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Words of widsom from my youth

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I’m preparing for a presentation in about a month at the University of Michigan.  It’s a speech on entrepreneurship to a few hundred students, faculty and others.  As part of my research I’m going back and reading the boxes and boxes of notes and pictures from my time at Michigan, particularly my time on the solar car team.

I was struck by one sheet of paper.  You can see it below.  It has no title and it’s just there in a stack of papers with some bullet points:

  • The journey is the reward
  • When they said I had big shoes to fill–I said “don’t worry” I brought my own
  • What goes right is the result of teamwork, what goes wrong is my fault
  • Don’t give people goals–give them direction
  • The best way to predict the future is to invent it
  • If you’re not making some mistakes, you’re not taking enough chances

I must have wrote this in 1991 or 1992 when I was team leader of the University of Michigan solar car team.  I love all of my “advice” except maybe point #4.  I’m still on the fence on that one and frankly am impressed that I had a point of view some 20 years ago.

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UPDATE: Just to be clear, these are just quotes I no doubt copied from others. I know the first one is the title of Steve Jobs book published in the late 80s (in fact, you can see that I even attributed it to Jobs before scratching it out!  The quote about inventing the future is by Alan Kay, one of the early guys at Xerox PARC.  I don’t remember writing this list or what I used it for, if anything, but they must have caught my attention then and all these years later I still think they’re great.

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Categorised as: Entrepreneurship, Management

  • http://TheOperationsGuy.com/ Apolinaras Sinkevicius

    I actually like #4. Personal development is secondary to direction you need to provide your team. When your folks are churning out results for the company, than you can start investing in their goals and personal development.

  • http://www.altgate.com/ fnazeeri

    I think #4 makes a lot of sense at small companies (which is what I knew when I was 21 or 22 and wrote this) but when you’re leading a larger organization, it starts to reverse…

  • Guest

    Thanks, Furqan – great post here, I particularly like #1 and #3.

    This post also reminds me of one of your recent tweets about whether entrepreneurs are born or made; it’s debatable, though it does seem like signs of it are apparent quite early on as it is from this writing. It’s great to see you reflect back on your college years and how that’s led you to where you are today, similar to Roger Ehrenberg – it’s great motivation for young Michigan alum like myself.

    Looking forward to the presentation!

  • http://www.june-energy.com/ Md. Shahnoor Amin

    Hi Furqan,
    Your presentation on Friday at U of M was AWESOME!!!! Very inspiring, especially for budding, “green-minded”, technology entrepreneurs who are wondering how to make a positive impact in the world. I often especially wonder how one acquires a “life mission” for themselves. How does religion/faith, formal education, social interactions, experiences, and other factors shape an individual’s mission in life? Often, it’s the self-introspectional moments that provide the necessary drive to accomplish goals. What are your opinions?

    -Md. Shahnoor Amin

  • Erelson

    Thanks for posting the link to the lecture. I wasn’t able to make it there myself… due to solar car and pre-Australia preparations. Enjoyed it greatly.