Simon Sinek on How Reflection Informs Personal Growth

In Chapter 7 of 16 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, author and public speaker Simon Sinek answers "What Role Has Reflection Played in Shaping Your Personal Growth?"  Sinek notes the importance of looking internally at his past actions and decisions and evaluating his performance.  Using the example of sales training, Sinek notes how the observer often learns the most.  He applies this to his life to inform his approach to making more optimal future choices and avoiding pitfalls.  Simon Sinek teaches leaders and organizations how to inspire people.  His goal is to "inspire people to do the things that inspire them" and help others find fulfillment in their work.  Sinek is the author of "Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action".  He works regularly with the United States Military, United States Congress, and many organizations, agencies and entrepreneurs.  Sinek is an adjunct professor at Columbia University and an adjunct staff member at the think tank RAND Corporation.  Sinek earned a BA in Cultural Anthropology from Brandeis University.

Transcript

Erik Michielsen:  What role has reflection played in shaping your personal growth?

Simon Sinek:  The ability to look at one’s self critically. To say to one’s self, you were good in that situation. You weren’t good in that situation. You could’ve been better in that situation. Not to be overly critical meaning you’re always at fault if something goes badly or not be so filled with hubris that you think everything you did was fine and it’s always the other person, but to be able to sort of separate yourself to look at the situation from a—as if you were the third party evaluating it. You know, when they do sales training those—you know, it’s always three people, one who pretends to be the salesman, one who pretends to be the customer and one who observes. And then they all take turns, you know, and the one who does the learning is the observer. So the question is, can you be your own observer, like can you replay a situation? And so self-reflection has been huge for me and I’ve been huge into it for many, many years. The ability to say, okay, I can take some responsibility for the outcome of that, good or bad. And I can learn to do that again, or can I learn to spot those situations and avoid them in the future?

Learning to Make Life Decisions That Are Right for You - Ross Floate

In Chapter 15 of 20 in his 2012 interview, branding and design strategist Ross Floate answers "How Are You Learning to Make Better Decisions?"  Floate begins by looking back at the poor decisions he has made, ones that have not been the right fit and ones that were not true to himsef.  These experiences bring to light how Floate ignored that proverbial voice in his head.  He learns to trust his gut and think through how the person on the other side of the decision would feel.  Lastly, he talks about leaving a legacy behind that shows he was a good person who chose to make the right decisions, not necessarily the easy decisions.  Ross Floate is a principal at Melbourne, Australia-based Floate Design Partners.  Experienced in branding, design and both online and offline publishing, Floate and his team provide marketing services to clients seeking to better communicate business and culture goals via image, messaging, and story. He is a graduate of RMIT University.

Joe Stump on How to Turn Past Mistakes Into Future Successes

In Chapter 4 of 14 in his 2012 interview, Internet entrepreneur Joe Stump answers "What Role Has Reflection Played in Shaping Your Personal Growth?"  Stump finds reflection the only way to leverage past mistakes and turn them into future successes.  Stump writes a bullet point list of mistakes made at his previous company, SimpleGeo, and uses this to guide his next company, Sprint.ly.  Joe Stump is a serial entrepreneur based in Portland, OR. He is CEO and co-founder of Sprint.ly, a product management software company.  Previously he founded SimpleGeo, which was sold to Urban Airship in October 2011.  He advises several startups - including attachments.me and ngmoco:) - as well as VC firm Freestyle Capital.  He earned a BBA in Computer Information Systems (CIS) from Eastern Michigan University. 

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen: What role has reflection played in shaping your personal growth?

Joe Stump: I'm a big fan of learning from mistakes. I'm definitely a trial and error kind of guy, that’s how I learned how to program. You could make a solid argument, that’s how I've learned to start companies. So, I think that reflection is the only way that you can leverage your past mistakes into future success.

So I've spent a lot of time, particularly after SimpleGeo, reflecting and I actually wrote a long document, basically this long bullet point list. It was basically a punch list of things that I had messed up on and that bullet list, that punch list of mistakes basically very much guided me as I went on to create my next company.

Erik Michielsen: Can you give a couple of examples?

Joe Stump: Yeah. Yeah. I think, so, at SimpleGeo, I think we raised too much money too quickly and we hired too many people too quickly before we had really figured out what the product was fully going to be and how we were going to take it to market. So, basically everything was kind of done backwards.

