I tell wonder-filled stories about hope and healing
It’s almost here!
The inaugural SXSW V2V conference in Vegas runs from August 12th – 14th. I’m giving 6 mentor sessions to new and would-be entrepreneurs on August 13th. Half of them are already gone. If you know someone going who might want to spend some time with me in one of my remaining sessions, send ’em on over to this link to sign up: http://mentor.sxswv2v.com/mentors/53.
Thanks y’all!
?What If! Innovation is one of my favorite innovation firms. They have a resource they use to get at key insights called “WOWs”, short for “Windows of Wisdom”. Everyone has them. Pieces of experience, knowledge, and expertise that give us special insights into how things work, or how they should work. They help us build empathy and compassion for specific circumstances. Being a parent, having a pet, living in a certain city, how we commute to work, what we do all day to earn a living, what we read, watch on TV, and hobbies we take up in our free time. It all matters – who we are is largely determined by how and with whom we spend our time.
Never underestimate WOWs, yours or anyone else’s. Insight is an elusive, odd beast that shows up in the strangest ways at the strangest times. Our WOWs are handy little assets to always keep in our back pockets. They help us recognize opportunities, and can be used for the greater good. Be generous with them – share what you know.
Here are 5 ways to put your WOWs to work:
1.) Crowding sourcing databases. A quick Google search will provide a myriad of agencies that now list crowd sourcing as an expertise and they need communities of people to be their experts. Their business depends on it. So get out there, join some of them, get compensated (in a variety of ways), and put your experience to work.
2.) Mentor or teach. Young people need our stories and example, now more than ever. Mentoring and teaching is the ultimate gift we can give because it involves generously sharing our own history. Check out sites like Takepart.com or Volunteermatch.org to find mentoring opportunities near you.
3.) Write. Writing in any form is helpful to connect us to others, to inspire, and to learn. Blog, comment on blogs, write a column or an op-ed, get involved in online communities of people with common interests. Put your thoughts out there generously and you’ll be surprised by the goodness you get in return.
4.) Create partnerships. Think of networking as finding like-minded partners. Write letters to people you admire – that’s how I wrote my column for Examiner that ultimately became my e-book, Hope in Progress. Online communities and Twitter are other great places to find potential partners who are as passionate as you are about your interests.
5.) Start a side business. Your key insights can be leveraged creatively to generate extra income. My interest in yoga led me to pursue my 200-hour RYT training and my creation of Compass Yoga. My interest in the art of writing led to my freelance writing work. Your hobbies can help you do well and do good at the same time when you share them with the world.
How have you put your experience to work for you?
I went to The Half King (one of the last great New York literary bars) last night to hear the author Tom Grimes talk about his new book Mentor: A Memoir. The book discusses Grime’s relationship with Frank Conroy, his mentor and friend whom he met at the Iowa Writer’s Workshop when Grimes was a graduate student at Iowa. Grimes explained how the book came about from a magazine assignment gone wrong. An editor had asked him to write a piece on Conroy’s work and instead the piece morphed into an exploration of Grime’s mentor relationship with Conroy. While not what the magazine editor asked for, the editor encouraged him to keep going and 8 months later Grimes had a book he never intended to write.
Exceedingly gracious and humble, Grimes also read a passage from the book from his early writing career when he waited tables at a small restaurant in Key West, Florida. He had a several second encounter with Conroy when Conroy spoke on a panel about writing in Key West. Conroy brushed him aside as just another would-be writer wanting admission into Iowa. Because of his rude behavior, Grimes wrote him off until Conroy called him to offer admission and a scholarship to Iowa after Conroy read his application and sample manuscript.
Throughout the talk, Grimes offered advice and encouragement to the audience about publishing, the craft of writing, the struggles that every writer faces in finding their own voice. The advice that sticks with me the most is his most simple and straight-forward: don’t let other people talk you into giving up; only give up when you think you should. It’s good advice for anyone who’s doing something they’re passionate about – their art, a business idea, an education, a community project, even a relationship.
There will also be naysayers, and sometimes those naysayers will be people close to us who care about us and our future. They will tell us how to spend our time, what skills to work on, where to live, go to school, and whom to be with. Ultimately, the only opinion about our lives that really matters is ours because we’re the ones we have to wake up with everyday, no matter what. If you can’t live with yourself and your choices, then it really doesn’t matter if anyone else can. You only get one crack at being you – make sure it’s done on your terms.
The Half King has a great slate of events that happen every Monday night. Check out the schedule and sign up for their email at http://www.thehalfking.com/
“The single largest pool of untapped resource in this world is human good intentions that never translate into action.” ~ Cindy Gallop
This morning I had breakfast with one of my business school professors. From the beginning of my time at Darden, he was a champion of mine and was someone that I spent many hours learning from. He has been and I hope will continue to be a great mentor of mine. I wanted to meet with him to talk about my plans for my own continuing education. He helped me to realize that in my plans, I am thinking too small. I am selling myself short.
He asked me what programs I was considering. “Christa, where you are is a function of where you’ve been. You must go to the best program that will accept you. Start with the number one program in the country first, go talk to them, see if it’s a match for you and if it is, fight for your admission into that program. This is the time to push yourself further than you ever dreamed possible.”
I was a little shell-shocked. I hadn’t considered the number one program at all, for a variety of reasons. On my way home, I kept closing my eyes and shaking my head a bit, considering the enormity of the task before me. My professor asked me to start from a place of the biggest, brightest, most beautiful dream where I can do the most good, and let that guide my application process. “A little change is not enough, Christa,” he said. “You are capable of more.”
When I got home and opened up my email, I found the quote from Cindy Gallop. I have good intentions, and by entering some of the programs I have been considering, I could bring some of them to life. My professor is asking me to reach up a bit higher on the tree of programs, where the sun shines brightest, where the fruit of hard labor is realized in its fullest form. If I intend to bring my intentions to life in the best way possible with the greatest amount of abundance, I don’t do myself any favors by dreaming small dreams.
On the subway down to meet my professor this morning, I was thinking about the idea of life being lived in 3 acts. Let’s assume I can live to the ripe old age of 100. At 33, I am just about to close my first act of life. In doing so, my professor’s advice is the perfect transition into act 2.
Here I am, a small town girl who worked hard to achieve some pretty decent accomplishments, endured some difficult hardships, and in the process found the line of work I was meant to do. In beginning to plan out that work, I had some ideas of how it could be achieved, and then a great mentor stepped in right at the end of act 1 with a surprise twist that would spur me to achieve much more in act 2 than my own script had originally set out to do. And so the plot shifts, the stakes heighten, and the excitement begins to build.
The wonders of Twitter – the connections I’ve made on there never cease to amaze me. If you’re not using it, hop to it – the conversation that is happening out there is invigorating and worthwhile. My latest good luck on the site was meeting an incredible woman, Phyllis, who runs a company called Shementor.
Christa Avampato 