Hero's Journey Entrepreneurship

Artistic Entrepreneurship & Technology as an Academic Discipline

noreply@blogger.com (45 Surf Hero's Journey Entrepreneurship) — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 01:23:00 +0000

Artistic Entrepreneurship & Technology as an Academic Discipline

http://artsentrepreneurship.com http://herosjourneyentrepreneurship.org

by Dr. Elliot McGucken

Universities, founded as entrepreneurial institutions that would help create the new, no longer are. Bureaucracy has set in. Universities have forgotten, or, worse, repudiated the entrepreneurial imperative that created the fortunes that allowed their benefactors to start them in the first place. –The Entrepreneurial Imperative, by Carl J. Schramm

If we are to go forward, we must go back and rediscover those precious values - that all reality hinges on moral foundations and that all reality has spiritual control. –Martin Luther King Jr.

For better or worse, my youthful idealism—the belief that any truly sound business endeavor must be built on a strong moral foundation—still remains today, at least as strong a it was all those years ago. --John C. Bogle, Founder of The Vanguard Group

Artistic Entrepreneurship & Technology seeks to serve students, artists, and entrepreneurs with the tools to make their passions their professions—to protect and profit from their ideas—to take ownership in their creations and careers. For Adam Smith's invisible hand enriches all when happiness is pursued by artists and innovators—society's natural founts of wealth. Jefferson eloquently expressed the entrepreneurial premise:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. –The Declaration of Independence

The only clause in the main body of the United States Constitution that mentions "Rights" states the following:

The Congress shall have power to . . . promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries; --The United States Constitution

Couple these two passages together, and one has the moral premise of Artistic Entrepreneurship & Technology. Every student ought be given the tools to create new ventures--to protect their intellectual property, and to pursue and profit from their dreams on their "Hero's Journey" into entrepreneurship. For it is along that journey that the long-term "wealth of nations" is generated.

Entrepreneurship has aspects of art--creation and the pursuit of higher aesthetics; and science--economics, finance, engineering, and physical invention. How these aspects, and many more--from intellectual property to corporate structures--combine to generate wealth, are part of an Epic Story that is told whenever an individual sets out to render their ideals and dreams real. Thus a most efficient way to study entrepreneurship--to unite its diverse aspects--is via Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey.

"The (AE&T) class is the first of its kind to incorporate art, technology and business." –Chapel Hill Herald, May 2006

As a new cornerstone in a classical liberal arts education, Artistic Entrepreneurship is for those seeking to make their passions their professions. This festival is dedicated to all those embarking on the "Hero's Journey" to create enduring wealth, be it a new venture, video game, indie film, record label, book, DRM system serving artists and musicians, or course.

The Artistic Entrepreneurship & Technology program aims to create lasting resources serving students and professors with curriculums devoted to entrepreneurship. By marrying the study of entrepreneurship and pursuit of entrepreneurial visions to the “hero’s journey,” both a lasting skeleton and soul is given to the academic field of entrepreneurship.

By focusing on the unchanging precepts and common laws that entrepreneurship across all disciplines has in common, AE&T seeks to create an academic discipline rooted in higher principles, and brought to life each and every semester on the cutting edge of innovation found within the students’ projects.

All students encounter Joseph Campbell’s Hero With a Thousand Faces, The Odyssey, and John Bogle’s Battle for The Soul of Capitalism on the first day of class. Right there the class reaches out across all disciplines and across thousands of years, exalting the students by reminding them that they are part of a great story—an epic that they get to write. And by taking ownership in one’s life, in one’s destiny while seeking to serve both higher ideals and one’s peers, so often it is that wealth is created—both monetary and spiritual.

The various stages outlined in Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey make an ideal backbone for a semester’s syllabus devoted to entrepreneurship, and The Hero With a Thousand Faces makes an ideal companion, guide, and mentor for the rest of the students’ lives. Arts entrepreneurship sees the classical liberal arts as a most useful tool, and it invites all students to partake in the fellowship of the living story.

Serving Student Demand

Students long for a cross-disciplinary field of study that leapfrogs over the bureaucracy that all too often marks ever-narrowing academic fields, where semblance replaces soul, formalities are substituted for deeper meanings, and the letter of the law is held superior to the spirit of the law. Artistic Entrepreneurship & Technology unites the formerly disparate academic fields of business, law, art, and technology in a living, breathing class, endowing the subject matter with a spirit and soul, and granting entrepreneurship and enduring mythology. For we are born to live out stories—not to serve bureaucracies as academia all too often focuses upon teaching.

A vast demand exists for the classical ideals performed in the contemporary context—for honor, integrity, courage, and committment—on Wall Street and Main Street, in Hollywood and the Heartland, in Academia and Government. And thus opportunity abounds for entrepreneurs who keep the higher ideals above the bottom line—for humble heroes in all walks of life.

Artistic Entrepreneurship & Technology aims to be a most useful field of study for students, teachers, and anyone starting or launching a venture related to any field of study. The same classical values guiding the rising artistic renaissance will protect the artists' intellectual property. The immortal ideals which guide the story of blockbuster books and movies such as The Matrix, Lord of the Rings, Braveheart, The Chronicles of Narnia, and Star Wars, are the very same ideals underlying the United States Constitution. These classic ideals--which pervade Homer, Plato, Shakespeare, and the Bible--are the source of both epic story and property rights, of law and business, of academia and civilization.

