Are You Ready to Die?
“When you die, die like I am planning to die. Empty. It’s finished,” -Dr. Myles Munroe This past week, my brother Gerald informed me of a news report that broke my heart: one of my greatest heroes and biggest personal influences, Dr. Myles Munroe, is dead. According to this ABC News report, Dr. Munroe, his […]
The First Praxis Class Has Graduated!
I can hardly believe it. Praxis was nothing more than an idea two years ago, and little more than a website 18 months ago. Today, the first ever Praxis class graduates. They began in February at our opening seminar on Sullivan’s Island, SC. There they met entrepreneurs, CEO’s, venture capitalists, and thinkers and doers of […]
Incidental, or Instrumental?
I was listening to NPR’s TED Radio Hour while flying last week, and I came across a really interesting interview with filmmaker James Cameron. Cameron got involved with deep see exploration after filming the opening scenes for his blockbuster Titanic. I always assumed his involvement with submarine exploration was incidental – he made Titanic, and […]
Against the “Work/Life Balance”
The idea of a work/life balance is an attractive one. It helps give us reprieve and meaning when we have jobs we don’t enjoy, allows us to pursue multiple competing ends at once, and permits people to be more than simply their jobs. If one only identifies by the job they have, then failure at […]
Taking a Gap Year: FAQ
We’ve written before on the value of taking a gap year (here and here) and regularly stress the importance of young people not rushing through timely, expensive formal education just because they don’t know what else to do. When you aren’t sure about the path you want to follow with your education, you don’t have […]
How to Talk to Your Family About a Gap Year
Taking a gap year can be one of the best decisions a young person can make when considering the path of their higher education. The benefits are plenty. Gap years provide time to figure out what you want to get out of your education before devoting several years and tens of thousands of dollars to […]
The World Needs More Failure
“If there is one thing I can pass on from my humbling experiences in life, thus far, I will tell you this, the next time someone tells you “the absence of expectations is the absence of disappointment, do not listen. Have expectations. Keep them great. It’ll be a very bumpy ride. You’ll even get bruised, […]
You Can’t “Break the Mold” Until You Question the Mold
Studying philosophy upset my fruit basket. By the third week of study, I admitted to my group (in much less ladylike terms) that this module annoyed and even infuriated me “so many times”. It began to agitate me not because it was boring or impractical, but because I realized I was a lazy thinker. And […]
A Few Quotes from Peter Thiel’s New Book
We ordered a box of Peter Thiel’s new book Zero to One for the Praxis participants. I pulled out a copy Wednesday night to get a flavor before I hit the pillow. Three and a half hours and the full 195 pages later I couldn’t fall asleep even though it was 2 AM, well past my usual bedtime. […]
Two Types of Success in Schools
A diploma is a dunce hat in disguise. — Peter Thiel How can this be true? There are plenty of successful people — including Thiel — who have college degrees. There are entrepreneurs with multiple degrees who run successful, multi-million dollar businesses. There are intelligent, happy, fulfilled people with degrees. How can people who are so successful […]
Becoming Marketable Despite College
This is a guest post by entrepreneur Jeff Till. Jeff is the founder and owner of SAM-Lab, Inc. You can contact him here. After taking five years to finish my Bachelor of Science degree in Art from Western Michigan University, it dawned on me that I would need a grown-up job. I decided that I would […]
Launching the Fall 2014 Class from Seabrook Island
We’re excited to be at beautiful Seabrook Island outside of Charleston, SC with eight of the country’s brightest young thinkers and entrepreneurs for an exciting and intense couple of days. These few days, our Fall 2014 participants will kick off their journeys by hearing from successful entrepreneurs, intellectuals, and academics about what it takes to […]
Don’t Major in Entrepreneurship
Lots of business schools offer concentrations and majors in “entrepreneurship.” It is the expected response to more and more entrepreneurial young people either foregoing college altogether or majoring in something like computer science rather than going to business school. If you want to be an entrepreneur, it may seem like majoring in entrepreneurship at a […]
“Some Guy” Theory
I have a theory. Well, actually, I know a guy who knows another guy who has a theory. It’s called “some guy” theory. Here’s the theory in a nutshell: No matter what “it” is, there’s always “some guy” for whom “it” doesn’t work. Whether we’re talking about losing weight, eating healthier, managing money, investing resources, building […]
10 Excuses of Unproductive People
The world is full of people of varying productivity. Some people are highly productive — others are highly unproductive. Most people float somewhere in between, with productive days and unproductive days sprinkled in between. The trick to becoming an effective worker, employee, and boss is to have more productive days than unproductive days. Some people, […]