So at Sprint.ly, I have the mantra of like -- I beat the drum of what I call the three S’s, small, slow, and steady. We're building a company that I hope to work at for possibly decades and you don’t do that overnight. So, that’s probably been the biggest lesson that I've taken away. We had amazing people and amazing investors and obviously plenty of money in the bank at the time but it was putting the cart before the horse in a lot of ways.

Jon Kolko on How Reflecting Benefits a Creative Career

In Chapter 6 of 21 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, design educator Jon Kolko answers "How Has Reflection Contributed to Your Leadership Development?"  Kolko begins by discussing how he has incorporated reflection into the curriculum experience for his design students.  He continues detailing is own reflective process and why it is important to have the inner dialogue before making bold, provocative statements. 

Jon Kolko the founder and director of the Austin Center for Design.  He has authored multiple books on design, including "Wicked Problems: Problems Worth Solving."  Previously he has held senior roles at venture accelerator Thinktiv and frog design and was a professor of Interactive and Industrial Design at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD).  Kolko earned his Masters in Human Computer Interaction (MHI) and BFA in Design from Carnegie Mellon University.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: How has reflection contributed to you leadership development?

Jon Kolko: It plays a huge role in the process of design sort of outside of my own personal experiences. We bake into the curriculum constant reflection from the students at Austin Center for Design. So a typical agile MVP or always in beta process is one where you do stuff and then you test it and then there has to be a moment where you stop and you go like, “What just happened?” And that is reflection and it’s incredibly easy to skip that and to simply impulsively respond to data rather than interpreting it. 

Reflection is a form of interpretation and so it's an assignment of meaning and it's going to be wrong sometimes. And so, it's easy to skip and simply use the data at face value which will also be wrong sometimes but it feels safer. I have found that the more interpretation and reflection that occurs, the more risky it is to build on that reflection but when you do build on it, the more likely it is to lead to large and magical, and powerful changes. 

And so we do a couple of things formally in our curriculum that drive toward reflection, like I have the students do a, it was called something much more academic and they changed to a peak of the week, so a p.o.w. every week. So they film themselves and they say, “What did you this week about entrepreneurship?” And, “What did you learn this week about entrepreneurship?” And simply saying it is often just enough to provoke that reflection. Actually, watching it is huge. For me, I think I'm overly contemplative because one, I have that constant just self-doubt that I'm not doing enough and I'm not doing as good as I could and I could always be doing more and then second, there's this idea that if I'm going to go out there and say large, provocative statements, damn it, I better be right. 

And I feel like I owe it at least to myself to have that sort of inner dialogue about saying things like problems worth solving and abandon your day job at a big corporation or consultancy and go work on poverty and nutrition. Those are aggressive statements even to me. And so I should really have thought deeply about what it is that I'm talking about. I do like to think of active reflection versus passive. Many designers that I know struggle with internal mood disorders and that’s a path and form of reflection. It's self-destructive and it doesn’t go anywhere. There's a form of active reflection through making where you can -- as simple as writing down your thoughts is a form of it but you can also diagram your thoughts and you can draw them, and you can create art and things like that. It's a much healthier form of reflection. And so, I try to personally lead to the second.

Jon Kolko: Career Advice for Young Design Professionals

In Chapter 21 of 21 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, design educator Jon Kolko answers "How Can Young Design Professionals Better Prepare for Problem Solving Careers?"  Kolko notes how younger design professionals should first focus on finding subject matter you are passionate about in your work.  Second, he notes the importance of crafting a design process to create the work, honing it over time by reflecting on your work. 

Jon Kolko is the founder and director of the Austin School for Design.  He has authored multiple books on design, including "Wicked Problems: Problems Worth Solving."  Previously he has held senior roles at venture accelerator Thinktiv and frog design and was a professor of Interactive and Industrial Design at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD).  Kolko earned his Masters in Human Computer Interaction (MHI) and BFA in Design from Carnegie Mellon University.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: How can young design professionals better prepare for problem solving careers?

Jon Kolko: Design professionals are already prepared for it. Just by calling yourself a designer and doing design process, design methods, you're solving problems. You could hone all of that. 