It is great to witness classical ideals performed in Middle Earth, upon the Scottish Highlands, long ago, in a galaxy far, far, away, and in Narnia, but too, such ideals must be perpetually performed in the contemporary context and living language.

The digital media revolution has collapsed the distance between art, business, law, and media technology programs, and students are longing for those general permanent principles found within the pages of the Great Books. In many ways, an AE&T program founded upon the classics, would become a flagship in reviving the lost art of the liberal arts education.

Throughout the greater culture, there exists a longing for contemporary heroes and heroines in literature reflecting those brave men and women wearing uniforms in real life--there exists a longing for epic stories in our books, movies, and video games, and for digital rights management software and systems based on the Founding Fathers' idealism. And thus there exist vast opportunities for rugged artistic entrepreneurs to lead renaissances on all fronts.

For a time many have been tempted to forget classical ideals, valuing short-term profits over long-term wealth, exalting the bottom line over the higher ideals; but the nascent brilliance of the technological revolutions can only achieve its fuller potential via Story. While many will suggest that the best solution to digital rights management is to remove story from movies--as Hollywood has dedicated itself to as of late--thusly removing incentive to pirate them, I counter that classical ideals can enhance both the storytelling within movies and the DRM that protects them.

Just as the Founding Fathers complimented property rights by providing everyone with the right to bear arms, a novel software system that provides all creators with a turnkey choice from a full spectrum of digital rights management would foster a renaissance in the creation and distribution of intellectual property and art. The name of this software is the 45 Revolver, and the killer app could lead next-generation social networks and content portals that would benefit Hollywood.from the indie filmmakers to the major studios. Let's build it. Let's build tomorrow's ecommerce portals—tomorrow's books, movies, video games, and culture—upon classical ideals.

That distant wave has been a long time coming, and the new fashions will be about performing the classical ideals in the contemporary context. The rising generation will lead a renaissance in storytelling; a renaissance in the composition, production, and distribution of art—a renaissance in business, culture, and civilization—in academia and entrepreneurship. For that is the artistic entrepreneur's duty.

John Bogle, who founded Vanguard—the world's largest and most-trusted mutual fund—upon the idealism of his senior thesis at Princeton University, writes:

Let's begin with Franklin's entrepreneurship. It was not only remarkable for his era; it was remarkable for any era. While in today's grandiose era of capitalism the word "entrepreneur" has come to be commonly associated with those who are motivated to create new enterprises largely by the desire for personal wealth or even greed, the fact is that entrepreneur simply means "one who undertakes an enterprise," a person who founds and directs an organization. But at its best, entrepreneurship entails something far more important than mere money. Please do not take my word for it. Heed the words of the great Joseph Schumpeter, the first economist to recognize entrepreneurship as the vital force that drives economic growth. In his Theory of Economic Development, written nearly a century ago, Schumpeter dismissed material and monetary gain as the prime mover of the entrepreneur, finding motivations like these to be far more powerful: (1) "The joy of creating, of getting things done, of simply exercising one's energy and ingenuity," and (2) "The will to conquer: the impulse to fight, . . . to succeed for the sake, not of the fruits of success, but of success itself. –John C. Bogle, Capitalism, Entrepreneurship, and Investing. The 18th Century vs. the 21st Century Remarks by John C. Bogle Founder and Former Chairman, The Vanguard Group

The Small Liberal Arts University as a Major Research Institution

Dr. Elliot McGucken’s AE&T Research/Books/Patents

“Our business schools have the chance to take the lead in shaping the future. But they will need to change radically to do so.” –Carl J. Schramm, The Entrepreneurial Imperative

Not only has the digital revolution empowered the individual and small business, but it has also empowered small universities and classical liberal arts institutions. No longer are multi-million-dollar labs and vast buildings needed to foster innovation and encourage student entrepreneurship, but simple access to digital tools and the web can provide students with a solid entrepreneurial foundation. Thus Dr. E’s class was able to build wikientrepreneur.org using the same software that powers the world’s largest encyclopedia—wikimedia.

This past year, as he honed his AE&T book due out in 2007, Dr. Elliot McGucken filed one provisional and three final patent applications—three for rights management systems for artists and creators. Here are the final applications’ titles and abstracts:

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CONTENT MARKETPLACE, DRM MARKETPLACE, DISTRIBUTION MARKETPLACE, AND SEARCH ENGINE: THE DODGE CITY MARKETPLACE AND SEARCH ENGINE

The present invention offers novel and superior means for creating a content marketplace. The present invention allows technology companies to compete to meet and serve the creators’ rights. Just as reverse auction systems allow consumers to name their price, with service providers competing to meet the price, the present invention allows artists, creators, and content owners to define their rights, whereupon content aggregators, record labels, social networks, DRM providers, device manufacturers, search engines, and others compete to bets meet the creators’ needs. This innovation reflects the fact while technology companies are commodities, and thus artists ought declare their independence, and ascend to their natural place in the universe—those who take the risks and create the wealth on their Heroes’ Journeys ought reap the rewards. The Dodge City Marketplace will lead to greater revenue and rights for artists, superior search engines, distribution, and art, and trusted standards for DRM.

