Give yourself an Opportunity.

A few years ago a friend and I took a dirt bike trip through Baja. We rode 1,100 miles in five days. My bike was sucking a quart of oil a day, I was yanking the chain off by hand, it was one of those amazing trips that I will look back at for the rest of my life.

The epic part was just being free of noise. I remember thinking that I would have all this time to… think. But a day in all I thought about was the ride. I was looking around at the sights. I was concentrating on the bike.

The pendulum has swung so far into urban life that we miss these opportunities. We’re inundated with computers and social media and business. We focus on “real life” but we lose balance. The balance between nature, escape, work, and entrepreneurship.

Wilderness Collective

A lot of my friends are entrepreneurs. Its almost impossible for them to find a free moment to get out and do something adventurous, outside of the box. They have a hard enough time keeping their head above water at work. Like me, most of them are always in command mode, moving from one project to the next.

Having grown up in Canada, backpacking and camping, I’m usually the one pushing them to get out and go sailing or hiking. Do something outside. Push the limits. And as I carried this label within our friend group I started to notice a hole in the adventure outfitter market.

Nobody was speaking to the young entrepreneur crowd. No one was giving them an opportunity to find themselves in the wilderness.

Wilderness Collective is about giving young, male entrepreneurs a chance to discover that adventurous side.

The First Adventure

Unfortunately, however, few people participate in local elections anymore. The small fraction of citizens eligible to vote who will, in fact, exercise their right to vote today dishonors our tradition. It would sadden the brave men and women who forged our nation just 237 years ago. Thomas Jefferson believed, “An enlightened citizenry is indispensable for the proper functioning of a republic.”

Despite the prevailing cynicism that surrounds politics at the moment, America’s young seem earnest to work together, to fix problems and to restore citizenship. If our rising generation will embrace these three qualities of citizenship, we can make an epic comeback as a nation.

Respect is Essential to Citizenship

My father served in Republican minorities and majorities and alongside administrations of both parties over his 16 years in the U.S. Congress. Through it all he taught me that “neither party has an exclusive on integrity or ideas.” Despite being a Southern Baptist conservative, he went out of his way to show respect to his colleagues, Republican and Democrat. As the incendiary political rhetoric of the last few years picked up, the lessons I learned about the importance of respect proved immensely valuable. As Americans, we agree more than we disagree — even when we can’t see it. Too often we lose perspective and fail to respect each other as citizens of the greatest country of all time.

Citizenship Comes with Responsibility

It has always bothered me that politics is often treated as a hobby. The attitude is you either like politics or you don’t, you either pay attention to the news or you don’t, worse yet, you either vote or you don’t. The business of being a citizen applies to each of us equally. And we all bear the responsibility to carry forward the Founders’ grand experiment in freedom and self-government. That doesn’t mean that every person needs to read Politico.com daily, but fulfilling your responsibility as a citizen does require that you to remain informed, engage in your community and vote.

Citizenship is Fleeting without Sacrifice

There has been an unspoken expectation in America that each generation will work to leave the country better than they found it. For the first time it appears that this will not happen as Baby Boomers begin to transfer a deeply divided and indebted country to their children and grandchildren. As difficult but necessary reforms were neglected, young Americans were left in a lurch and can learn a lesson about citizenship. Freedom isn’t free. Extraordinary sacrifices have brought us to where we are and only continued sacrifice will maintain our freedom moving forward. Young Americans won’t have the luxury of relying on the government to spend beyond its means when the going gets tough. Instead, we’re going to be forced to band together and embrace sacrifice as a often necessary aspect of citizenship. Without sacrifice, the gluttony of one generation will threaten, if not prohibit, the success of another.

Here’s a few lessons we learned along the way…

Design is relationships.

Of course this refers to the formal aspects of elements within a design — how they relate to each other is the key to a design’s success or failure. But it can mean so much more: The relationship of design to people. The relationships of the designers with each other. The relationship of a design to its environment. The relationship of a design to its purpose. And so on.

Building strong interpersonal relationships is key to building a design community. We designers often overlook this aspect as we focus so intently on the technical aspects making a design. In order to build a community, we must put the relationships of people ahead of design. And we have to realize we can not do it alone. We need each other.

