change, curiosity

My Year of Hopefulness – Why Settle for One Dimension When You Could Have Many?

Christa Avampato

I arrived home from Florida today tired and happy. There is a good deal of shifting about to take place in my life and that shifting is causing my usual high energy to run that much higher. So what to do with all this excessive energy? Clean my apartment. (A bit sunburned from my time in the Sunshine State, jogging out in the sunshine seemed like less than a good idea.)

As is my habit when cleaning my apartment, I put on the Food Network. There was some challenge called Last Cake Standing where each of the five competitors had to build their life story out of cake. Can you imagine a more fun assignment? If only I could bake…

One of the contestants built this gorgeous cake of decorative masks, forms that symbolized different hobbies she has and places she’s been. It was colorful and inventive, much more so than any of the other cakes. One of the judges criticized her for having too many disparate parts and not enough of a cohesive story. She’s being ridiculed for having too many interests? Too many dimensions to her personality? Too many interesting stories and way of spending her time?

This is a terrible message to be sending out into the world, and it’s one I’ve seen and heard much too often from far too many people. A lot of people are comfortable in one dimension. Maybe they don’t have the capacity or imagination or creativity for living life in many different directions. And if so, that’s fine, but don’t criticize people who want to explore every interest them have! Don’t punish people for being curious.

Here’s are some ideas for expanding your world if you’d like to break out of the same old same old:

1.) Find a new hobby. Meet-ups, Twitter, and your local bookstore are great places to look for ideas.

2.) Live life like a tourist for a weekend. Pick up a copy of a guide book to your city or a copy of the weekend edition of your paper, and see where it takes you.

3.) Take a weekend trip on an impulse.

4.) Volunteer – you’ll be inspired by the other people you work alongside.

5.) Start to learn a new language, and explore the cultures that use it

art, story

My Year of Hopefulness – Giving the visual arts its fair share of attention

Christa Avampato

If you want to learn about the importance of impact in visual messaging, consider this: the average amount of time a painter has to engage a potential purchaser of his work in a gallery is 15 seconds. That’s about how much time people spend looking at any one painting as they’re strolling through an art space. In 15 seconds, the artist who likely spent hours, days, or months creating a single piece of work must make that viewer think, laugh, cry, and wonder. 15 seconds to make an impression, or not. In other words, the painter must immediately elicit some type of strong emotion and curiosity or risk being passed by and forgotten.

In writing, we give authors a decent number of pages before we decide to continue or put down a book. We’ll watch a TV show for a few episodes, a play for at least the first act, a few songs on an album or at a live concert. Visual artists barely ever get a fair shake. And here’s why it’s even more tragic: our minds physically cannot take in every detail of a painting in 15 seconds. But it’s exactly those details that will make all the difference in our opinion of a piece of work. In 15 seconds, we aren’t giving the artists nor ourselves a fair shake and my guess is that we are missing a lot of beauty and a lot of joy through this self-imposed limitation.

For the sake of the art world, here’s my suggestion: slow down and open the mind. I’m guilty of museum fever. I have to get through as much as possible as quickly as possible just to say I’ve seen it. Bad idea. Very bad idea. I have a tough time recalling details of works if I take that approach. So on my last visit to the Met, I went more slowly and I did less. I went to see one small showcase, Raphael to Renoir, and then let myself just wander and enjoy whatever happened to catch my eye for about an hour. I spent that hour looking at a handful of works and I took the time to enjoy, appreciate, and question each one. It was the best visit I ever had to the Met.

The visual arts can be overwhelming but they don’t have to be. Take small steps, question why the artist chose specific colors, textures, or points of view. Read the back story on the work if it’s published alongside the work in a gallery or museum. Take time to consider all the choices that could have been made and why an artist specifically made the decisions to create the work that now stands before you. We’ll be better off for this exercise – we’ll learn how to see and appreciate more of the world around us – and visual artists will finally get a chance to inspire us at least as much as other artists.

The painting above, Blank Image, was painted by Kyle Waldrep and is on display at the School of Visual Arts on the UCF campus. Oil on canvas.

career, change, choices, family, friendship, movie, priorities

My Year of Hopefulness – 10 Items or Less

Christa Avampato

Phil Terry recommended the movie 10 Items or Less on his Facebook page. It is one of those exceptional indie films that slipped by me and I am glad Phil encouraged his friends to see it. In the movie, the two main characters discuss 10 items or less of things they love, hate, can’t do without, etc.

It’s a poignant and revealing premise. In a few short words, these lists can get at the heart of what’s really important to you. So here are my 3 lists of 10 items or less: things I love, things I need to do in my life, and impacts I’d like to have.