22NETS: METHOD, SYSTEM, AND APPARATUS FOR BUILDING CONTENT AND TALENT MARKETPLACES AND ARCHIVES BASED ON A SOCIAL NETWORK

The novel social network described herein allows those who create and upload content, as well as those who aggregate content and build the network, to profit in novel manners. A method and system allows users, who create content archives and marketplaces in which individuals and content in the database are connected by mutually defined relationships determined by the content creators/owners, uploaders, aggregators, and/or viewers of said content, to better profit from the networks they build. Higher-quality archives and marketplaces result. A tiered commission system, proportional to the degrees of separation in the network, provides a revenue share for creators and viewers who participate in and create content and/or marketplaces. Information inherent within the nodes is mined so as to afford a tiered revenue-sharing system. An improved method of content distribution empowering creators of content and participants is disclosed herein, along with a superior social network.

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ALLOWING CREATORS, ARTSISTS, AND OWNERS TO PROTECT AND PROFIT FROM CONTENT: THE 45 REVOLVER

The present invention offers novel and superior means for protecting and profiting from digital content. The rights-centric, creator-centric digital rights management application will lead to greater revenue and rights for artists, and a new era of creator's entrepreneurship, as opposed to the dominant aggregator's entrepreneurship. The present invention offers a simple interface for creators, artists, users, and owners to define rights, select from a plurality of DRM options, advertising options, watermarking options, thumbnailing options, syndication options, and publish, share, sell, and distribute their content in a plurality of manners. This invention has far-ranging ramifications, as it causes DRM providers, device manufacturers, web companies, social networks, and content marketplaces to more directly compete with one-another to provide the creator and content owner the best compensation for their work. Creators can bypass the traditional and new middlemen, define their rights, sell their content, and enhance profits.

MORALITY SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR VIDEO GAME: SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CREATING STORY, DEEPER MEANING AND EMOTIONS, ENHANCED CHARACTERS AND AI, AND DRAMATIC ART IN VIDEO GAMES

This present invention pertains to introducing morality and epic storytelling into the realm of video games, resulting in video games with superior, deeper game play, expanded markets, and longer-lasting brands. The ability to render deeper emotion, story, and exalted dramatic arts within the realm of video games has been a long sought-after “holy grail” throughout the video game industry. The prior art demonstrates how others have failed and are failing to deliver more meaningful and engaging games endowed with epic storytelling. This present invention provides the missing key to realizing epic storytelling, deeper emotional involvement, and higher art in video games.

Teaching and research are inseparable, and the patent topics, the process of patenting, and the basics of intellectual property are all brought forth in the living context of the classroom. When Dr. E worked on an artificial retina for the blind, it continually aided in physics class—as a practical application, it was an inspirational tool to inspire the students to learn something. And now, the research in patents in video games, social networks, and digital rights management are continually incorporated in the AE&T class.

The beauty of Einstein’s research was that its end results could always be communicated in simple equations and geometrical pictures. The beauty of the Declaration of Independence and Constitution is that they may be readily understood, and read in their entirety in a few hours. Too much modern academia as sacrificed clarity for pretended profundity, for what Nietzsche described as “muddying my waters so as to appear deeper.”

As entrepreneurship is rooted in providing useful, tangible results, it continually exhorts education to teach practical, useful entities; and it encourages professors to join the students in every class as everyone vigorously pursues their ventures. The humble Hero’s Journey unites us all, but just as the Knights of The Round Table, each must find their own unique path through the forest.

The most eloquent expressions of entrepreneurship’s precepts—of the ubiquitous Hero’s Journey that cuts across all cultures and all time—are the Great Books and Classics—from The Odyssey on down. So it is that a classical liberal arts education is a most useful entity, as John C. Bogle, the creator of the world’s largest mutual fund, demonstrated.

The proper role of intellectual property transfer departments should be to give inventors and innovators the tools to protect and profit from their creations. AE&T’s spirit sees creation as the magical act, and the creator as the rightful, natural, and primary owner; and thus it become the MBA’s and JD’s duty to serve the innovator—not to take the innovator’s private property, but to communicate the tools necessary to take the innovation to market. AE&T aims to dispel the myth that it is one type of person suited to creating and another type of person suited to owning, by giving all students the fundamental tools to protect and profit from their creations—to embark on their very own hero’s journeys.

AE&T supports an IP transfer protocol modeled off of Stanford’s “hands off” approach to technology transfer. The duty of IP departments ought to be to serve the inventor and creator with the knowledge they need to protect and profit from their invention. When the creator benefits, they are inspired to keep on creating; and thus it is important to address the rights and interests of innovators and inventors, for they are society’s natural founts of wealth.

And so it is that Artistic Entrepreneurship & Technology seeks to give students, artists, and entrepreneurs the tools to make their passions their professions—to protect and profit from their ideas—to take ownership in their careers and creations. For Adam Smith's invisible hand enriches all when happiness is pursued by artists and innovators—society's natural founts of wealth.

