h is rem arkab le co m m en cem en t address a t S ta n ford in 2005 M y w o n d erfu l c o lle a g u e s a t the Stan fo rd T ech n o lo g y V en tures Program an d th e S ch o o l o f E n g in e e rin g deserve co n sid erab le crcd it for th eir co n trib u tio n s to th is p ro ject T h ey provided m e w ith acccss to a lo n g list o f fa sc in a tin g p eo p le an d o p p o rtu n ities, an d h av e cn ric h c d m y life trem endo usly F irst, let m e th an k T om Byers for in v itin g m e to join h im ten 188 A ckn o w le d gm e n ts years ago T om lia s b een a terrific role m o d el, a fab u lo u s co l le a g u e , an d a great frien d S eco n d , w an t to c a ll out m y fan tastic c o lle a g u e s, Forrest C lic k , T h e re sa L in a Steven s, an d Bob S u tto n , w ho provided v alu ab le g u id a n c e on th is book, an d to ack n o w led g e L a u B rcyfoglc, K athy E isen h ard t, R iitta K atila, T om K osnik, E lisab eth P ate C o rn e ll, an d jim P lu m m er, w ho m ak e Stan fo rd s Scho ol o f E n g in e e rin g a re m ark ab le p la ce to w ork F in a lly , sp e c ia l th an k s go to S T V P 's sponsors, w hose gen ero sity allo w s us to e d u ca te the n ext g e n eratio n o f en trep ren eu rs A lso, I n eed to p ay tribute to m y inspiration al co lleag u es at th e I lasso P lattn cr Institute o f D esign at Stanford, or d.school Specifically, I w ant to call out M ich acl Barry, C h arlo tte Burgess A ub urn , L iz G erber, Uri G eva, Ju lian G orodsky, N icole K ahn, D avid K elley, G eorge K em bel, Jim P atell, B ern ie R oth, and Terry W in o grad I also w an t to ackno w ledge a ll th e students w ith w hom have the p leasu re o f w orking, in c lu d in g the M ayfield Fellow s, B ioD csign Fellow s, the d.school B ootcam p an d S u m m er C o l lege students, an d a ll those in m y coursc on C rea tiv ity an d Innovation 'T heir en trep ren eu rial spirit consistently cxcccds a ll o f m y expectations There arc also several people w ho read this m an u scrip t in various stages of its evolution an d gave m e v alu ab le fccdback This in clu d es Jam es Barlow, S ylv in e B cllcr, P eggy Burke, K atherin e E m ery, C aro l E astm an , G regg G arm isa, Jonah 189 A ckn o w le d gm e n ts G reenb erg, Boris Logvinskiy, P atricia R yan M ad so n , Ju liet R othenbcrg, Jerry S ee lig , L o rrain e S e e lig , Robert S e e lig , and A nand S u b ram an i T h eir com m en ts an d suggestio ns had a big in flu en ce on the book Even w ith a ll this inspiration an d support, this projcct w ou ld n ever have m a teria liz ed w itho ut the g u id an ce provided by G ideon W e il at H arperO ne H e is a rem arkab le co ach , a tcrrific teach er, an d w on derful editor learn so m eth in g n ew in ev ery one o f our conversations and alw ays look forwartl to j j his c alls A dditio nally, w an t to th an k L isa Z u n ig a for e d itin g the book S h e w orked w ith m e, at b reakn eck speed, to m ake sure that the n u an ces o f a ll the stories w ere not lost as she pol ished the prose A nd, sp ecial th an ks goes to M ark T au b er for b efrien d in g m e on that cross-country flight several years ago T h at story is a pow erful rem in d er that you never know w hat w ill h ap p en w hen you strike up a conversation O n a personal note, w an t to give a h u ge shout-out to m y parents, w ho laid the foundation o f m y ed u catio n T h ey have b een w on derful role m o dels an d teach ers m y en tire life Ad d itio n ally, m y h u sband , M ich ael Tcnncfoss, has b een a tcrrific p artn er an d a v alu ab le advisor w h ile I w as w ritin g this book He listen ed c a re fu lly as I read cach chapter no m atter w hat tim e o f d ay I fin ish ed w ritin g , w as the first editor of the m a n u script, an d alw ays provided can d id feedback a lo n g the way I am forever indebted to M ic h a e l for his help fu l suggestions, u n co n d itio n al support, an d u n e n d in g en co u ragem en t 190 A ckn o w le d gm e n ts F in ally, I am th an k fu l to josh for in sp irin g m e to m ak e a list o f th in gs I w ish k n ew w h en w as his age O ver th e past four years, josh has ch im e d in w ith his tho ugh tful responses to the concepts in this book, and co n tin u e to b e aw ed by his w isdom T h is book is m y tw en tieth b irth d ay present to josh Happy B irthday an d m an y m ore! NOTES C H A P T E R : B U Y O N E , G E T T W O FREE You can find details about the one red paper clip project at http:// www.oneredpaperclip.eom You can watch winning videos from the Innovation Tourna ments 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 T he Im agine It movie can be downloaded for free at http://ww w imagineitproject.com You can watch video clips of Vinod Khosla at http://eeorner stanford.edu T he Stanford Technology Ventures Program is hosted by the Department of M anagement Science and E ngineering within Stanfords School of Engineering T he program Web site is http://stvp.stanford.edu T his site includes links to all the STVP courses, research projects, and outreach efforts I first heard the concept of T-shaped people from my col leagues at IDEO, a premier design consulting firm in Palo Alto, California 192 N otes T he d.school Web site is http://clschool.stanforcl.edu It includes extensive information about the liasso