I carried the last 10 years of my life in a book bag in order to illustrate to teens and millennials that successful entrepreneurship is about building a culture of achievement, not branding.
—
When former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer last year announced Microsoft YouthSpark, a company-wide, global initiative to create opportunities for 300 million youth over three years—investing millions into closing the opportunity gap that contributes to the more than 75 million unemployed youth around the world—I certainly didn’t expect to play a role in it, mainly because I knew very little about the ground-breaking effort, and I didn’t quite network in the same circles as those who work for, or partner with the billion dollar computer software, consumer electronics and personal computers and services company founded by philanthropist Bill Gates in April of 1975.
But when I was asked by the lively Kara Lindstrom, Chief Enabler at Drexel University’s Excite Center, to participate in the first ever Microsoft YouthSpark Live event in the U.S., which was going to be held one block from my closed alma mater, University City High School, I jumped at the opportunity. The date marked 10 years since my high school graduation, and since the school building had just been sold to Drexel University, the experience was historical to me in multiple contexts.
Although there was a perceived tech-entrepreneurship theme for the event and what I believe to be a naturally synergy between Microsoft and Techbook Online – whereas I have original wholly-owned content and they have sturdy hardware, like the Surface brand of tablets—I made the conscious choice not to talk about the technology and new products introduced by my marketing and news organization—like our early education climate change Techbook—instead I wanted to highlight the personality and passion that steers the ship everyday to nearly 100 million readers a month.
To clearly illustrate that successful entrepreneurship is less about websites and more about the culture of achievement that you create for yourself, I did something I’ve never done before: I publicly shared the awards and mementos that I’ve acquired over the last 10 years, most items I introduced during my show & tell session had never been outside of its original safekeeping; moreover, I’ve actually never shown most of these things to anyone.
Biking from South Philly to University City—taking almost the same route I took 10 years ago when working towards a high school diploma—I carried in my book bag everything from the Department Manager of the Year Award I received from Guitar Center in 2006, to the citation I received from the City of Philadelphia in June of 2014.
My goal wasn’t to boast about my accomplishments—half of the awards I had to dust off and unearth just to be able to present them, so it wasn’t like I was used to talking about and presenting these items—I really wanted to get across that achievement and excellence in execution should be a lifestyle that’s lived daily, not just a temporary spout done in order impress an investor or a funder.
Although many of the youth had no clear idea of what they wanted to do in terms of entrepreneurship, they at least weren’t indoctrinated to believe the sky was as far as they could go. To my point, one girl even said: “there are footprints on the moon.” These bright young people understood they could go higher than the clouds, but what’s missing—and what Microsoft has figured out—is that it’s about opportunity and exposure. During the break an 18 year-old black boy came up to me and said:
“Man, it’s so awesome to see someone who looks like me doing the types of things you’re doing. I can tell you mean what you say and you really inspired me.”
Even if that young man, or anyone who listened to my story, doesn’t remember the name of my company, how to find my content or what type of stories I publish every day, they’ll always remember the most important thing: that the sky is not the limit, it’s the starting point!
Thanks for reading. Until next time, I’m Flood the Drummer® & I’m Drumming for JUSTICE!™
—
Photo: stwn/Flickr