Artistic Entrepreneurship & Technology in the Press

Business Week Online reported

Where Entrepreneurship Connects to the Classics

Elliot McGucken, a professor of entrepreneurship at Pepperdine University, bemoans that "a lot of schools have dismissed the idea of teaching the great books." In a recent lecture at Pepperdine, McGucken points out that that one lesson of the classics is, "Chance favors the prepared mind.. Instead of viewing risk as a bad thing, we can also view it as a good thing." The classics inspired America's Declaration of Independence, which McGucken sees as an entrepreneurial document. Life has a way of "calling us to adventure," he concludes. Though many entrepreneurs launch businesses based on some "whimsical occurrence," it's their educational and life backgrounds that enable them to recognize the opportunity. Thus, John Bogle was able to found Vanguard based on a business-magazine article, while actually pursuing a "higher ideal" associated with making stock ownership available to large numbers of people. See this blog for more information and a related video. --BusinessWeek Online http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/mar2007/sb20070305_370422.htm?chan=smallbiz_smallbiz+index+page_getting+started

From Beethoven to Bob Dylan

"Every artist is an entrepreneur." So argues Dr. Elliot McGucken, a visiting professor at Pepperdine University, in an online video introduction to his course, Art Entrepreneurship & Technology 101, which has the professor lecturing from the shore of a small lake. Among his suggestions for artists who want to be more entrepreneurial: launch a blog (see BusinessWeek.com, 5/18/06, "The ABCs of Beginning Your Blog", prepare a one-minute presentation on "your mission," write a 20-page business plan, and be prepared to work for a long time "for free." For information on courses in entrepreneurship geared toward artists, take a look at http://www.ae2n.net. It's still in its formative stages but eventually will feature reading lists and course evaluations. –BusinessWeek Online http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/oct2006/sb20061002_056758.htm?chan=smallbiz_smallbiz+index+page_getting+started

Former investment CEO discusses moral capitalism

JAIMIE FRANKLIN

Assistant News Editor

http://graphic.pepperdine.edu/news/2007/2007-03-01-bogle.htm

Pepperdine welcomed investment giant John C. Bogle to campus Tuesday evening as the keynote speaker for National Entrepreneurship Week USA. Bogle spoke on how businesses have abandoned true ethics and the importance of classical values and a liberal education in the today’s world and attested to his humble beginnings and how they shaped his life to come.

As founder and former CEO of the Vanguard Group, the second largest mutual fund company in the world, Bogle was recognized as one of the world’s 100 most powerful and influential people by TIME Magazine in 2004. He was also hailed as one of the investment industry’s four “Giants of the 20th Century” by Fortune magazine in 1999.

Dr. Elliot McGucken organized the event. McGucken teaches a class in artistic entrepreneurship in which Bogle’s 2005 book, “The Battle for the Soul of Capitalism,” is required reading alongside Homer’s “Odyssey.”

The theme of a hero’s journey, therefore, permeated Bogle’s presentation.

“Classical precepts are the most useful tools throughout life,” McGucken said. “Ideals are a great a long-term investment, because they never change.”

Bogle reached out to students, urging them to pursue an education and to become a citizen characterized by ethics and ideals.

“Dream, but act too,” Bogle said. “You have nearly all of your own odyssey before you… if you are truly strong in will to strive, seek, find, and not to yield.”

Many students found the presentation to be valuable and could relate to Bogle’s assessment of the business world.

“I thought it was pretty interesting, especially with the moral aspect to see such a wealthy man and how he founded his business,” said freshman Maurice Collins.

Freshman Kamron King agreed.

“To see his humble beginnings makes acquiring that much wealth seem tangible,” King said.

Events will come to a close Saturday with an online lecture by McGucken. Entrepreneurship Week USA is a nation-wide event established by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and sponsored by The New York Times and Inc. magazine. --http://graphic.pepperdine.edu/news/2007/2007-03-01-bogle.htm

Festival to promote business creativity

RICHARD NAVA

Staff Writer , the Graphic:

http://graphic.pepperdine.edu/news/2007/2007-03-29-festival.htm

The excitement of the epics of the past can be utilized to promote creativity and entrepreneurship, according to the organizers of the first Hero’s Journey Entrepreneurship Festival, held Saturday.

Seaver College will host the event at the Pepperdine School of Law.

The festival will include several professionals in the arts and humanities field including Flint Dille and John Zuur of the award winning “Chronicles of Riddick” and David Whatley, the CEO of Simutronics. The festival will also include a keynote speech by William Fay, who is the executive producer of films such as “The Patriot,” “Superman Returns” and the current blockbuster movie “300.”

“The Hero’s Journey Entrepreneurship Festival seeks to give students, artists and entrepreneurs the tools to make their passions their professions,” said Dr. Elliot McGucken, visiting professor of business. “The rising generation is longing for epic story across all mediums.”

McGucken’s growing popularity is clearly visible not only in his students, but also fellow members of the Pepperdine staff and faculty. Vice Chancellor Michael Warder, for example, said the concept of spreading entrepreneurship and business to artists of all types is part of McGucken’s genius.

“I think he speaks to creative students who are steeped in the digital revolution in a very powerful and responsible way,” Warder said.

McGucken said he originally had the idea for the festival in the fall. McGucken’s work is supported by a $125,000 grant that Pepperdine received from the prestigious Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation to further curriculum development for Artistic Entrepreneurship and Technology; a curriculum that has many students eager to participate.

Pepperdine student Dylan Vandam was asked to be a volunteer for the festival and said he immediately wanted to get involved.

“I want to network with other students, faculty and professionals to pursue and to incorporate the knowledge imparted from the leaders at the festival into my everyday life,” Vandam said.

As a student volunteer, Vandam has contributed to the festival by designing the t-shirts that will be worn and given away March 31. Vandam hopes to use his education in pursuing a life based on strong values, which he says he has learned as a Pepperdine student.

