Daily Endeavor Blog

From a danah boyd tweet I ran across the work of Jonathan Harris and Sep Kamvar. It’s smart and visually mesmerizing. The bread crumb trail led me to a talk (”Beyond Flash“, slides) that Harris gave in October where he poses a powerful question:

Once you have learned how to speak, what will you say? This is really the central question. If I can leave you with one idea from my talk, this would be it.

It’s this question I have to believe Mary Oliver had in mind when she was writing a Summer Day. It’s also the central question we’re pursuing with Endeavor Prep. Jonathan’s is a potent question because it has two assumptions embedded in it that are significant for every person alive.

Good to Know

The first is a recognition that we’re all learning how to speak — that is, becoming individuals who can participate in the world, do things, partner, contribute, and, sure also in a literal sense, say things so as to engage and involve others. When people realize this about themselves, if I’m lucky enough to be around, it’s a great moment to be a part of. Their face (or voice) says, “I’ve actually learned all this stuff, and when I go out into the world, you know what, people respond to me.” It’s an a-ha moment that sometimes happens in college, sometimes after. The world at once gets much smaller because now each other person is accessible and just a few hops away, and also much bigger because of the staggering variation of interests and action happening out there.

Don’t be Daunted

Second, once people realize they have a voice and can cut their own path, the real question becomes What do you want to do with it? On one hand, the pure freedom and potential is exhilarating. On the other, it’s also a big hairy weighty question.

For some people it feels monolithic, as if it needs be answered all at once. So choosing, no wait, supposedly optimizing among every option is overwhelming. It’s like there’s one shot to pick from the menu and that’s what I’ll be eating, and known for eating, for the rest of my life.

Fortunately, picking “one time” is a false choice. Discovering what you will say is an iterative process. Even when you make a choice to try something out, you can still make another choice at another time to try something else.

If you want to be an gold medalist in gymnastics and you’re just starting 25, then yes, you may have missed the window. But for 99.9999% of the options out there, you can prototype your way towards it.

Learn by Doing

I’m glad I ran across the Jonathan Harris talk (there’s more here at TED). His projects and tips are really worth looking into. Here are few more:

You will become known for doing what you do. This may sound obvious, but it is a useful thing to realize. Many people seem to think they must endure a “rite of passage” which, once passed, will allow them to do the kind of work they want to do. Then they end up disappointed that this day never comes. Find a way to do the work you want to do, even if it means working nights and weekends. Once you’ve done a handful of excellent things in a given way, you will become known as the person who does excellent things in that given way. And that’s the person you want to be, because then people will hire you to be that person.

The personal is powerful. Trust your own experience. It’s the only thing that’s really yours, and that’s really unique. Putting yourself in your work can be powerful.

Do your own thing. If you imitate, you’ll only ever be a bad example of the thing you’re trying to imitate. An artist I like very much, Donald Judd, said that what you have to do is to find the same level of inventiveness as the person you’re trying to imitate. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t incorporate elements of other people’s work. As Picasso said: “Bad artists copy; great artists steal.” What he meant is that it can be OK to steal an idea from somewhere else, as long as you steal the idea and do something new with it, make it your own, and move on. If you copy it outright you’ll only get stuck in the past.

Experience is the only way to learn. Pain, joy, fear, risk, love, firsthand experience. You can learn so much from these things, and the experience will end up affecting your work in ways you don’t even realize. But it’ll be based on a real thing.

Right on.

On September 11, 2003, I made a guest post on my friend Ross’ blog. What’s transpired since then is a long and varied tale, but in many ways centers around the very question in that post:

Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?

For me, the answer to Mary Oliver’s venerable question can be distilled to: Don’t settle, do what you love. It’s one of the true engines that powers people’s lives and the economies and world we live in.

This blog is going to tell a story. It’s going to take a few years because, as it turns out, it’s a story that’s never been written before. It’s the story of how 100 million people sought out and did what they loved.

Here’s where the story starts. There are three parts that you need to know.

First, who? There is a tremendous force arriving on the scene, and at just about the right time. It’s the sheer creative force of people coming into their own. Maybe they’re 24, or maybe they’re 19. Maybe they’re your friend, your brother or daughter. Or maybe it’s you. This great wave of individuals goes by many names (Millennials, Gen Y, Net Gens, you name it). The labels are not so important, it’s the individuals that are at the center of the story — who they are, and what they choose to do. This generation is going to re-shape the world as we know it. It’s already begun, and it’s fantastic.

Second, have you ever wondered why is it some people truly thrive in their work life, while others do not? This is the question we set out to answer as part of a research project at Harvard over three years ago. The pattern we found isn’t a lack of talent (there is tons) or opportunity (there are more types of jobs today than ever before). We found most people never discover what they truly want to do. Too many people settle. That’s a problem — not only is there great cost to the individual (”wow, my job really sucks”), but also to their companies, colleagues and the economy.

Consider the alternative. What if more people found a career path of genuine interest, however they define it? What if more people were able to find work that lit them up — how would their lives be different?

In our experience, these people excel, and not just economically. These people have more opportunities to grow and more ways to — dare we say it — be happy. They make better colleagues, managers, entrepreneurs, and probably neighbors too. Because they’re working from abundance, not scarcity, there’s an unmistakable productivity that’s unleashed.

As a result, we set about addressing the unmet need — helping people answer the question “What do I want to do?” –  which led us to develop Endeavor Prep, the career search prep course.

Lastly, why now? Most people (96% when we asked) want to find the right job for them, yet many (too many) people wake up at 30 or 50 and say “I guess this is what I do.” Figuring out what you want to do is a crucial rite of passage that, crucially, many people are missing. It’s not something to figure out in one hour, or even in one job. It’s an iterative process that you can learn. Because it’s iterative, tremendous gains accrue to those who start early. We want those gains to accrue to  you. In fact we want them to accrue to the entire generation.

Plain and simple: We want to see 100 million people thrive.

Though we’ve been at it for a while, we’re just getting started. And we can’t do it alone. I hope you’ll come along for the ride.