And so, I think one of my best suggestions for younger designers is first to find topic areas that you're passionate about. And so, typically design education doesn’t focus on content. Design is not about content explicitly. It's a very malleable discipline but to young designers, I say find content that you're passionate about so that you can gain some kind of depth of impact and breadth of impact at once. And so, if you're passionate about sports equipment, great, good for you. If you're passionate about the homeless, great, good for you. But find some content subject matter that you're passionate about. But then, I would start to really craft a process. 

For me and for my students, it's the use of center design process, it's about design with rather than design for, and it's about immersing ethnography, insights, ideation, and launching companies. That’s the process that works for us. It doesn’t have to be the process that works for everybody but knowing what that process is is critical. And a lot of designers really sort of have a -- have it like throw it at the wall and see what sticks and that’s their process. 

And it comes to back to reflection and we spoke a little bit about that prior. It comes back to this idea of reflecting on your work and then going out of your way to improve method, improve the way that you approach things, and being able to articulate that process to other people. Again, knowledge through sharing, describing what your process is to people in a way that they get it.

Idan Cohen on Why to Measure Success by the Change You Create

In Chapter 3 of 19 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, Boxee co-founder and head of product Idan Cohen answers "How Do You Define and Measure Success in What You Do?"  Cohen notes success should be measured by the delta, or incremental change, from where you start and where you want to go.  He notes this creates a great challenge for those born into privilege, who start at a much more advanced place and who have a lower penalty for failure.  To Cohen, life is far less about planning and more about measuring personal progress based on where you, as an individual, come from.   This is Idan Cohen's Year 1 CYF interview.  Cohen is co-founder and head of product at Boxee Inc, an online video software company.  Previous to Boxee, Cohen held telecom software innovation and developer roles at Comverse.  He was a Captain in the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) and graduated from Tel Aviv University with a Bachelors of Science degree in Geophysics and Art.

Transcript:  

Erik Michielsen: How do you define and measure success in what you do?

Idan Cohen: I think that success should always be measured by the delta, between where you started and where you are or where you started and where you wanna get to. It might sound a little bit weird but, you know, in some ways, I do not envy people who were born, for instance, into money, for them, it will be extremely hard to measure their success, it will not—‘cause the usual—one of the most common ways that we measure success is by wealth. And for them it will be extremely hard to kind of create even more of that, or even because—just because they had the tools then it will be very hard for them to justify what they managed to accomplish, because they started off from a very good starting point. And especially they started off from a starting point where it’s very hard to fail, or failure is not too painful. 

So I think that for most people, success is much more about the delta, so it doesn’t matter where you are, it matters where you are—where you got from to where you are. So for me, every time I try to measure myself, like 3 years ago, or 5 years ago, where was I and where am I now? I can kind of—then looking at that, where can I be in 3 years? I really try not to plan, where do I wanna be in 3 years, I have a lot of dreams, but it’s never—it’s never actually the path that I’m going to take. Because I just think that planning is useless. I think that today’s life, people try to plan a lot, and I think that something even about this, you know, this conversation, it’s about planning, and learning from people and how they got there. And I think it’s just useless. 

Develop these dreams because I think that the dreams are a very good preparation to actually being able to make these steps. I think that I dreamt for a long time to move to New York, by the time I was ready to make it, then, you know, in my guts that decision was already well – you know, kind of cooked already and ready and ripe to get done. For instance, me and Christina are dreaming of moving to the countryside at some point, you know, yes, it might happen in a few years, maybe it wouldn’t happen, but just by talking about it, and we constantly talk about it, I think we’re kind of preparing something in our guts. 

But at the end of the day, all this planning is completely useless, because there’s so many other factors that are gonna happen and change that – those decisions, so it doesn’t matter. Just try and always fantasize about a lot of things that you wanna do. And then, that will kind of guide you to where you’ll end up. That’s how I see it.

Courtney Spence on How Reflection Informs Personal Growth

In Chapter 3 of 19 in her 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, non-profit executive Courtney Spence answers "What Role Does Reflection Play in Your Personal Growth?"  Spence notes how life lessons do not happen in the moment and, instead, how they happen when you take time to reflect on that moment.  She details how she revisits her childhood journaling experiences and brings that back to present to be more conscious of having a reflective process in her life.  Courtney Spence returns to Capture Your Flag for her Year 3 interview.  As Founder and Executive Director, Spence leads non-profit Students of the World to empower college students to use film, photography, and journalism to tell stories of global issues and the organizations working to address them.  Spence graduated with a BA in History from Duke University.

