Make Meaning!

Recently I explored iTunes U. I knew about it for some time but I never stood still. This time though I was “pushed” to find out more by reacting to an Apple iTunes teaser. U stands for University. What’s that then? It’s a free service invented in the US of A: some of the largest names in college education (see left) have decided to gradually put their “live” courses in audio or video format on iTunes. Some of these colleges also maintain regular podcasts or videocasts. By the way, Dick Feynman has done the same already forty years ago, in early sixties, for a whole series of his courses on Physics (still available in audiobook form today).

For some time already I have been impressed by the work done by Stanford University in supplying entrepreneurial education of the best kind and by its reputation that, if you want to become a successful entrepreneur you’ve got to attend and get a degree at Stanford. Long story short, I ended up downloading sh*tloads Stanford courseware on all sorts of possible subjects, just to get a feel of what kind of school this is. All this downloading is made too simple to even talk about, via the iTunes download functionality.

Among many college subjects, Stanford courseware covers a whole set of guest lectures on entrepreneurship, as one should obviously expect. One short and sweet video session that I watched (3’14’’) by Guy Kawasaki talked about what it takes to make a start-up venture reach and succeed its goals. My blog title hint “make meaning” is what strike me in Guy’s pitch. He says that if you seek success you need to think about not how to make money but how to make meaning... and then he goes on to say that “make meaning” means three things:

1. Increase quality of life.
2. Right a Wrong
3. Prevent the end of something good

Having served top mgt positions in several US companies until three years ago, as well as having fulfilled numerous strategic planning assignments as a consultant during the best part of the 80ies, I can honestly confess to you that all of us, quite often as a rule than as exception, paid big time “lip service” to the concept of “make meaning”! I can’t even count the number of times we referred to our “strategic vision” about the “mission of our enterprise” employing the best available noble terms just to fill another line in a report that nobody would take seriously anyways.

Guy has worked in the Macintosh team at Apple. He said... we used to wake up in the morning thinking: what can I do today to change the world? Can you think of a more powerful motivation to start a day?

(PS. to find out more about iTunes U, launch iTunes on your PC or Mac, navigate to its online store and select iTunes U in a little menu frame at the top left of the iTunes Store window)

Whatever happened to this guy?

While surfing the other day on Flickr I saw this picture, one of the most dramatic shots I’ve come across in my entire life. It is taken during a parade in Paris of the Nazi troops having victoriously invaded France during World War II. Every single face in the shot says a story but the common denominator of all is that of fear and horror.

The main character is heartbreaking! Looking at the expression of his face I can’t help than feeling immense empathy with his pain. Tears shining at the bottom of his irises, his mouth trembling, feeling the humiliation deeply in his heart at the thought of his beloved fatherland taken over by the unfair invaders. The woman at the left, looking very much terrified as well, claps her hands in a somewhat forced fashion, as probably someone suggested to all of them to applaud and appear happy as “liberated” in reporters’ cameras.

Another remarkable element in the picture is the fine and distinguished clothes those people had on during that event. This guy’s jacket, shirt and tie look brilliant, impeccable! So very French! Especially the tie is reminiscent of top class Hermes designs... The lady on the left, very smart, with a beautiful hat, very typical of the times. Seems that people took real pride in what they wore, compared to what we see walking on the streets nowadays.

One face I can’t figure out how he really felt is the guy in the background, at the right. There is something in the way he looks that tells me that he wasn’t too sure whether to mourn about or celebrate the occupation. Maybe he was a snitch of some sort. I don’t like him, anyways.

Of all the occupied territories the French reacted with the most heroic, effective and hard core resistance to the Nazis. All this helped immensely to deliver the right strikes to the occupying forces and eventually lead to winning the war.
What happened to our man in the picture? He’s definitely not alive today... but who was he, what did he do next after the parade, did he live to see the end of the war, what craft or job did he do for living, had he any family and children, what schools did he attend, where was he from, how was he in happier moments, did he live happy and long after the war... I can’t help teasing myself with many thoughts about this chap...

I envy so much the photographer who took the shot... he’s got what great photographers always do: the ability to cease the moment! Not a millisec too early, not a millisec too late! Just the right capturing moment! Brilliant!