Design is a means, not an end.

Design is most powerful when it realizes it is the messenger, not the message; a language not content; a tool not a purpose. So as designers we must continually ask ourselves, what is the purpose we are working toward?

Design exists to serve people and communities. So start with that end in mind. When we put design in the context of a community, we will see its true value. We will also see it become most effective.

Design is making things right.

As you can guess, getting things right is hard to do. It takes continuous work.

Making a design community right requires continuous work. Put another way: design is never done. Getting a community right means always working to make it better. To truly build a great design community, we cannot be complacent and we cannot be satisfied.

You can only build a great design community if you are prepared to always be building a great design community.

What are a few of the hallmarks of an entrepreneur? What makes an entrepreneur successful? Who better to answer than Ted Alling, CEO and Co-Founder of Access America Transport. Since Access America’s inception, it has grown to 9 offices, over $350 million in annual sales, and has doubled in size eight out of last ten years. Access America was just listed in Forbes’s Top Ten Most Promising Companies of 2013. Without further adieu, here’s Ted’s three thoughts on entrepreneurs…

They’re Bold…

One of the defining factors that separates an entrepreneur from everyone else is the fact that they are willing to act when everyone else sits still. They are leaders and initiators.  When looking at successful products, I often hear people say, “I had an idea for something like that 10 years ago, but I thought it would never work.” The fear of failure stops so many people from acting, and that’s what separates them from entrepreneurs, because entrepreneurs are bold and act—despite their fear: “Audentes fortuna iuvat,” or “fortune favors the bold.”

They’re Resourceful…

Often what separates a successful entrepreneur from a non-successful one all comes down to resources.  A successful leader and entrepreneur learns how to wisely leverage their network, to promote and help their startup.  They do not exhaust their connections by annoying or begging them for help, but instead, they are able to identify the connections that will receive value from their startup, as well as adding value to it.

They’re Relentless…

Leaders who demonstrate humility are very concerned, pre-occupied even, with those that others overlook.

Leaders who demonstrate humility are very concerned, pre-occupied even, with those that others overlook. This can be seen in Jesus’ “least of these”, St. Francis’ lepers, Mother Teresa’s dying,  or MLK’s legion of poor and oppressed “ghetto kids.” Humility was originally translated “of the ground.” While the origin is derogatory, the early church and Jesus transformed it into a compliment as they sought to serve others and to become “lower” than those around them. They embraced the idea of being “of the ground” or “common” so that they could lower themselves even under those who had been overlooked and in turn lift the whole of humanity.

Leaders who demonstrate humility have a proper perspective of their own weaknesses & strengths.

Leaders who demonstrate humility have a proper perspective of their own weaknesses AND strengths. An ancient, anonymous rabbi translated the idea of meekness/humility as “strength under control.” What a way to view humility. It is not the absence of strength, but it is the idea that someone knows how to control strength and leverage it not for oneself, but on behalf of others. Leaders who demonstrate humility are able to intrinsically motivate others in a transcendental manner. It is fairly easy to motivate followers with money and perks, but to motivate others to be more than they ever thought they could be requires a demonstration of strength with humility and transparency for the good of others.

The reason that great leaders demonstrate humility is because their vision or cause is so huge, they realize their “smallness” in comparison.

Finally, a seemingly counter-intuitive thought. The reason that great leaders demonstrate humility is because their vision or cause is so huge, they realize their “smallness” in comparison. They know that it will take many people to accomplish the dream they are pursuing. The scope of their vision brings about humility and a willingness to put the goal ahead of any personal benefit. Consider Nelson Mandela. Mandela inspired and influenced to action an entire generation of young adults. Dietrich Bohnoeffer met every Thursday with high School students and taught tirelessly trying to wake the church to the evils of secular Germany.

These people were so captivated by a God-given vision that they had no choice but to humble themselves on behalf of the overlooked, give away their influence for the power of the goal, and to depend upon others to join them for the sake of the mission.