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen: What role does reflection play in your personal growth?

Courtney Spence: So I heard this line a few months ago. I’ve used it in a couple of speeches, but, you know, they say that life lessons don’t happen in the moment, they happen when you take the time to reflect on that moment. So you can go through trials and tribulations, and celebrations and successes, but if you don’t actually stop to reflect on what happened, and why it happened, and who made it happen, and what did you learn from that. You really won’t take those lessons with you through the rest of your life. Or you won’t – you might take them with you for a year but not for 40.

So reflection for me is super important and it always has been, I mean I think back to the ways I got through my awkward years in middle school and high school, and the angst and the worry, I mean I go back to my house and –  my parent’s house, and I just have stacks and stacks of journals, and I recognize that for me in my teens and my early 20’s, when I was really searching for a path, journaling and reflection were a big part of that. Now granted sometimes it was about boys, a lot of the time it was about boys but that was a lot of what – you know? As a teenager, you’re struggling with, right? And it’s really something that I lost there for a while, as I was just going, going, going, I wasn’t reflecting, and I think that I found myself in situations where I couldn’t believe I was in that situation again, whether it was professionally or personally, and I’ve recognized that I need to go back to my roots, which is journaling and reflecting, and really writing it out. I mean I can think through things, but if I don’t have a pen and a paper to share it with or a friend to share it with, I really don’t process things as effectively as I want to. So reflection is key. Key.

How a Year of Reflection and Stillness Can Improve Your Life

In Chapter 14 of 15 in her 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, entrepreneur Audrey Parker French answers "What Role Has Reflection Played in Shaping Your Personal Growth?"  French notes how frightening reflection and stillness have been in her life.  As an overachiever always determined to succeed, she learns why stopping and thinking and slowing down is fundamental to understanding her ambition in life and career. 

Audrey Parker French returns to CYF for her Year 3 interview after a one-year sabbatical from work and getting married.  She co-founded CLEAResult, an energy management consulting firm.  In 2010, CLEAResult ranked #144 in the Inc. 500 list of fastest-growing private companies.  In late 2010, CLEAResult was sold to General Catalyst Partners.  She graduated from Wake Forest University. 

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: What role has reflection played in shaping your personal growth?

Audrey Parker French: Well, for me reflection and stillness have been the scariest things for me to do, to be still and just to be reflecting without being really busy and kind of distracting myself. I haven’t – in my life, I’ve been pushing and running and moving so fast and so determined to, you know, capture my flags in those times, in those chapters with the job that I held, I really – reflection and being still was almost like why would someone do that? Not only – it just didn’t make any sense to me. It was like, well, you know, you’re supposed to be productive, that’s why we’re all here, we’re supposed to be productive, you should be producing something and if you’re not really busy then what value are you, and so really this year of reflection and stillness has been the biggest challenge because going and pushing and working harder and harder, that seems like it would be a challenge and it was challenging but even scarier for me personally as an overachiever who’s always been driven and always very just pushing, going, fast, faster, faster.

Not only to slow down but to stop, to be still. And let things happen has been an incredible experience. It has me realize that at any point going forward in my life, I can go back to – I can go fast – I can always – I’ll always know how to move fast and push and run fast. And yet until I learn how to be still, until I learn how to reflect and really say, “Well, what was driving me? What is driving me? What do I want to drive me when I go fast?” Those things really help me just prepare for whatever lies ahead and it gives me a larger, a wider array of options for how I’m gonna choose to live my life going forward.

Before I couldn’t choose stillness or reflection, I had to choose – well, just go faster. That was the only answer to problems most of the time, slowing down maybe but not for very long, and now I have slowing down or being still and reflecting as options.

How Turning 40 Years Old Changes Life Perspective - Matt Curtis

In Chapter 5 of 18 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, public affairs and communications strategist Matt Curtis answers "What is on Your Mind as You Turn 40 This Year?"  As Curtis prepared to turn 40, he focused on what he had not done and not achieved.  After speaking with his advisors, who are in their late 60s and early 70s, he finds turning 40 is an opportunity to reflect on the past and take charge of future plans.  With this perspective he regrets less and embraces opportunities more.  Matt Curtis is the director of government relations at HomeAway Inc. Previously he was communications director for Austin mayors Lee Leffingwell and Will Wynn.  In 2011, Curtis won "Austinite of the Year" in the Austin Under 40 Awards.  He earned his bachelor's degree in radio, television and film from the University of North Texas.

