Back to School for the grown.ups!
If you think you’re too small to have an impact try going to bed with a mosquito in the room. – Anita Roddick (Body Shop)
Today I was inspired again by the leadership of someone unexpected.
There are unusual leaders who stride among us, those for whom the hierarchical contraints of traditional leadership and tenure mean squat. You won’t recognise them by their suits, because they may still be in school uniform. They move faster and with a deft ease that defies assumptions. It’s ever more satisfying to be taken by surprise at someone’s strength. If you were at SA’s 1st BarCamp – we got to be there because of the surprising leadership of the geekspin powernode himself Conrad Strydom. . and now the baton has been picked up by the dazzling young Edrich from Durban 
(BarcampDurban it’s happening in December, so what a gr8 excuse to be in the lush hibiscus-sugarcanegreen-golden-beached Zulu kingdom over the silly season..so sign up & join me.. sounds like an East Coast roadtrip in the making!)
Edd got down to CapeTown, presented his project at Barcamp (he’s a hardcore hardware geek – and needs help with funding and electrical engineering – so if you /know anyone/ who wants to get involved in a project that could help disadvantaged communities get up to tech speed >>get in on the groundfloor of this one: get along & check out his site). He decided to organise BarCamp for the BananaRepublic geeks and boom! within a week it’s sorted! He also plays for the Durban City Orchestra & whizzes around the world playing the FrenchHorn. All this in the midst of exams, because yes, Edd is still at school!!
Starting to feel like I should’ve started a whole lot earlier. This morning on my way to get coffee I also spotted Time magazine’s world edition cover: 3 steely Eton boys in school uniform confidently command the cover. BarCamp CapeTown was at school and Durban will be too.. what’s going on here?? LifeLong Learning here we come>>
Clearly I need to pay attention to this signal coming through the noise.. because Dave sent me this link too>> a few days ago Guy Kawasaki (garage.com & Apple legend) paid attention to the giant groundswell of youthful power.. worth a scan, especially if you think teenagers don’t have anything worthwhile to say man.
Another stellar beacon is our friend Christof Appel, young multitalented and unstoppable! Christof will be representing South Africa in Washington DC at the International Toastmasters Competition (..I’m hot on your heels bru ;-) ). His work focusses squarely on empowering more young blazing stars to find an infinite font of confidence and courage within themselves. At age 20(!) he has already arced a blazing trajectory across the local media landscape.. rock on brutha!
This is the nature of web2.0.. it’s fast fluid and fiercely quirky nature is all about surprise (keep yr eye on Wikipedia 3.0 – the baton of power can pass unexpectedly swiftly): here it’s authenticity that counts and money can’t buy you love. Teenagers are a terrifying audience because they’ve grown up digital, and they see through a lot of the coercion thrown their way (which oddly splats on the adults around them instead). Read from Doug Rushkoff’s interview on his graphic novel Club Zero G:
It’s attention trained on how to market to them, predict their behaviour, and, at worst, to turn them into compliant mindless consumers.The strange part is that all this marketing seems to work better on the adults than the kids.That’s why adult women wear all those pathetic childhood dresses, and why adult men lust after their daughter’s high school friends.
Guess WE need to grow up as the grown ups & give respect where it is due. Trying to turn potent young human beings (who will, as a reminder be those who lead the world you will live in tomorrow) into an insecure mindless market segment is not a good strategic move!
So in celebration of the wisdom & sheer delight in taking the world on regardless of your circumstance, your age, your education, the country you live in, your status.. or anything we have been taught that we AUGHT to have before we dare aspire higher. None of that matters anymore: CARPE DIEM indeed (maybe I feel inspired enough to watch the movie)
caffeinespot said,
June 27, 2006 at 7:01 am
Passion over Perfection… Teenagers often PLAY harder than adults do. In an evolving business landscape that needs speedy decision-making and intuition, that sense of playfullness and enthusiasm for change becomes extemely valuable.
rafiq said,
June 30, 2006 at 12:13 pm
Dave was right, writing = art