How to Write a Resume and Influence People
Résumé writing is not simply putting all of your achievements and jobs on a piece of paper and presenting those to a potential employer or an admissions officer. It should be the delicate and painstaking craft of showing what value you bring to their company or their program. It should be the craft of marketing yourself to a […]
What Kind of Entrepreneur Are You?
Entrepreneurs come in different types. Not everybody is the wiz-kid app inventor, or the Steve Jobs-type salesman. That being said, all entrepreneurs have one thing in common: they are creative problem solvers. Though it may vary exactly how they turn this problem-solving into a product or service, all identify a problem and find a new way […]
How to Use Email
I don’t care how old-school it may seem to younger people, email remains the dominant form of communication in the business world. It is absolutely essential that you understand and do it well. Most young people don’t realize how often they shoot themselves in the foot with poor email use. Here are ten tips to […]
Entertaining Angels
There’s a saying in the Bible about treating everyone, even total strangers, with hospitality and respect because you never know when you might be “entertaining angels”. The wisdom of this advice is not just for heavenly beings. Say you’re sitting in Starbucks working away on your laptop and someone walks by, bumps into your elbow […]
The Praxis Curriculum: Learning to Learn
I send weekly updates to our participants wherein I challenge them with a question, or a task, or a contest, or give a few thoughts on their business partner experience, what they want after Praxis, etc. I tend to focus more on the broader experience and the business component, since Education Director TK Coleman works […]
How to Work When Work is Too Easy
If you’re a hard worker, one of the most difficult things is how to handle times when work is too easy. If it’s a job you don’t like, you might not mind a slow work flow, but if you care about and enjoy what you do, few things are more vexing for someone with high […]
Failure, Rejection, & The Myth of Overlooked Genius
“I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” -Michael Jordan There is a difference between being a genius and […]
The Thoughtful Entrepreneur
The following was written by Praxis participant Mary Peterson. At the Praxis kick off in Charleston last week, I sat for a video interview with Drew and Helen Tidwell, producers of I, Pencil as they pieced together a promotional video. “Why do you want to be an entrepreneur?” they asked. “Entrepreneurs are the movers and […]
Create Your Own Experience
“Be ambitious. There probably won’t be another time in your life when you have such freedom of opportunity. Grasp it with both hands. If you can’t find an opening that fits what you want to do, why not try to create one yourself?” -Richard Branson The best resume is a great personal brand. The best […]
Is Business Exploitative?
One common objection that is given against businesspeople and those interested in going into business goes along the lines of this: “But you can’t go into the business world! Everybody will just use you to get ahead, and if you actually want to succeed, you’ll have to just use everybody else to get ahead! You’d just […]
Entrepreneurship: The Benevolent Disruptor
I was standing motionless in one of those one-stop drug stores that sells everything from hair brushes to screwdrivers to sports drinks, in addition to offering prescription drug services. I was at the aisle dedicated to seasonal items. At this aisle, it’s scary monsters and witches in October, plastic turkeys and leafy decorations in November, […]
Entrepreneurs unbundle and rebundle
An economics professor and entrepreneur friend of mine always used to tell me that entrepreneurs noticed bundles of resources that could be made more valuable by unbundling, and they noticed unbundled resources that could be made more valuable by bundling. He used to give the example of cars. At some point in time, the combination […]
Learn how to carry the tray
My first job in college was as a server at the Olive Garden. I had never worked in a restaurant before. Unfortunately for me, Olive Garden required everything to be carried on a tray. On my first day, I dropped an entire tray of soda glasses on a customers lap. It was not a fun experience […]
Criticize by creating
There’s always something to be unhappy with. Airport lines are too long. Insurance paperwork is ridiculously complex. Wifi keeps going down. While I appreciate the sentiment in Louis CK’s famous “Everything is wonderful and nobody’s happy” soliloquy, I also appreciate discontentment. It needn’t make your life less fulfilling to be aware of things that could […]
Five reasons to apply to Praxis
1. You don’t want to sit in a cinder block classroom for another semester In college, I always took an 8 AM class. Not because I was a morning person, but because it was really nice to doze during that class so I had the energy to play basketball during the break before the next […]