How to Cultivate a Future Generation of Leaders - Matt Curtis

In Chapter 8 of 18 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, public affairs and communications strategist Matt Curtis answers "What Has Been Most Exciting Thing About Making the Transition From Winning Austinite of the Year to Encouraging a Future Generation of Leaders in Austin?"  Curtis reflects on his time as Austinite of the Year and how he is turning his attention to promoting more formal program alumni involvement to support future award winners in the Austin community.  Matt Curtis is the director of government relations at HomeAway Inc. Previously he was communications director for Austin mayors Lee Leffingwell and Will Wynn.  In 2011, Curtis won "Austinite of the Year" in the Austin Under 40 Awards.  He earned his bachelor's degree in radio, television and film from the University of North Texas.

Bijoy Goswami on How Family Relationships Change With Age

In Chapter 1 of 17 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, leadership philosopher Bijoy Goswami answers "How Are Your Family Relationships Changing As You Get Older?"  Goswami discusses how his parent relationships are becoming less instructional and more collaborative and peer based.  He discusses ways, including annual family gatherings, that allow the relationships to flourish and provide support across the family. 

Bijoy Goswami is a writer, teacher, and community leader based in Austin, Texas.  He develops learning models, including MRE, youPlusU, and Bootstrap, to help others live more meaningfully.  Previously, he co-founded Aviri Software after working at Trilogy Software.  Goswami graduated from Stanford University, where he studied Computer Science, Economics, and History. 

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: How are your family relationships changing as you get older?

Bijoy Goswami: You know, we moved from specific relationships like my mom and dad, you know, and they were in charge of our life and telling us what to do, to we’re all on the journey together and we’re helping each other with our journeys, you know. So, it’s less of a structure, it’s more of these fellow travelers that I've gotten to be with my journey for all my life.

My parents and my brothers, you know, almost all my life so, but we get to reflect and help each other through the journey and so it’s becomes peer to peer, you know process rather than a structured process and so it’s much less of you’re supposed to be doing this or how it’s going but it’s much more of reflection, helping someone express themselves more fully, more completely and having that long history. No one else has the history of knowing the deep thread that kind of ties it all together for, for, you know.

So, I think that’s been really fun and for us we get together as a family once a year at least in Hong Kong, get together for Christmas that’s our tradition. But that’s also our time to sort of sink up, calibrate. We’re always in touch of course during the year, too but that’s really a good time for us to sink up, calibrate, talk about stuff, get reflected, get reset and then take on the next year.

How to Let Go and Make Space for Something New in Your Life

In Chapter 4 of 17 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, leadership philosopher Bijoy Goswami answers "How Are Your Community Responsibilities Changing?"  Goswami shares how he has been developing and why he is letting go of existing responsibilities to make space for something new.  He sees it as a process or cycle that allows him to distill his purpose.  Bijoy Goswami is a writer, teacher, and community leader based in Austin, Texas.  He develops learning models, including MRE, youPlusU, and Bootstrap, to help others live more meaningfully.  Previously, he co-founded Aviri Software after working at Trilogy Software.  Goswami graduated from Stanford University, where he studied Computer Science, Economics, and History. 

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen:  How are your community responsibilities changing?

Bijoy Goswami:  What I found is this three-stage process in terms of finding your way, you start with another way. You’re painting, let other people paint upon you. Second, you start to strip off that paint and a lot of what I've been doing the last while is stripping off some of this paint and that has meant actually not being as integral to things like Bootstrap Austin or things like that and say, how can I take a backseat, how can I let go of some of these things so that I can make a space for something new.

So, again, I find it to a cycle. It’s not like I’m, you know, going away from everything fully but it’s part of I'm saying, I'm doing that process so I can find out what the next way of engaging is. So, I think I might have brought up the Banksy analogy where I hack systems. I try to intervene inside of systems but I'm don’t necessarily try to hold on to them or be part of them for much—a long time. So, what I found is I'm still involved, I'm still engaged but in terms of projects where I am assisting those projects, I go in and I leave, you know, rather than try to be ongoingly in them.

