BizThoughts

I'm jealous of the students at Kansas State University.

In their class "Introduction to Cultural Anthropology", assistant professor/cultural anthropologist/media ecologist/student of the world Dr. Michael Wesch has put together some amazing videos derived from what must have been some very interesting discussions in his classes.

He's known most for his award-winning video The Machine is Us/ing Us which made its rounds in the blogosphere a few months ago. His site, mediatedcultures.net, houses all of his digital ethnography projects.

A recent project, which began as a brainstorming exercise about "how students learn, what they need to learn for their future, and how our current educational system fits in", culminated in the stirring video A Vision of Students Today:

Here are some of the statistics shown in the video:

• My average class size is 115.
• 18% of my teachers know my name.
• I complete 49% of the readings assigned to me. Only 26%… relative to my life.
• I will read 8 books this year, 2300 web pages, and 1281 facebook profiles.
• I will write 42 pages for class this semester. And over 500 pages of email.

These numbers come from the collaborative effort of his 200 students, a shared Google Document, 367 edits, and a student-created survey that 133 of them answered. While not entirely scientific, it's a fascinating snapshot.

And it sounds like a fun class too!

Via: Scobleizer

The education field is one that is near and dear to my heart. Ideally, I'd love to create a business in the education (or environmental) fields. While my first business may not be education-related, that's my ultimate goal.

So from time to time, I collect information and research on America's education system. Here's an interesting video from ABC news show 20/20: "Stupid in America" by Josh Stossel. It's a 40+ minute segment that covers some frightening (though potentially biased & sensationalized) issues about American public schools.

It doesn't just cover unruly classrooms and low grades; it also covers the difficulties of school budgets, public schools vs private learning centers, the shocking number of bad teachers, the harm of teacher's unions, the school system as a monopoly, the politics of the education system, and charter vs non-charter schools.

(Thanks for the link, Sandy!)

I've been talking to many aspiring entrepreneurs lately. The question of Why usually comes up. Why do you want to become an entrepreneur? Why do you want to give up a steady, full-time job, to enter the uncertain world of business ownership?

From the responses I get, the answers seem to boil down to these three fundamental reasons:

• To Be Independent

  You want to be your own boss, an employer, not an employee. You don't want to work for The Man anymore. You want the flexibility to do what you want, when to do it, and how to do it.

• To Be Wealthy

  You want to make a lot of money, to make millions. And you can't do that with your 9-to-5. You're aiming higher than financial security; you want financial comfort or financial wealth.

• To Be Idealistic

  You want to change the world, to make a positive impact. You want to follow your dreams and do something you're passionate about. You want to truly care about what you're doing.

Each entrepreneur seems to be some combination of the three, in varying degrees.

Me, I'm mostly an idealist. I want to change the world, to fundamentally improve it. Being financially wealthy wouldn't hurt either, especially since money is necessary for the kind of change I'm envisioning. Being my own boss isn't as important, though it's the ultimate test of my decision-making abilities.

How about you? Why do you want to become an entrepreneur?