Junior Michelle Petty is also a participant and student volunteer for the festival. Petty is a creative writing major and said she was excited when she first heard about the event through Facebook.

Petty says she will have a multi-faceted role in the festival as an usher, liaison, and clean-up crew member.

“Even though doing this will take up a lot of my Saturday writing time, I know it will be an edifying experience,” Petty said.

The festival will begin at the Law School at 8 a.m. and will include lectures and speeches throughout the day. It will not conclude until after 8 p.m. at The Malibu Inn where there will be special musical quests.

All are welcome to volunteer and participate in the festival this Saturday, and also in the volunteer meeting that will be held today at 7 p.m. in the Atrium. For more information please contact Dr. McGucken at Elliot.McGucken@Pepperdine.Edu, or visit the festival’s Web site at http://www.herosjourneyentrepreneurship.org.

http://graphic.pepperdine.edu/news/2007/2007-03-29-festival.htm

THE PEPPERDINE GRAPHIC

New business class connects student passion with capital

AIRAN SCRUBY News Editor

Students from a variety of majors are coming together in a classroom setting to make their dreams come true.

The class, Artistic Entrepreneurship and Technology, is listed through the Business Division, but all students may participate.

The course was added to Pepperdine’s curriculum this year, and is taught by a visiting professor, Dr. Elliot McGucken. McGucken previously taught a similar course at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and has implemented the course in his new post at Pepperdine.

The course is being offered in two forms: as a freshman seminar course and as an upper-division class, comprised mainly of juniors and seniors.

McGucken said the goal of the class was to help students pursue their passion in their careers, and to keep in mind their artistic vision and ethics over the bottom line in business ventures.

“Ideals are real,” McGucken said.

McGucken’s class at UNC gained media attention as an exciting opportunity for students looking to market their artwork, or to make business an art.

“Looks like McGucken’s found a way to inspire a new generation of artistically minded entrepreneurs to follow their passion, and make a living,” wrote Teresea Ciulla in Entrepreneur Magazine.

Matt Llewellyn, a senior advertising and marketing major who is enrolled in the class, said McGucken’s youth and experience make him an effective professor.

“I think he relates to students, because he’s fresh and new,” Llewellyn said.

McGucken himself is an entrepreneur, who won a Merrill Lynch Innovations Grant for his artificial retina for the blind, runs several websites, and has several patents pending on topics ranging from video games to digital rights management.

Artie Calhoun, a senior economics major, said McGucken’s experience brought an extra dimension to the class.

“Dr. McGucken seems to be very experienced in the field of entrepreneurship and quite possibly has a lot to offer to students like myself,” Calhoun said.

Llewellyn started a company which sells bottled water in downtown Los Angeles, with packaging written in Spanish. He said he wishes he had taken the class before he started his venture.

“I think as the class goes on, I’m going to learn a lot from [McGucken],” Llewellyn said.

Llewellyn and Calhoun agreed students should take the class, regardless of their major.

“This class teaches about the advantages of thinking outside the box and keeping an open mind about the world around you,” Calhoun said. “Entrepreneurship can be found in every profession.”

Here’s what the Entrepreneur Magazine Blog had to say about AE&T:

Mixing Art With Entrepreneurship, by Teresa Ciulla: Can you actually make your passion your profession? According to Dr. Elliot McGucken, a professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, who's teaching the university's first "Artistic Entrepreneurship & Technology 101" class, the answer just may be yes. McGucken's class, which is comprised of a group of 45 students majoring in law, business, art, computer science, journalism and music, focuses on teaching students about creating value over just making money, about letting their higher ideals guide the bottom line. After all, as McGucken says, "Successful companies aren't successful because they make money--they're successful because they create value." Class projects range from a classical music video to a hip hop curriculum and textbook to an online art gallery to a freshman's record label that's signed more than ten bands to a social network being programmed by three computer science majors. Students are seeing that to the degree they succeed in creating useful art and ventures, they'll be able to support their passions with a profitable business. And isn't that what we're all really striving for? To find an excitement in our work in order to beat back the dullness of the typical 9-to-5 routine? Looks like McGucken's found a way to inspire a new generation of artistically minded entrepreneurs to follow their passions—and make a living.

UNC's Daily Tar Heel Reported in March, 2006

Students find dream jobs In class, passions fuel business plans

Erin Wiltgen, Staff Writer

For many, childhood and adolescence pass in a blur of hobbies and passionate adventures, activities seeped in a deep-seated excitement and love inherent in a particular pastime.

In UNC professor Elliot McGucken's "Artistic Entrepreneurship and Technology" class, students and teachers work to "make your passion your profession," transforming students' dreams and interests into potential paths for the future.

The unique course allows students interested in fields such as photography, video games, painting, classical music and film production to explore commercial and social ventures in the arts.

They search for and create a plan based in entrepreneurship, which supports and nurtures their individual visions.

"A lot of times school tells you that your dreams aren't important," says McGucken, a physics professor. "But in reality dreams are your most important asset."

The class consists of an independent project that includes three presentations, guest lectures and small-group collaboration.

Sophomore Phil Gennett's project is a clothing line, and he is trying to find a manufacturer for his creations.

He also intends to set up a talent agency.

