Tonight was the Big Dream Gathering at UNI. My Marketing professor was gracious enough to let me leave during the break, so I was able to enjoy the gathering from 7pm to 8:30pm or so. I arrived and was immediately impressed with the number of posted dreams, and I added three to the walls myself. I spent time reading every dream posted, and commented on a dozen or more posts. A big shout out to Mitch Matthews for hosting the impressive display and inspiring people to dream big!

Reading the dreams was great. Sometimes I forget just how many amazing people there are not just in the world, but on my own college campus. The family, relationship, and service sections were particularly touching, with a great many people posting their desires to go abroad and do good for the poorer nations in the world. Other sections were comforting — there are many people who desire, like me, to run a marathon. I was able to leave some tips for the new runners, and I left contact info for the one who specifically wanted to run the Chicago Marathon, as that has been my specific goal as well! I also realized there are two massively under-served groups at UNI. There were a myriad of posts looking for ideas, help, and encouragement to get started with photography, which can be a very challenging career to pursue. Another large group was people wishing to write and publish books. Due to the nature of my business, I saw the incredible opportunities I was missing! If only my service was already up and running! Even so, I left them helpful advice about how to get started with self-publishing using various web sites, and Katherine left the information for the John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center so, even if they decide not to go the self-publishing route, they can still get in contact with me when my service is up and running.

The experience was quite liberating much in the same way PostSecret is liberating — it was extremely easy to relate to all of the dreams posted. Some were fun, some silly, many profound, and most were absolutely doable with some support. When written down the dream feels real and nearly tangible. It isn’t some far flung thought to merely continue to toy with or ignore; now, posted on the wall, it is up for the world to see and comment on as well. As recently discussed by 4chan’s creator Christopher ‘m00t’ Poole at TED2010, anonymity allows people to be brutally honest and raw. With no name attached to the dreams, you can dream as big as possible without the normal, often self-imposed, blocks that aim to root us in reality. This is important for a number of reasons, but perhaps most important is the fact that in an environment where anything is possible, where no dream is too large or insurmountable, people find out what their real dreams are. We need to free our minds of societal and personal blocks to aim high enough to uncover these truths, for they are important to our journey in life. It is a Machiavellian concept, and reminds me of one of my favorite quotes:

“Men nearly always follow the tracks made by others and proceed in their affairs by imitation, even though they cannot entirely keep to the tracks of others or emulate the prowess of their models. So a prudent man should always follow in the footsteps of great men and imitate those who have been outstanding. If his own prowess fails to compare with theirs, at least it has an air of greatness about it. He should behave like those archers who, if they are skillful, when the target seems too distant, know the capabilities of their bow and aim a good deal higher than their objective, not in order to shoot so high but so that by aiming high they can reach the target.”

Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince

Although I often spend a great deal of time on self-reflection and, more recently, self-actualization, events like this allow me to seriously consider what is lurking in the back of my mind.  When you are honest with yourself then events like this can lead to bold personal revolutions where you might just be surprised and learn more about who you are and what you hold most dear to you. Along those lines, I posted a dream that seemed to resonate with people because it was deeply personal in nature, and it has nothing to do with any of the other big dreams I am working towards (in fact, one could call them an means to this end). Though I think often and hard on the topic, it rarely gets discussed in the daily routine of life, and it was liberating to just show the world that I had not given up on it.

Despite my ill-advised 17-hour day on 3 hours of sleep, today was not just a success, but a great experience as well. In regards to the last post, here are the Big Dream Gathering videos:

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Brief glimpse of the incubator, then Laurie talks about what we’re all about

Travis, fellow entrepreneur and SBI inhabitant.

Me, pre-haircut and beard-cut and a little bit of rambling. This was originally posted on the Big Dream Gathering site. Thanks for the supportive words Mitch!

I feel that I should add a disclaimer: I have been very blessed with great employers since I started working when I was 16. I have enjoyed working with all of them, and I continue to do so. Entrepreneurship will be the next step in my career because it provides me with new opportunities and experiences, not because I am dissatisfied with my employers!

You see, to stay in the incubator you must make satisfactory progress in various areas of running your business, such as business development, personal development, networking, SBI involvement, and other things. You are required to obtain a certain amount of “points” per semester by doing various activities. This is easily achievable to anyone reasonably motivated, and I will certainly pass the requirement by a large amount. One of the things you can get points for is being available for incubator tours, which merely amounts to talking to anyone Laurie brings by when you are in your office. I could have turned down the offer, but beyond looking bad on the first day, I had no desire to! Fear is not a reason to reject opportunity. Indeed, one of the big lures of entrepreneurship is the ability to challenge myself in ways I have not experienced, the ability to improve skills that have gone undeveloped, and to thrust me into situations I that I find uncomfortable. Confronting things you are unfamiliar with and having the courage to do things you might not do otherwise is an important part of being not just an entrepreneur, but a leader as well.

Sure enough, a small mob of people swarm in around 3pm, and I hear the knock on my door. The time has come, and I think, “Now, what do I say without sounding like a fool?” While I’m not entirely sure I accomplished that, I felt like I had a great interview. Mitch Matthews is a very impressive and personable guy, and it was obvious that he has a lot of passion for what he does. As Laurie noted, he was coming around filming people to talk about their “Big Dreams”, for he runs BigDreamGathering.com and is going to host an event on campus that I will surely be attending. Part way into the interview the camera guy ran out of tape and went to retrieve another, but Mitch and I just kept talking anyway!

As my interview wrapped up he gave me a few very useful bits of advice and then moved on to the other incubator inhabitant present, Travis Steffan, who runs two bussinesses out of the incubator: Synn Clothing and WorkoutBox. I knew his story because I met him during a tour last semester when I was in a class, but I wanted to listen to the interview anyway because he is an impressive individual and a successful student entreprenuer. While listening I got to gab a bit with the other people present, which were mostly people from around UNI that were showing Mitch and his small crew around and grabbing people with Big Dreams.

Eventually the excitement passed and I took a few minutes to reflect on what had just happened. My first formal day as an entrepreneur and I had already accomplished these things after four hours:

• Networked, which resulted in connections, advice, and a possible customer (before I have written any code!)
• Filmed an interview, resulting in free marketing / press
• Successfully delivered an elevator pitch on camera and off, with positive feedback from four or five people
• Was told by at least three people they loved the name of my business
• Had my business concept reaffirmed by people I did not know, which felt great

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• Registered domain names
• Setup work environment
• Read policy information
• Gained points towards business progress for staying in the SBI.

As I walked to my night class I could not imagine a higher octane start to my business, nor could I imagine a more productive day. I had a great sense of accomplishment, and yet I technically have very little done. But as I say in the interview: I have all of the pieces, I just need to put them together.

So, to anyone reading that wants to find the moral of the story, I leave you with these two lessons learned:

1. Develop an elevator pitch! It is absolutely necessary to be able to describe your idea and sell it to a person in just a few sentences.
2. The first day is -NOT- too early to buy business cards! You never know who you might meet that wants one. I was kicking myself for not having any!

I’ll try to post a picture of my office and maybe come back and insert the video of my interview once it has been posted.