Month: January 2010

education, learning, politics, religion

Step 3: Things I Don’t Know

Christa Avampato

Last night I was settling back in to my New York apartment while the wind whistled through my windows. It was so loud at one point that I couldn’t sleep so I flipped on the TV to CNN. Chistiane Amanpour was reporting about Muslim radical extremists in the U.K. Though I watch the news regularly and read several newspapers, there are some topics that still confuse me. The complex network of Muslim radical extremist groups is one of them. I know all the vocabulary though I don’t know how it all hangs together. And this bothers me.

I started thinking about all of the things that I know just a little about, and how much it bothers me to have holes in my knowledge. I don’t like the phrase “I know enough just to be dangerous.” I’d much prefer to know enough so as not be dangerous but be able to speak intelligently on a topic.

In this new year, there are a few topics that I’d really like to dig into and understand in depth. Here are a few of them:

1.) WHAT – I know little to nothing about Islam and its many factions. I’d like to take a small step toward piecing together the popular vocabulary that surrounds this religion. It’s influence is growing in leaps and bounds, dominating our news waves. I should understand it more clearly if I’m to have a greater understanding of our own foreign policy.

HOW – My friend, Amy, is very well-versed in the topic so I’m going to ask her to give me a little crash course during one of our catch-ups. I’ll also ask her for some primer books, blogs, and news services that would be a good reference for me.

2.) WHAT – I’ve been practicing yoga for a decade though have not read some of the sacred texts that serve as its base. I also don’t know the Sanskrit names for all of the asanas (poses).

HOW – At the end of February I am going to begin a very intense yoga teacher training program to master this material. Every other weekend, I’ll be practicing 9 hours on Saturday and 9 hours on Sunday, for 14 weeks. In addition, the program also requires meeting 3 times per week after work, independent reading and writing assignments, and class attendance at the studio once per week. It is a rigorous program that will require a great deal of focus, though my passion for the art and science of yoga will make the rigor a welcome circumstance.

3.) WHAT – The news stories I love most are those that showcase the Power of One. I’d love to read more of these stories in 2010 to understand the psychology of this personality type, and there are a few people that particularly intrigue me. There are several sources that catalog the journeys of these kind of people. Two I particularly like are NBC’s Making a Difference segment and Dafna Michaelson’s 50 in 52 Journey.

HOW – I’ve ordered a few books that share the stories of Geoffrey Canada, the Founder of Harlem Children’s Zone, and William Kamkwamba, the 14 year old in Malawi who built a windmill for his family armed only with a local library book. These are incredible stories of people who saw a need in their communities and set to work to meet that need with little or no resources except their own ingenuity and passion. Could anything be more inspiring?

career, creativity, Fast Company, IDEO, work

Step 2: Working with Friends

Christa Avampato

Today I had lunch with Trevin and Blair, two of my friends whom I worked with a number of years ago. During our lunch, I was reminded of how good it feels to work with friends, to be such an integral part of their lives. I’ve heard some people say that it’s best to keep our personal and professional lives separate. I disagree. I’d always prefer to work with friends – it makes work feel like play.

Last year I wrote a blog post that referenced an article in Fast Company about David Kelley, the Founder of IDEO. He left a mediocre management job at an engineering firm to get his MBA at Stanford. Though he had job offers after graduation, he declined them to start his own company with his friends. That company became IDEO. In the article he describes that his one strong inclination for employment was to work with friends. Had he not taken the leap and followed his instinct, he probably would be toiling away in a grey cubicle doing less-than-inspiring work. Instead, he founded a company that is arguably the finest product design firm in the world. And he has fun everyday. Bet well-played, David.

What if we could all follow our gut with David Kelley’s creative confidence? What if we could turn down opportunities, as great as they seem, because they just don’t jive with how we’d like to live our lives? Perhaps there’s an IDEO for each of us, or at the very least a bit more happiness to be had in our careers. In 2010, I’d like to get back to a career of working with friends.

The photo above is not my own. It appears courtesy of IDEO.

choices, dreams

Step 1: If

Christa Avampato

“If”: proof that glorious things can come in very small packages. Think of all the wonder wrapped up in this tiny, two-letter word. Imagination takes flight, dreams come to be, and chances of a lifetime are taken by its mere utterance. On his blog, Chris Brogan asked his readers to consider the three words of 2010 that they would use to shape their 2010 plans. “If” is my selection because of the great possibility it invokes.

“If” describes the abilities that make us successful in the truest sense of the word, in terms of the deepest and dearest meaning it has. What abilities allow us to live a life of great virtue? What abilities will make every possibility an option for us? “If” is the gateway to the answers.

“If-” is the title of one of my favorite poems by Rudyard Kipling, and one of my favorite lines of the poem asks us to “start again at your beginnings”. Today begins a new decade, and so it’s only natural for us to look back and remember where we began the last one. A few days after January 1, 2000, I took off for my first theatre tour. Previously, I had been working in a tiny theatre box office, and I needed to break out of it. The contract for the tour was only for four months and the pay was less than I made at the box office. I didn’t care; I needed the adventure.

And so began a decade that would lead me to travel around the globe, fulfill my dream of managing Broadway shows, and then send me back to school to take on the complex world of hard-nosed business. I became a published writer, and through that writing found my truest voice. I found yoga as a balm for my old soul, fell in love countless times, and learned to trust my own instincts above all others. In the decade that began with the year 2000, I discovered how I could make a meaningful contribution to humanity that would live on long after I am gone.

At the end of the decade, I was getting a bit too comfortable. I had gotten set in my new ways and lost sight of the adventure that called to me so clearly at the start of 2000. I too often trusted the opinions and instincts of others. And so, the world decided that a cleansing was necessary, a cleansing that would make it impossible for me to rest on my laurels by taking away the laurels altogether. In Kipling’s audacious terms, I was forced to start again at my beginnings.
Today, in this hour, at this moment, I am choosing to begin again using a map of “If, then” statements. It is a long and winding road, filled with imagination and dreams, a tortuous tangle of stunning possibility and hope. Cheers to the beginning of a very good year, and a very good decade!