[Books] What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20

Recently, I stumbled upon an interesting book on the topic of entrepreneur and creativity. Without thinking too much, I just went to Amazon and purchased the book. The tittle is “What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20: A Crash Course on Making Your Place in the World” by Tina Seelig.


Buy from Amazon.co.jp
Buy from Amazon.com

Yet, I am still on the way reading the entire stories. They are interesting to read because Tina Seelig points out each sections by telling about her experience during her class at Stanford University or stories about her family.

There are some quotes that might be interesting:

1. Buy One, Get Two Free
– Story on the “Five-Dollars Challenge”, a success way in teaching students about having an entrepreneurial mind-set. The mission is about to multiply a 5 dollars envelope to be as much profit as possible within a very limited time. The much money they get, the better they accomplish the mission. Yet, Tina also quoted that sometime the Value is not always measured in terms of financial rewards.
– The points are: identifying opportunities, challenging assumptions, leveraging the limited resources.
– Inspiration from a story about Kyle MacDonald, who started with one red paper clip and traded up until he had a house. Check the details on www.oneredpaperclip.com
– “The bigger the problem, the bigger the opportunity. Nobody will pay you to solve a non-problem.” Vinod Khosla, co-founder of Sun Microsystem.

2. The Upside-Down Circus
– We can challenge ourselves every single day. That is, we can choose to view the world through different lenses– lenses that allow us to see problems in a new light. The more we take on problems, the more confident and proficient we become at solving them. And the better able we are to see them as opportunities.
– The more experience you have tackling problems, the more confident you become that you can find a solution.

3. Bikini or Die
– One of the biggest obstacles to taking on “impossible tasks” is that others are often quick to tell you they can’t be accomplished. It is arguably tough to address a grand problem. But once you decide to take it on, it is equally hard to break out of traditional approaches to solving it. This is another place where it is helpful to break a few rules. In other words, we need to “BREAK THE RULES!”.

4. Please Take Out Your Wallets
– The world is divided into people who wait for others to give them permission to do the things they want to do and people who grant them selves permission. Some look inside themselves for motivation and others wait to be pushed forward by outside forces.
– Ideas just waiting for someone to exploit them.
– Story of Michael Dearing that implemented the new method on selling products in eBay. He introduced the idea to put photos in eBay. He found that products with accompanying photos sold faster and at a higher price than products without photos.
– People who get to the top work harder than those around them, they have more energy that propels them forward, and they’re markedly more driven to get there.
– “The biggest ally of super-achievers is the inertia of others” –David Rothkopf
– If you want a leadership role, then take on leadership roles. Just give yourself permission to do so. Look around for holes in your organization, ask for what you want, find ways to leverage your skills and experiences, be willing to make the first move, and stretch beyond what you’ve done before.
– There are always opportunities waiting to be exploited. Instead of waiting to be asked and tiptoeing around an opportunity, seize it! It takes hard work, energy, and drive –but these are the assets that set leaders apart from who wait for others to anoint them.

5. The Secret Sauce of Silicon Valley

6. No Way… Engineering Is for Girls

7. Turn Lemonade into Helicopters

8. Paint the Target around the Arrow

9. Will This Be on the Exam?

10. Experimental Artifacts

2 responses to this post.

  1. Posted by chemieingenieur on October 14, 2012 at 2:09 pm

    Kalo boleh ntar pinjem dong mas Fahmi 😀

    Reply

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