Most of us are inundated daily with articles, emails, videos, and blog posts. Invitations to participate in compelling social campaigns have become ubiquitous— from Avon’s Walk for Breast Cancer, to Pepsi’s Refresh campaign, to general appeals to help “save our planet.” Yet we glaze over and ignore many, if not most, of these pleas. Or perhaps we join a group, but take no real action on behalf of the cause. Anyone who has ever created a YouTube video, written a blog, or tried to get someone to join a cause on Facebook knows that simply sending out a request doesn’t guarantee results.

Yet the power of social technology, when fully engaged, can be nothing short of revolutionary. In 2010, the Red Cross raised more than $30 million for Haiti relief through text message donations. The same technologies that enable us to “poke” our friends or “retweet” an interesting article are the ones that can connect and mobilize us to bring about change. So, what differentiates those who are harnessing social media for something more powerful than fun or procrastination?

Think Human.

Focus on the person you are trying to help. Don’t rush in with a solution to a problem, test alternatives and be prepared to return to square one several times. Also, focus on the person you need help from (AKA your audience). What are their goals and dreams? How can you help them achieve them? Who are you to them? Where are your leverage points in terms of causing them to act? Match your appeal to the medium (e.g. short bursts for Twitter, logical discourse for blogs, emotional envelopment on YouTube)

Dream with Purpose.

What matters to you draws others. Emotions are contagious. Meaningful purpose garners extraordinary support. The right idea—seated in emotion—grows exponentially. Take, how Jessica Jackley, while earning her MBA, raised money online to bootstrap entrepreneurs in the developing world. Now Kiva.org has done over $120M in micro- finance loans with the assistance of individuals who have made loans.

Connect with People.

Tell stories. Stories are sticky: they bring facts to life and infuse them with passion. (Physiologically, our brains are hardwired for stories to organize and orient and psychologically we need patterns to understand. Stories also increase the chance that your audience with remember (humans remember only 1%-10% of what they hear). Salient, meaningful messages, however brief, mobilize communities.

In starting CreateHere.org, a watershed place-based talent retention and cultural change project in Chattanooga, Tennessee that sparked over 300 creative enterprises, stimulated over $4 million in real estate purchases, retained and attracted thousands of individuals to the city along with championing the world’s largest community visioning process with 26,263 surveys collected, we fused two backgrounds, and as such, found interesting and unexpected returns in our work. Arts initiatives with an economic backbone made for a more durable and viable creative community, one that is nationally recognized today. By taking a proven leader in the arts and another from the non-profit and business world and working as Co-CEO’s, we redefined leadership as at team sport.  It made all the difference in our work.

Design is not an afterthought.

Storytelling and design are often left out of the important work of building community. Though conventional wisdom tells us that design simply wraps around pre-existing projects, we learned that it in fact informs their very foundation, how they live and who they reach. It’s not the icing on the cake, it’s the baking soda that makes projects rise. Design is where you begin.

Invest in individuals and their education, not in projects.

When Americans adopted Japanese management techniques, we became an economy focused on process and efficiency. Important, sure, but something’s been lost. We’ve seen today that individuals over-ride the constructs of process for one very specific reason: individuals keep producing when systems fail. We are more resourceful than the institutions we build.

Think of it as a vacation. An escape from reality. You sit on the seat in a movie theatre or on a couch at home and press play on your DVD system. Trailers, opening credits, and the film begins. For the next couple hours you’re about to have your eyes fixated on a screen that tells a story.

The Confrontation. A chance to impact.

Good films entertain, but great films impact. Why do people watch films? Better yet…why do people fall in “love” with films? Art is subjective, which makes films subjective. Films have the ability to create a bond within a specific character or emotion that is portrayed on the screen. That is when the seed is planted. When the viewer realizes this bond and forms an attachment. The chance to impact has formed.

The Resolve. “Fin”

I’ll end with a Woody Allen quote. He said, “If my films don’t show profit, I know I’m doing something right.” To me, it’s not about the money. It’s not about the fame. It’s not about the special effects. It’s not about how attractive someone looks. It’s about the story. A great story provides an escape, a great story impacts, and a great story has the ability to change lives both in the frame and outside the frame.