Exposure, experience and networks: a framework for cultivating creative minds
On framing an approach to cultivate curious minds
The high-level intention for Foray was articulated in the last article as:
Helping future creators, entrepreneurs and instigators gain early footholds.
That was off the back of an earlier piece exploring some of the barriers young people face both getting to, and getting off the starting line.
Today I want to clarify who Foray is for as well as sketching a framework that will inform the future design of the early pilot program.
Who is Foray for?
We focus on young people in the nexus between education and work. This might be a variety of situations including those:
currently in tertiary education
recently finished tertiary education and in the ‘work market’
completed secondary school and looking for an alternative to traditional tertiary education options
in the early days of their first ‘job’ and want to explore something different
What unites these groups is that they have some degree of aspiration — whether that is a strong conviction or merely an inkling — that they would like to explore the possibility of doing something of their own. They might well be interested in exploring other avenues — whether that is further study, apprenticeships, or jobs with various companies — but they’ve also got a slightly different itch to scratch.
While this might sound vague, it is because there are actually very broad options when it comes to ‘doing your own thing’. This is why I am using three very broad descriptors; creators, entrepreneurs and instigators.
Creators
This broadly refers to people who design, make or produce physical or digital products and services. They include artists, curators, designers, publishers, writers, musicians, videographers, craftspeople. I would also include micropreneurs, solopreneurs, consultants, freelancers and other experts who ‘sell’ their services on some type of direct and independent basis.
Entrepreneurs
This includes people who start business or social ventures ranging from small companies and community organisations, through to rapidly growing tech start-ups and service businesses. The main difference from the creators is the sense of scale - entrepreneurs in this category are likely to be part of a team, be aiming to grow rapidly, and/or require external funding to develop.
Instigators
This category includes activists, organisers, thought-leaders and campaigners. It might be that intrapreneurs — people within organisations who are attempting to drive innovation, change or new ventures — also fits in this category. As well as anyone else who doesn’t quite fall into the other categories but is in some way instigating something new.
What will Foray do?
My work so far points to three distinct opportunities for Foray to explore. I see each of these are significant boosts — if they can be designed and delivered smartly — that could each as well as in combination have determinant effects for young people.
1. Exposure
Sometimes you don’t know what’s possible until you see it. And if you haven’t been exposed to less traditional pathways into work, you’ll be at a distinct disadvantage.
In this vein, the ‘Lost Einsteins’ research found evidence that exposure to inventors is a strong indicator of becoming an inventor.
“Since underrepresented groups are likely to have fewer interactions with inventors through their families and neighborhoods, differences in exposure play a large role in these disparities… our findings call for greater focus on policies and programs to tap into our country’s underutilized talents by increasing exposure to innovation for girls and kids from underprivileged backgrounds.” (The Conversation)
It is my belief that this same result will hold true for the long tail of more self-directed workers. There are many potential ways to bring this about which will require careful investigation. Suffice to say, I expect the type of exposure that is required needs to be more meaningful than mere awareness of relevant people and projects.
2. Experience
If you have the inherent capability to create or start something under your own steam, brilliant! There is literally nothing as valuable and informing as having a crack for yourself. And although it is painful to admit at the time, failure simply provides a bigger surface area for learning. Also, when you’re young, you might well be in a position where you have the least to lose.
For anyone else who would like to try, but is not sure where or how to start, there is some value in further education or skill acquisition. A lecture to watch or a blog post to read or yet another article on start-up secrets (urgh). But it simply doesn’t match the experience of trying something for yourself.
“The paradox of teaching entrepreneurship is that such a formula necessarily cannot exist; because every innovation is new and unique, no authority can prescribe in concrete terms how to be innovative.” (Peter Thiel)
That is why Foray will always have an experiential program at the heart of our offering. You could call it a course, a class, challenge or guided cohort, but the crucial part is that you are guided through an actual real-world experience of bringing a (small) project to life. I’ll provide a blueprint of this soon, however for now (and yet again), I recommend exploring Gary Chou and Chris Xu’s Post-Industrial Design School and their $1k Project as an exemplar offering. While you can’t necessarily teach entrepreneurship, Gary and Chris know you can be guided in the art of exploring the unknown.
“Generally speaking, people aren’t being taught to explore. Our current educational system is optimized for training people to climb ladders rather than to sail the open seas.”
It doesn’t matter how much you read or are taught about exploration and uncertainty, ultimately you must experience it (and the highs and lows) in order to build the right type of capabilities. It’s the difference between someone telling you about riding a rollercoaster and being on a rollercoaster. Or my favourite analogy:
3. Networks
The myth of the lone genius is overdone. Now technology provides the opportunity to find and collaborate with people all over the planet.
Networks provide fundamental personal infrastructure for nearly anything you do — amongst many other things they will help your professional development, allow you to build an audience, make it easy to gather insight and feedback, help secure funding or simply spread the word about your work.
“Developing a network of talented people to work with—sometimes closely, sometimes loosely—is an essential part of a great career. The size of the network of really talented people you know often becomes the limiter for what you can accomplish.” (Sam Altman)
But, building networks is hard.
“Asking a creator to shift their process from an industrial production-oriented mindset to a networked one is culturally challenging.” (Gary Chou)
Perhaps more significantly, you don’t have a network when you’re starting out.
One of the most obvious, yet still confronting, ways to start to develop a network is by working in public. This helps build your profile, connect with like-minded peers, and maximises serendipity. In short, it’s very valuable to share your work, and it’s about time you made peace with personal branding. This is a big topic that I’ll come back to. And in the meantime, even Dan Harmon knows the secret to why you really should speak up:
Recap
This is obviously a very high-level framework of who Foray is for and what we might provide. In case you didn’t already notice, publishing this waaay too long and scrappy article is me working, thinking and hopefully learning in public.
In summary, at this moment I believe that the best ways to boost future creators, entrepreneurs and instigators will be by:
Providing exposure to inspiring people and projects
Guiding them through an actual experience of bringing a project to life
Helping them build and nurture persistent networks of people over time
It’s no surprise that those three components might seem familiar to things such as accelerator programs. The devil, of course, is in the differentiation, design and delivery.
While I have enjoyed all my recent research and thinking, rest assured I am currently speaking to young people in the target market to do some real learning. If you can help suggest someone, please get in touch.
Lots more to tackle. All in time. Thanks if you’ve made it all the way this far.
Cheers,
Justin
Reading List
How talented kids from low-income families become America’s ‘Lost Einsteins’ (The Conversation)
Teaching Entrepreneurship through In-Public Experiential Learning and also Infrastructure and Interdependence (Gary Chou)
Eight Things I Learned from Peter Thiel’s Zero To One (FS Blog)
How to be Successful (Sam Altman)
Making Peace With Personal Branding (Rachel Thomas)
Bonus Material
Had the sense of someone reading over my shoulder while writing this today. I was right. His name is Ralph.