Last night my team and I had a barbecue at my house in Millcreek.
I invited a bunch of friends who aren't involved in the project as well. This essentially served two purposes, one which I planned, and the other I didn't.
- First (planned): This would be the first time any of my staff members had met each other. It needed to feel fun and comfortable. This is fun and, while we're dead serious about accomplishing our goals, we don't need to act serious all the time. We want to always have the ability to kick back at the end of a hard day, relax, and have a good time. That's what life is all about.
- Second: My friends and family, some of which were the biggest skeptics, were able to identify a little better with what's going on and, in some sense, feel involved in it. This ought to quiet their destructive criticisms for a while.
I think a lesson I learned from this is:
- Get the non-believers involved.
Here is what we discussed during the meeting portion of the barbecue:
- Recruiting students and marketing ideas.
- If you see people running around in banana suits downtown, don't worry, bananas have not taken over the world. It's just us.
- Mostly, we believe so strongly in our mission that we know it will infect others. We are doing something because it matters and that's the best job in the world.
- Designing in-class curriculum.
- While students will design their own path, we need to have a solid base of stuff to teach them.
- The subjects we teach need to be based on real examples, from real business owners/social innovators.
- Financing
- Still a lot to do in this area.
- I have an optimistic idea that if we build it they (investors) will come, but it would be a lot easier with money.
- Not sure if I want to deprive myself of bootstrapping though. I sort of want to see what we can do with next to nothing, especially since our students will have next to nothing when it's their turn.