Things I love to do
Write
Develop new business ideas
Research
Read
Meet new people
Travel
Volunteer
Organize

Things I need to do in my life
Start my own business
Own the place where I live
Write and publish books
Fall in love for life
Travel a lot
Learn to play an instrument well

Impacts I’d like to have
Live an extraordinary life
Help other people live extraordinary lives
Help other people start their own businesses so they can be independent and create their own lives on their own terms
Further the cause of creativity and innovation

career, charity, community, community service, family, philanthropy, volunteer, women

My Year of Hopefulness – Women in Need

Christa Avampato

Yesterday I participated in an event at work as part of my women’s networking group. We provided workshops, some career coaching, and a healthy dose of encouragement to women who are in homeless shelters, unemployed, and who need a hand up in life. My networking group goes by the acronym WIN (Women’s Integration Network).

I had volunteered to have a 1-on-1 lunch with one of the women who were visiting our office for the day. I was paired up with a woman who had an 11 year old daughter. Married, both she and her husband have been unemployed for some time. No college education, with a goal of being a social worker. We were joined by another woman who didn’t have a lunch buddy. She had an 11 year old brother she was taking care of as well as a 1 year old daughter. She lives in a homeless shelter and began taking care of her brother after her mother had a nervous break-down. The father of her child is incarcerated, out of the picture. She hasn’t had work in a while either, citing affordable and hard-to-come-by childcare as a major obstacle. She wants to go to school to be a nurse. Both are 25 years old.

What was I going to say to these women? How could I relate? How could I even begin to understand how difficult it is for them to just get up out of bed in the morning?

And then one of the women, the one who wants to be a nurse, said to me “Your name tag – you’re from Women in Need.” (Women In Need is the community group they belong to that helps these women find jobs, get money for school, and provides emotional support.)

“No, I work here in this office building,” I replied.

“But your name tag says – WIN. That stands for Women in Need.”

“Oh! That’s also the acronym for our internal networking group here at this company. It stands for Women’s Integration Network.”

And with that simple revelation, I realized these women were not very different from me at all. My mom raised by sister, brother, and I on her own, no college education. We struggled with food and housing and health insurance. We had trouble keeping the lights and the heat on. Though that was many years ago, it’s still there in me. All of it. I remember being hungry and afraid and hopeless. I remember having dreams that seemed unlikely, foolish, and impossibly out of reach.

I told them about putting myself through school twice, about my mom, about the role of education in my life and the advantages it provided to me. I smiled and laughed and asked them about their kids and their daily lives. I listened to them talk about their frustrations and hopes. And all it took was time – that’s all it cost it me.

Through that lunch, I realized that there is a lot I can offer in these tough times, a lot of people I can help to live happier, healthier, more successful lives. And it doesn’t involve any kind of extraordinary act. All it takes is me sitting down with people who are down and out, and telling them about my life and how I made it better, how so many people helped me along the way.

It’s really just a way to pay forward all the blessings I have been fortunate enough to encounter. The people who helped me (my mom, my teachers, guidance counselors, some of my bosses, friends, authors, speakers, and the list goes on) were angels, and without them I am certain that I would have failed. This current recession provides us with an incredible opportunity to give and participate. It gives us a chance to repay the kindnesses we’ve witnessed.

business, career, change, friendship, work

My Year of Hopefulness – Be the Change

Christa Avampato

I went to the Metropolitan Opera with my friend, Allan. Prior to the show, we met at the B&N on 66th Street to grab some coffee and talk about a business project he’s working on. As I was standing in line, I saw a mug merchandised with that familiar saying by Gandhi “Be the Change You Wish to See in the World”. I’ve seen it a million times before on every conceivable piece of merchandise from coffee mugs to calendars to t-shirt to bumper stickers. It’s published so often that it’s almost become a cliche.

So how about we take that saying and use as a discussion starter for business? We use it so often when talking about social issues, politics, the general act of living and playing a part in our communities. Now put yourself in your boss’s shoes or your CEO’s shoes. What is that you’d like to see your company do or say or be? And can you take those ideas and either transform your workplace or start your own company around those principles?

Here are the changes I’d like to see in the (business) world and ones I can be:
1.) A constant champion for new ideas, the crazier the better
2.) An empathic listener of all stakeholders that have anything to do with my business
3.) A cheerleader for those I know who are too afraid, nervous, shy, or embarrassed to speak up for themselves
4.) A constant confidence booster
5.) Someone who cares, all day, everyday
6.) Someone who shuts down negativity, know-it-alls, hecklers, bullies, self-proclaimed “idea guys”, and other unsavory characters who kill innovation and creativity with their brash, loud-mouth personalities
7.) A connector, especially of those parties who seem disparate on the surface
8.) Committed, compassionate, concerned, open-minded who believes a discussion and a promise are far more important and useful than hours, day, and weeks spent building powerpoint slides and graphs made from colorful shapes
9.) Organized as a web rather than a pyramid

That’s not a bad list. And it’s not impossible to accomplish either. Best of all, business, companies, and stakeholders would be a lot better off if the world of commerce had these qualities in abundance.

government, human factors, justice, movie

My Year of Hopefulness – Harvey Milk

Christa Avampato

At 40 years old, Harvey Milk sat in a gray New York City cubicle at a large insurance company. He wasn’t proud of a single one of his accomplishments. Luckily for all of us, Harvey Milk was not content to live out his days in an unremarkable fashion. He rose up, and he took us with him.