So, that’s a lot of what’s been happening. I think it’s given me the opportunity to then say okay. What am I really trying to – How am I distilling all that into something that I'm really putting forward in the world.

How Working Presidential Campaign Shapes Political Career - Ken Biberaj

In Chapter 6 of 21 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, New York City Council candidate and public relations executive Ken Biberaj answers "What Did You Find Most Valuable About Working on the 2004 Presidential Campaign?"  Biberaj shares how working on the 2004 Kerry - Edwards Presidential Campaign informed the decisions that would shape his political career trajectory.  Specifically, Biberaj decided to forgo working as a political operative and instead join a family business to gain private sector experience.  Ultimately, after seven years in business, Biberaj makes the decision to re-enter politics by running for office.  Ken Biberaj is currently a 2013 Candidate for New York City Council for the West Side of Manhattan.  He is also a public relations executive for the Russian Tea Room restaurant at One Fifty Fifty Seven Corporation, a family business focused on real estate development, investment sales and retail leasing.  Previously he was Florida Research Director for the Kerry-Edwards for President Campaign. He holds a JD from New York Law School, a Masters in Public Policy (MPP) from Harvard University Kennedy School of Government, and a BA in Political Science from American University.

How Becoming a Father Changes Your Life - James McCormick

In Chapter 2 of 18 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, legal career advisor James McCormick answers "How Has Becoming a Father Changed Your Life?"  He notes how all attention and priorities shift first and foremost to his son, Jack.  At a higher level, McCormick offers the centering that comes from putting a priority on the most meaningful relationships in his life, including his growing family.  James McCormick is a Partner at Empire Search Partners in New York City.  Previously, he practiced law as an employee benefits and executive compensation attorney for Proskauer Rose and Jones Day.  He earned a JD at Tulane Law School and a BA in History at the University of Michigan. 

How to Overcome and Learn From Disappointment - James McCormick

In Chapter 9 of 18 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, legal career advisor James McCormick answers "What Role Has Failure Played in Your Career Development?"  McCormick shares how short term failures - typically those that happen in an instance - become longer term positives when reflected upon over time.  He discusses this in context of job search and recruiting as well as in terms of his own college choice, specifically not getting into Northwestern and coming to terms with embracing an alternative, The University of Michigan.  James McCormick is a Partner at Empire Search Partners in New York City.  Previously, he practiced law as an employee benefits and executive compensation attorney for Proskauer Rose and Jones Day.  He earned a JD at Tulane Law School and a BA in History at the University of Michigan. 

Transcription: 

Erik Michielsen:  What role has failure played in your career development?

James McCormick:  Well, it’s interesting because of – because of what I do, so much of the success or failure, and I almost lifted my hands to put them in quotes, but it is really a multi-dimensional project, it involves a lot of individuals playing different roles at different points in time. So it’s not simply helping one individual get a job. Something I’ve learned a lot about in this role has been really experiencing the successes and failures of not only the individuals that we represent but also the clients that come to us for assistance and helping them fill roles. And failures can be seen on one day as just that -- a failure, a failure to get a job, a failure to find the right individual, a failure to execute on an interview, a failure to meet the demands of a particular candidate, and then what’s fascinating is on day 365 or day, you know, whatever, down the road, a failure may be viewed in a very different light. I had a conversation this evening with an individual right before I came to this interview about a role that just about a year and a half ago, he did not get.  And at the time was utterly deflated that he didn’t get it.  And a year and a half later, the way things played out, I think he found himself saying, pretty glad that I didn’t get that job. So failure on day 1 may look very different than failure, you know, a year, a year and a half, two years later.

Erik Michielsen:  And reflecting back on your career and education, you know, what experiences have you had that are – that have taught you lessons?

James McCormick:  That’s a very good question. I would tell you that the first I go to is that when I chose to go to University of Michigan that was not my first choice. It was far from it. I wanted to go to Northwestern more than anything else and I did not get in, and I was crushed, it was really viewed from my perspective as an 18-year-old or 17-year-old, or however old I was at the time, as a complete failure. And in hindsight, boy, I couldn’t have been farther from the mark. My life would be, you know, nowhere near where it is now, you and I wouldn’t be sitting in this chair or at least highly unlikely that we would be and I wouldn’t trade that experience for anything. And I think the fact that I had to go through the experience of failing as I viewed it then, and be mindful of how it resulted is a good example.