"I want to blow it up into a new sort of entertainment, like American Idol, but also as a social network for opportunities," Gennett says.

Sophomore Ryan Dean is working on multiple projects. He runs a graphic design company called Cellar Door Design. He also has joined with a photographer in the class to create CD booklet artwork for the second album by his band, The Anchor Comes Home.

"What's most helpful is meeting like-minded people," Dean says.

"The best thing about this class is establishing relationships with the other students and collaborating with each other."

Stefan Estrada, graduate student and teaching assistant for the class, shares a similar view.

"The people in this class have ambition and a vision of things they want to accomplish," Estrada says.

"This isn't a class where you get something done and forget about it. It continues to maybe become your career." .. . . McGucken also says that entrepreneurship classes give students a broader knowledge base.

"It's an irony that the University requires you to specialize when people typically end up switching jobs five or six times and need to know about a lot of different things," McGucken says.

At 5 p.m. Tuesday, the class will host a show at Local 506 on Franklin Street.

The show, called "Rocky Raccoon's High Tech Hollywood Hip Hop Hedge Fund Hoedown and Fashion/Art/Photography/Video Games Showdown" will feature musical and spoken-word performances, fashion shows, film and video screenings and displays of visual art and photography.

The show is designed as a networking event and as a benefit for the Music Maker Relief Foundation and three web sites - OSCommerce.com, Joomla.org and Gallery.menalto.com.

The Music Maker foundation works to help pioneers of Southern musical traditions gain recognition and meet their financial needs.

One goal of the show, and the class itself, is "to build new cultural centers," McGucken says.

"The University has been separated artificially," he says.

"This class has naturally collapsed all the barriers between business and art and law, putting all the power in the hands of the creator."

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From The Second Annual Hero's Journey Entrepreneurship Festival

noreply@blogger.com (45 Surf Hero's Journey Entrepreneurship) — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 01:21:00 +0000

From The Second Annual Hero's Journey Entrepreneurship Festival
http://herosjourneyrenaissance.org/
Ideals in Innovation
by Dr. E
Da Vinci wrote, "the depth and strength of a human character are defined by its moral reserve" and Martin Luther King Jr. agreed, "If we are to go forward, we must go back and rediscover those precious values--that all reality hinges on moral foundations and that all reality has spiritual control." And the title of John C. Bogle's Battle for The Soul of Capitalism says it all, as it suggests we read Adam Smith in order, with A Theory of Moral Sentiments preceding The Wealth of Nations, for as Socrates stipulated, all true wealth comes from virtue--the immortal soul, and not virtue from wealth.
There's something going on. A renaissance is rising--artists, authors, and inventors are turning towards the classical ideals so as to render them real in the living culture. A fellowship of creators, each walking the hero's journey by the immortal stars of classical antiquity, is seeking to serve the soul in art and literature--in video games, music, and film. It's been a long time coming, as the rising generation has been seeking that third act--that classical, epic thunder that we can call our own.
Come join us on March 8th as we celebrate the ultimate Renaissance Man--Leonardo da Vinci--while saluting those marking rugged journeys in the realms of screenwriting, video games, film, academia, and robotics--robots inspired by da Vinci's designs.

The Dark Ages lasted for hundreds of years--from 476 to 1000 AD. Art, innovation, and literature declined along with contemporary written history. A general demographic decline accompanied limited cultural achievements. Aristotle wrote "When storytelling declines, the result is decadence," and as they turned away from the classics and higher art and towards bread and circuses--towards reality TV and spectacle--the soul, and thus civilization, faltered.

The Italian Renaissance, which spanned the period from the end of the 1400's to about 1600, sailed beyond the Dark Ages by the immmortal stars of classical antiquity. Renaissance scholars again sought out the Great Books and Classics in the ancient monastic libraries and incorporated them in education and culture. And so too do we march on--following the lead of the immortal heroes such as da Vinci who stated, "Who sows virtue reaps honor," and "Where the spirit does not work with the hand there is no art." Da Vinci wrote, "the depth and strength of a human character are defined by its moral reserve" and Martin Luther King Jr. agreed, "If we are to go forward, we must go back and rediscover those precious values--that all reality hinges on moral foundations and that all reality has spiritual control." And the title of John C. Bogle's Battle for The Soul of Capitalism says it all, as it suggests we read Adam Smith in order, with A Theory of Moral Sentiments preceding The Wealth of Nations, for as Socrates stipulated, all true wealth comes from virtue--the immortal soul, and not virtue from wealth.

Vast opportunities exist to incorporate the soul of The Iliad and The Odyssey--of Shakespeare, the Bible, and The Inferno--in video games. The Mona Lisa, two dimensional and stationary, yet towers over the female characters in modern games in spirit and soul; as do Dante's Beatrice and Odysseus's Penelope. Knowledge of the classics--the spiritual eternities--not material wealth--became the true mark of wealth during the Renaissance, and so shall it be again. The movie 300 demonstrated that the rising generation is longing for the classical spirit and soul; and Artistic Entrepreneurship & Technology 101 is revolutionizing academia with its simple precept that the spirit of our law and literature--of The Constitution and Hamlet--derive from the same place--the classical Judeo Christian heritage. And so that which had been divided into business, law, film, art, and accounting; is reunited in truth and the simplicity of soul--in a classical liberal arts education--in a foundational renaissance.