In the remarkable portrayal of the first openly gay elected official in the U.S., Sean Penn brought the story of Harvey Milk to a new generation of people, just as the tide of activism, volunteerism, and interest in politics was taking hold again in this country. Harvey Milk stands as a shining example of possibility realized, of personal accountability and responsibility, of the power of a single individual to unite a group of people for a common cause.

Harvey Milk’s story is especially important now as we consider and re-consider laws and propositions whose central issue is decency and respect and dignity. Someone’s sexual orientation, gender, cultural heritage, religion, race, and socioeconomic status too often determines the course of someone’s life in our country. And it must stop.

I’ve heard people say that every generation has its own societal ill that becomes central to its history, shaping the lives of its members going forward. Ours is very basic, very easy to articulate. Once and for all, are we going to support the notion that all humans should be treated humanely, regardless of circumstance? Will we finally make the statement “all people are created (and therefore treated) equal” a reality? If so, then all of Harvey Milk’s efforts, and the efforts of millions like him, will have all been worthwhile.

New York City, nonprofit, philanthropy, volunteer

My Year of Hopefulness – NYC Service

Christa Avampato

“Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds.” ~George Eliot

Today Mayor Bloomberg launched a new initiative in New York City to make it easier and more efficient for New Yorkers to volunteer in our city. There are a number of services out there like Volunteermatch.com that are similar in mission though I find this new site, NYC Service, incredibly easy to use and its layout helps site visitors to sift volunteer interests more efficiently.

Don’t find an opportunity that’s quite right for you? No problem – you can create your own. Additionally, you can download a preparedness tool kit and a tool kit to help you reduce your carbon footprint. You can also get more information about NYC Civic Corps, similar to AmeriCorps specifically focused on NYC. Nonprofit can post a volunteer opportunity and businesses can sign up as partners of the effort.

And here’s my favorite part: the BLANK effort. Fill in the BLANK. Everyone has something to give. Time. Effort. Funds. Passion. Interests. Energy. These are incredible resources. And they exist everywhere, within all of us. We all have something to give. Regardless of circumstances, financial ability, skills sets, race, gender, religion, culture. We can all give, and our city will be better for our volunteerism. People move mountains, and we are surrounded by mountains. Lend a hand. Visit NYC Service today.

business, Business Week, career, entrepreneurship, Jack Welch, Suzy Welch

My Year of Hopefulness – advice for MBAs still on the hunt

Christa Avampato

I can’t tell you how often I shake my head at my own dumb luck. I started business school in 2005 for several very simple reasons:

1) I knew that I wanted to be a stellar performer in the nonprofit industry. Many of the donors that I worked with were from the business world and I wanted to understand their language, the circumstances they faced at their companies, and the way their minds worked.

2) I was 29, I wanted a graduate degree, and figured if I didn’t go then, I may not go at all.

3) I wanted to live an extraordinary life and I wanted to help other people do the same. Understanding our commerce and financial systems inside and out seemed like a very efficient way to accomplish both of those things. Money, and heart, make the world go ’round.

I graduated in 2007, when it seemed that nothing could stop our professional lives from zooming to the top of the charts. I was blessed to be graduating in a very strong economy and alums I spoke to said I should thank my lucky stars. I did.

And then 6 months later, my beliefs, and everyone else’s for that matter, about the economy were turned on their heads. The worst recession since the Great Depression. I have great empathy for fellow b-school grads who graduated the year after me, and more still for those set to graduate next month. You are facing extraordinary circumstances; we all are.

Today, I read Jack and Suzy Welch’s column in Business Week and they see three possible avenues for newly minted MBAs. Quite frankly, their advice applies to everyone in the job market at the moment and it’s very worthy of repeating:

1) Settle, work like heck, and learn to love it.
If you’re looking for a new job, or thinking of moving on from where you are now, you might have to settle for a lower title, a new industry, slightly different job responsibilities, or less money than you had originally planned for. And that’s okay. Make sure it’s work you enjoy and that strategically you’ll be poised to leverage it going forward into a position that is a better long-term match for you.

2) Put yourself out there full throttle. Decice the three dream companies or dream people you’d like to work for. Write to them, email them, call them and ask for five minutes of their time. Then prepare for that five minutes more thoroughly than you’ve ever prepared for anything in your life!