Fabian Pfortmüller on What Gets Easier and What Gets Harder

In Chapter 1 of 15 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, community builder and entrepreneur Fabian Pfortmüller answers "What is Getting Easier and What is Getting Harder in Your Life?"  He shares how he has set a goal to say "no" to invitations, opportuniites, and requests as his free time becomes scarce and his responsibility grows.  He notes how this has progressively gotten easier.  As his company Holstee grows in size and head count, Fabian finds it progressively challenging evolving and growing to meet the organization needs.  Pfortmüller is co-founder of the young leader accelerator, Sandbox Network, and HOLSTEE, an apparel and design firm that sells meaningful products to mindful shoppers.  Pfortmüller graduated from Columbia University and its school of General Studies.

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen: What is getting easier and what is getting harder in your life?

Fabian Pfortmüller: I think it’s getting easier to say no to things. One thing that I learned this year is that there’s always tons of opportunities out there and I feel that one thing that I wanted to teach myself was to say no to things and the more I do it the easier it gets because at first it’s super hard and you don’t wanna disappoint other people, you don’t wanna give up on those opportunities that come up but over time it gets easier.

One thing that I clearly see now over the last year and that I truly feel gets harder is just the responsibility when your team grows. We grew last year from 3 to 8 people and that really has, you know, an impact on how you take decisions because suddenly you’re not just like 3 guys who are making free t-shirts. Now, you’re like you have a responsibility and that make certain decisions definitely harder because the risk is higher, the stakes are higher, you’re affecting other people and when we talk through what should we do next and what should we focus on, we definitely try to keep this in mind.

Fabian Pfortmüller on How Family Relationships Change With Age

In Chapter 4 of 15 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, community builder and entrepreneur Fabian Pfortmüller answers "How Are Your Family Relationships Changing as You Get Older?"  Pfortmüller reflects how he sees the relationship with his parents entering a short window of opportunity to enjoy life together.  Pfortmüller is co-founder of the young leader accelerator, Sandbox Network, and HOLSTEE, an apparel and design firm that sells meaningful products to mindful shoppers.  Pfortmüller graduated from Columbia University and its school of General Studies. 

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen: How are your family relationships changing as you get older?

Fabian Pfortmüller: In retrospect, I would say that the last year probably is gonna be shown as a little turning point when it comes to family relationships. I was at Burning Man and I had an awesome time at Burning Man, but I also had this really deep moment of reflection where I realized that family is really becoming important for me and it wasn’t really in the past and I also realized something special about my parents.

We’re really in this interesting window of opportunity right now where they are young enough that I can enjoy them and I am old enough that I can enjoy them, you know, and I think that window of opportunity is relatively short and I really wanna, you know, take the most out of it. And so, I’ve definitely developed a stronger appreciation of -- for my parents, for my family that I did not have before and at the end of the day I also realized how much I am like them. I thought I was not like them at all. I thought like, my parents?

But, you know, at the end of the day I definitely have very strong things that are like my mom I have very strong things that are like my dad. I see how my sister does things and I'm like it’s kind of crazy but I think, you know, it’s not a coincidence, it’s not a coincidence and -- thirdly I strongly believed that the reason I can do what I do today is because of their support. I would not have been able to just go out and try crazy ideas without thinking about money, without being worried about the risk I take, not having such a strong support network at home.

And very often entrepreneurship programs are focused on giving people access to money and training them like about what tools they need to use but actually people should be influencing parents, I believe. People should like start a program where parents encourage their kids to be more entrepreneurial, that it’s okay for their kids to start crazy things. I think that would have a huge impact.

What Makes Social Media Work Meaningful - Mike Germano

In Chapter 2 of 19 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, social media ad agency CEO Mike Germano answers "What Makes Your Work Meaningful?"  After seven years in business, Germano finds creating engaging social experiences using innovative technology most rewarding.  He shares an example from a Red Bull mobile marketing campaign.  Mike Germano is co-founder and CEO of DUMBO, Brooklyn based social media advertising agency Carrot Creative.  Previously, Germano ran for and was elected to public office in Connecticut.  He is a graduate of Quinnipiac University.