There are two Hero's Journeys in every class--the first is through the Great Books, and the second is the one each student walks alone--in a business plan or screenplay for their living venture; for the reason we read the Greats is not for tenure, but to embolden the natural ideals of our soul and gain the courage to follow our better angels and nobler dreams. The Odyssey has lasted over 2800 years because it reminds us of that immortal justice--eventually truth prevails.

Opportunity abounds to not only read those dusty old texts, but to render their ideals real in the living context via action. We've been leaving billions on the shelves--billions and far more, including those mythical entities which cannot be counted, but which count for everything. And so me march--we march for the renaissance. --Dr. E

All men whom the higher Nature has imbued with a love of truth should feel impelled to work for the benefit of future generations, whom they will thereby enrich just as they themselves have been enriched by the labors of their ancestors. --Dante

http://herosjourneyrenaissance.org/

Elliot McGucken’s IT Conversations Podcast on Artistic Entrepreneurship & Technology 101

noreply@blogger.com (45 Surf Hero's Journey Entrepreneurship) — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 01:20:00 +0000

http://itc.conversationsnetwork.org/shows/detail1887.html

Tired of being a starving artist? Dr. Elliot McGucken's Artistic Entrepreneurship & Technology 101 puts together a new approach to entrepreneurship and the arts through a fascinating application of the classic journey of mythological heroes. McGucken, a physicist, has taught the class at both UNC Chapel Hill and Pepperdine, and has expanded the concept through blogs, a festival, and an upcoming book.

In this interview McGucken describes how the course applies the structure of the monomyth, the fundamental pattern of the great hero narratives throughout history, from Odysseus, Jesus, and Buddha to Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and The Matrix. Also called the Hero's Journey, Joseph Campbell identified this pattern in his book The Hero With A Thousand Faces. McGucken even takes it a step beyond, using examples from modern real-life success stories like Richard Branson and Kid Rock.

McGucken explains why the web's democratization of both the means of production and distribution can be used by the big companies to continue to exploit artists, or instead used by indie artists themselves who preserve their own rights in their successful journey. It's your choice, if you take it.

Elliot McGucken was born in Ohio, and grew up outdoors except for when he was sitting in front of a computer. He received a B.A. in physics from Princeton and a Ph.D. in physics from UNC Chapel Hill where his dissertation on an artifical retina for the blind received several NSF grants and a Merrill Lynch Innovations Award. The retina-chip research appeared in publications including Popular Science and Business Week, and the project continues to this day.

In 1995 McGucken founded Classicals & jollyroger.com LLC as a technological tribute to the great books, and he has spoken at the Harvard Law School concerning his authena.org project for Open Source software for managing digital rights for artists. McGucken, known as "Dr. E" to his students, teaches physics and programming at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and has published a poetry book, a novel, a collection of essays, several scientific articles, and poetry in The Wall Street Journal.

McGucken founded the Hero's Journey Entrepreneurship Festival in Malibu, CA. Keynote speakers have included John C. Bogle, the founder and former CEO of Vanguard, and William Fay, executive producer at Legendary Pictures. The festival pays homage to Joseph Campbell's Hero With a Thousand Faces and the Hero's Journey in all walks of life.

From: http://itc.conversationsnetwork.org/shows/detail1887.html

Hero’s Journey Entrepreneurship / Arts Entrepreneurship

noreply@blogger.com (45 Surf Hero's Journey Entrepreneurship) — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 01:18:00 +0000

Opportunity Abounds – The Great Books Renaissance &

Hero’s Journey Entrepreneurship

This blog is a call to adventure—a call to join in the Great Books Renaissance this fall and partake in the vast entrepreneurial opportunities that abound on Wall Street and Main Street, in Hollywood and the Heartland. Forward it around and invite everyone to join us as we pursue that higher wealth—but plot, character, and meaning, all of which Aristotle ranked far above spectacle in his Poetics. And as Socrates stated that all money comes from virtue, and not virtue from money, the Great Books--which immortalize the virtous actions of classical heroes--are one's greatest investment. Join us at:

http://herosjourneyentrepreneurship.org

http://artsentrepreneurship.com

http://herosjourneyrenaissance.org

The Hero’s Journey Entrepreneurship Festival hosted both John C. Bogle, founder and former CEO of the Vanguard Group, and William Fay, executive producer at Legendary Pictures; and both told parallel stories of their journeys—whether one is creating the $1.2 trillion Vanguard Fund, or bringing Batman, Superman, and the graphic novel 300 to life with cutting-edge technologies, classical ideals are one’s best friend. Bogle lamented that the “bread and circuses” spectacles have come to replace depth and profundity in business and popular culture, and Fay paid homage to the rugged, timeless story from classical Greece envisioned and rendered by a single author—Frank Miller—that propelled 300 to box office records. Like F.A. Hayek in The Road to Serfdom, King Leonidas in 300 reminds us that sometimes the individual—the lone cowboy—has to take a principled stand against the larger group, against all odds, so as to serve the classical ideals and preserve freedom.