3) Go it alone, sort of. Sit down and make a list of the three things you’re really good at and that you love doing. Then imagine the types of companies you could start with those skills. If you need to fill in some gaps, recruit a friend or colleague who has those attributes and see if you can make a go of it. In an earlier column, the Welch’s said that this is the BEST time to start a company if you can deliver more value for less money than your competition.

Building on this advice, I’d say try two of the three. Actually, I think you should do all three, and here’s why:

1.) Settle and like it. When I was 22 and just graduated from college, I loved theatre. I still do. In a lot of ways my work in the arts saved my life. I wanted very much to work in that industry so on my mother’s suggestion, I wrote to every theatre company in NYC and asked them to hire me. I was willing to do anything from fetching coffee to taking messages to running errands. The Roundabout Theatre Company hired me as a customer service rep for $10 an hour and from there I built a career in that industry for 6 years. It was a great time in my life and taught me that a settle (strategically) and love it plan can and does work.

2.) Writing to people – My friend, Richard, has encouraged me for some time now to write to every person I admire that I’d ever like to have some type of working relationship with. He’s relentless about repeating this advice to me. Case in point – I love the work that HopeLab does. They build video games for young people managing critical illnesses. I wrote them a letter, they responded, and I hopped on a plane to visit them in the hopes that some day down the line the time will be right for us to work together on some project.

3.) Do your own thing – we should all be working on doing our own thing! If this downturn has made me realize anything it’s that I want to be in control of my career. I no longer want to just hand it over to someone else to evaluate and grow. Going forward, I’d always like to have my own side projects that I’m working on, and someday one of those side projects just might be a killer idea that I can build a whole business from.

In short, we all have choices and options. Even in these grim, tough times, we can all find a way to make ourselves useful, and with all the uncertainty a multi-pronged plan might just be the safest thing we can do.

career, economy, entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship

My Year of Hopefulness – Are you a social entrepreneur?

Christa Avampato

The core psychology of a social entrepreneur is someone who cannot come to rest, in a very deep sense, until he or she has changed the pattern in an area of social concern all across society. –Bill Drayton, Founder of Ashoka

This morning on Daily Good, an on-line publication devoted to spreading good news, the topic is social entrepreneurship. What makes these people tick? The post this morning may help us all identify whether or not this type of entrepreneurship is the right one for us. Simply stated, social entrepreneurs found a business (often for-profit) that addresses a societal concern.

Could you be a social entrepreneur? Could your business or business idea be a social enterprise?

A personality checklist:
1.) Unable to come to rest until a cause you are passionate about is accomplished
2.) Belief that profit and social good are on equal footing
3.) Relationship builder
4.) Ability to connect the dots between experiences that seem disparate on the surface
5.) Persuade and inspire people to think differently

A business-cause checklist:
1.) As your company grows, do the economics and the cause support one another?
2.) Does the core business activity profoundly address the social cause it was founded to solve?
3.) Are both financial and social gains measurable in your business?

The interest in and passion for social entrepreneurship is growing quickly. One upside to this economy, is that people are being encouraged to think more creatively about how they want their lives to look and what they want to accomplish. After seeing the failings and flailings of many large corporations, many people are beginning to consider trading in their lives whiling away in grey cubicles for a chance to be entrepreneurs in charge of their own careers. And they’d like that effort to bring them financial gain and some improvements to the world around them.

business, innovation, investing

My Year of Hopefulness – You Can’t Shrink Your Way to Greatness

Christa Avampato

In this time of budget slashing and cut backs of every kind, I have been working hard to come up with a way to succinctly say why cutting back severely on innovation efforts and investment is a very bad idea. Not only is it a bad idea, in some cases in may prove to be the nail in the coffin for many companies. If they intend to invest in their companies only once the economy improves, they will find themselves far behind their competitors with foresight. Plus, it’s cheaper to invest and innovate when times are tough because vendors are willing to make negotiations and compromises that they would never make in fat times.

Until yesterday, I was coming up short on that succinct explanation. I wanted a 10 word sentence to say just what I said in the preceding paragraph. And as if a gift fell out of the sky, someone said to me “you can’t shrink your way to greatness.” Perfect! 7 words and on-point. We can rise to a challenge or we can steal away from it, hiding under a rock until the clouds clear. It’s hard to be brave and courageous in times like this. Some people may even call it fool-hardy. I’d say it’s vital.

Look at the alternative: without investment in innovation, we are stalled, suspended in time. We aren’t doing anything for our teams, nor are we doing any helpful work to pull us as a whole out of this recessionary situation. I’d argue that it’s not our option to invest and innovate now. It’s our duty, our responsibility, to ourselves and to one another. We are the ones we are waiting for to save us.

If our goal is to be great, then this is the time to be both prudent and forward-thinking in our spending. This recovery is a long-term proposition so let’s decide where we want to be in 5 years, 10 years, and take the steps now that make that goal inevitable as opposed to just a hopeful possibility.