On Monday I had a lunch meeting with Tom Twohy, a TechShop instructor who happens to be an old friend from high school. While discussing the worlds of high tech and Hollywood innovation, we traded notes about mentoring the younger set. Although we teach different things, we tend to offer some of the same advice to our students.
Tom teaches Silicone Room Temperature Vulcanization (RTV) moldmaking and casting. He has a long history of creating products ranging from toys to Klingon foreheads using silicone and other materials for himself, employers, and clients. Over the years he has evolved from a talented artist to an Obi Wan-type creative Jedi master.
I’ve taught writing clases and have been a mentor and judge to Stanford/National University of Singapore students creating new ventures.
According to us two sages, young people often want to know how they can make a noticeable difference in the world, become rich, or both. Our advice is the same: Create something remarkable (which is easier said than done).
For one thing, you need The Big Idea. And, you need a way to execute it. Quite often people have ideas or the means to execute but not both. TechShop and the Plug and Play Technology Center, both located in the San Francisco Bay Area, are designed for idea people who need help and guidance with execution. There are also would-be world changers who have access to VCs, world-class mentors, and/or equipment who are waiting for lightning to strike.
And, assuming there is a solid concept and the means to execute it (funding, equipment, distribution, etc.), there are also things like timing and luck that can affect the outcome.
Unlike their older, more experienced counterparts, young minds are usually not aware of nor constrained by that which has come before, which is a blessing and a curse. On one hand, young minds do not tend fall into the linear thinking trap that some elders do. For example, a person whose first computer was a Commodore 64 likely has a different historical perspective of computing than a person whose first computer was an iPad.
On the flip side, young entrepreneurs can be so enamored with their ideas they fail to do their homework. If that is the case then then they may now know that once upon a time others spent countless hours and ideas on the same idea only to fail miserably. As an example, mobile marketing was supposed to change the world in 2000 and here we are in 2011. In the meantime, the concept and infrastructure have evolved greatly. Without that knowledge, it is entirely possible to reinvent a faulty wheel.
Creation is the most powerful force on the planet…and the most fun. As mentors it is gratifying to share experiences for whatever they’re worth because as we share ideas we too continue to learn.