Plattner Institute of Design C H A P T E R : T H E U P S ID E -D O W N C IR C U S You can find out more about the BioDesign Program at http:// innovation.stanford.edu You can watch video clips of Paul Yock at http://ecorner.stanford edu T his two-part case study is available through the European Case C learing House T he titles are: "The Evolution of the Circus Industry” and “Even a Clown C an Do It: Cirque du Soleil Rec reates Live Entertainment.” You can watch video clips of Randy Komisar at http://eeorner stanford.edu You can watch video clips of Guy Kawasaki at http://eeorner stanford.edu C H A P T E R : B IK IN I O R D IE “Selection by Consequences,” S cien ce, vol 213, 31 July 1981 You can watch video clips of Larry Page at http://eeorner stanford.edu You can find details about Endeavor at their W eb site: http:// www.endeavor.org T h is exercise is a modification of a project used by Terrence Brown, who used to teach at the Royal Institute of Technology (K i ll) in Stockholm, Sweden You can watch video clips of Armen Berjikly at http://eeorner stanford.edu You can watch video clips about Moto Restaurant on Youtube N otes 193 C H A P T E R : P LE A S E T A K E O U T Y O U R W A L L E T S You can watch video clips of Debra Dunn at http://eeorner stanford.edu You can watch a seven-minute video sum m arizing this exercise at http://ecorncr.stanford.edu Do a search for “w allet” to find it ? You can watch video clips of David Rothkopf at http://eeorner stanford.edu C H A P T E R : T H E SEC R ET S A U C E O F S IL IC O N V A L L E Y You can find the entire C E M report at: http://www.gem consortium.org “Spain's Showy Debt Collectors W ear a Tux, Collect the Bucks,” Wall Street journal, October 11, 2008 ? You can watch video clips of Steve Jurvetson at http://ecomer stanford.edu T he Mayfield Fellows Program Web site is http://mfp.stanford edu You can watch video clips of Mir Imran at http://eeorners stanford.edu You can watch video clips of Bob Sutton at http://ecorner stanford.edu You can watch video clips of Gil Penehina at http://eeorner stanford.edu You can watch video clips of Carol Bartz at http://ecomer stanford.edu You can watch video clips of David Neeleman at http://ecomer stanford.edu 10 You can watch video clips of Marissa M ayer at http://ecomer stanford.edu 194 N otes C H A P T E R : N O W A Y E N G IN E E R IN G IS FO R G IR LS T here is an important caveat here: If you’re dedicated enough, it’s worth trying to build a market around your passions and your skills T hink 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 T E R 7: T U R N L E M O N A D E IN T O H E LIC O P T E R S You can listen to a podcast with QD3 and M C Hammer at http://ecorner.stanford.edu 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 T E R : P A IN T T H E T A R G E T A R O U N D T H E A R R O W I modified this exercise from one done by M aggie Neal at the Stanford Graduate School of Business You can watch video clips of Stan Christensen at http://ecomer stanford.edu T he concept of having a BATNA—Best Alternative to a Negoti ated Agreement—was first described by Roger Fisher and W illiam Ur)' in the book G etting to Yes M en sch is Yiddish for someone who is admired and trusted and whose opinion is sought out by others 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 N otes 195 C H A P T E R : W IL L T H IS BE O N T H E E X A M ? You cmi watch video clips of Chong-Moon Lee at http://eeorner stanford.edu 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 twohour exercise by going to http://ecorncr.stanford.edu and doing a search for “puzzle.” C H A P T E R : E X P E R IM E N T A L A R T IF A C T S W hen they were doing early experiments, the Embrace team used margarine instead of wax it is inexpensive and easily ob tained, and the temperature at which it melts is very close to body temperature You can watch video clips of David Kelley at http://eeorner stanford.edu About the Author TINA S E E L IG has a Ph.D in neu ro scien ce from the Stanford Scho ol o f M ed icin e and is the ex ecu tiv e director o f the Stanford T ech no logy V entures Program , w hich is the entrepreneurship cen ter at Stanford U n iv ersity’ s School o f E ngineering In additio n , S e e lig teach es courses on entrepreneurship and innovation in the D epartm ent o f M anagem ent S c ie n c e and E ngineering and in the H asso P lan ner Institute o f D esign at Stanford U n iv ersity She frequently speaks and runs w orkshops for ex ecu tiv es in a w id e range o f d iscip lin es and has w ritten several popular scien ce books for ad u lts and children V isit the author on line at w w w h arp crco llin s.co m / tin ascclig V isit w w w A uth orT rackcr.co m for e x clu siv e inform ation on your favorite H arperC ollins author Credits Designed by L evel C Copyright W H A T I W IS H I K N E W W H E N 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 N o 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 Adobe Acrobat eBook Reader March 2009 IS B N 978-0-06-187247-1 109 ... 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... recruiting, started w ith all the traditional approaches to recruiting, in clu d in g posting posi tions on job boards and craigslist, advertising on social net w orking sites such as L in ked... 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