The Daily Riff - BE SMARTER. ABOUT EDUCATION.

Fred Wilson is Managing Partner at Union Square Ventures in NYC (early investors in Twitter and Foursquare).  He gave a presentation titled "10 Ways To Be Your Own Boss" at the 99% conference which can be seen in this video below. 

We like the way he paints a picture of how different people are pursuing and realizing their passions by choosing various roads of entrepreneurship.   One cannot help but notice how different our traditional school system is by comparison.  Its very structure and the qualities that are rewarded in students are counter to those embued by "real life" entrepreneurs,  especially at a time when our society needs "non-standardized" entrepreneurial traits and abilities. 

In Wilson's talk, it's hard not to notice how adaptability, innovativeness and a self-directed initiative resonate throughout all these stories.  Schools give stars and honors for getting homework in on time and for being "good" in class . . . how often do we promote a penchant for innovation?  Is that a word in the educator lexicon in assessment?  Not.

Wilson covers the 10 with some great quirky anecdotes - here's a quick cheat sheet:
 

• Sole Proprietor - Matt Drudge
  
• Partnership - Wilson's architects
• Boutique - retail & Union Square model
  
• Federation - doctors, lawyers, investment bankers
• Husband/Wife Team - complementary skills
  
• Project - authors, film-makers, actors
• The Tour Bus - Hype-machine
• The Start Up - seeking investment & customers
  
• The Break-Out - Foursquare
• The Company - Twitter 

One interesting story was when Wilson's firm was about to wire Foursquare their first investment check but hit a glitch because the two Foursquare partners didn't even have a checking account since they were bootstrapping the business for the first six months. 
Good stuff.

Fred Wilson is a highly-regarded thought leader (& very successful) in the tech investment financial circles, with investments including Twitter, Foursquare, Feedburner and del.icio.us.  His blog is AVC.

Video runs 21 minutes - a good one for the weekend (and to share with students).  If the video below cuts out (we had a few heads up), this link here or here should work right away.  Sorry if it happens.  Let us know - thanks. 
                                                                                                                 - C.J. Westerberg