Take ownership in the Great Books and Classics—invest your days in Shakespeare and Dante, in Homer and Plato, in Jefferson and Franklin—in those eternities that shall never turn on you—and then shall Adam Smith and F.A. Hayek truly come to life in the classical context that plumbs our souls and exalts our spirits via Epic Stories—via comedies and tragedies that have endured thousands of years. Hayek wrote,

“The tragedy of collectivist thought is that, while it starts out to make reason supreme, it ends by destroying reason because it misconceives the process on which the growth of reason depends. It may indeed be said that it is the paradox of all collectivist doctrine and its demands for “conscious” control or “conscious” planning that they necessarily lead to the demand that the mind of some individual should rule supreme—while only the individualist approach to social phenomena makes us recognize the superindividual forces which guide the growth of reason. Individualism is thus an attitude of humility before this social process and of tolerance to other opinions and is the exact opposite of that intellectual hubris which is at the root of the demand for comprehensive direction of social purpose.” –Nobel Laureate F.A. Hayek, The End of Truth, The Road to Serfdom

Hayek salutes the natural engine of wealth and freedom—the rugged individual who lives by a higher code of honor, be it King Leonidas or John Bogle—Neo or Jobs—Branson or Frodo. Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman penned the introduction to the latest edition of Hayek's classic The Road to Serfdom, in which he spoke of the troubling growth of the Matrix, of Sauron’s armies, of Darth Vader’s empire—of bureaucracy.

I said at the outset that “in some ways” the message of this book “is even more relevant to the United States today than it was when it created a sensation . . . half a century ago.” Intellectual opinion then was far more hostile to its theme than it appears to be now, but practice conformed to it far more than it does today. Government in the post World War II period was smaller and less intrusive than it is today. Johnson’s Great Society programs, including Medicare and Medicaid, and Bush’s Clean Air and Americans with Disabilities Acts, were all still ahead, let alone the numerous other extensions of government that Reagan was only able to slow down, not reverse, in his eight years in office. Total government spending—federal, state, and local—in the United States has gone from 25 percent of national income in 1950 to nearly 45 percent in 1993.

So how do we turn the tide and inspire a renaissance? Charles G. Koch, CEO of Koch Industries, recently published a great book entitled, The Science of Success, in which he penned, “For business to survive and prosper, it must create real long-term value in society through principled behavior.” Time and again we encounter this message in books by seasoned entrepreneurs, as Bogle writes in The Battle for The Soul of Capitalism, “For better or worse, my youthful idealism—the belief that any truly sound business endeavor must be built on a strong moral foundation—still remains today, at least as strong a it was all those years ago.” And too, in the Fitzgerald translation of The Odyssey, Odysseus announces, “fair dealing leads to greater profit in the end.” As all renaissances, films, novels, business, and video games begin with mere words—and as Shelly wrote that poets are the true legislators of mankind, this entrepreneurial renaissance must be rooted in a Great Books renaissance—in character and epic story. For in the beginning there was the word.

Koch cites Proverbs 29:18, “Where there is no vision, the people perish,” and Bogle cites Corinthians, “If the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?” We need classic, rugged leaders, and as artists, filmmakers, and writers we too must cite and communicate those everlasting ideals to the students—if anything, as artists we have an even greater duty to communicate the classical ideals, as that is the primary purpose of the arts, as sure as it is of the academy. The proper study of business and entrepreneurship—of economics and business—must take place in a classical context, just as Adam Smith must be read in the context that he was first and foremost a “philosopher of moral sentiments.” Koch writes, “By self-interest, Smith meant what Tocqueville called enlightened self-interest, in which people benefit themselves by benefiting others.” In a speech delivered at the University of Pennsylvania, Bogle echoed this:

Permit me to close by moving briefly to a higher plane that transcends economics, a message to all of you, especially the young men and women who are gaining so much valuable economic education through the efforts of the Economics Pennsylvania. Even before venturing into economics in The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith unveiled his not inconsiderable credentials as a philosopher. In The Theory of Moral Sentiments, he expressed this thought, which I hope will ring out loud and clear to each of you. For it drives home the message that, invisible hand or not, engaging the whole person goes far beyond the mere promotion of one’s own interests:

“What is it which prompts the generous among us, upon all occasions, and the meanest, upon many, to sacrifice their own interests to the greater interests of others? It is not the soft power of humanity. It is a stronger power, a more forcible motive. It is reason, principle, conscience, the inhabitant of the breast, the man within, the great judge and arbiter of our conduct . . . who shows us the propriety of generosity, of reining in the greatest interests of our own for yet the greater interests of others, the love of what is honorable and noble, of the grandeur, and dignity of our own character.”

Yes, it’s all about character. And as that final piece of wisdom from Adam Smith confirms, character counts. –

http://johncbogle.com/speeches/JCB_adamsmithdinner_6-02.pdf

And so it is that Bogle and Koch agree with Aristotle’s Poetics—Character and Epic Story—integrity and honor—the immortal soul—must be ranked far above spectacle and mere money. Opportunity abounds for culture—for books, movies, and video games—performing the classical ideals in the contemporary context.

There is nothing more valuable that a student can learn than these eternal precepts which pervade the Great Books and Classics. Unfortunately, such precepts are all too often neglected by contemporary curriculums and textbooks, as well as the popular culture. Scores of books have been written about this decline of the spirit, from Who Killed Homer, to The Bonfire of The Humanities, to The Closing of The American Mind, to Excellence Without Soul, How a Great University Forgot Education, penned by a Harvard dean. Thomas Wolfe's novel I Am Charlotte Simmons takes a literary look at the spiritually bankrupt campus through the eyes of a freshman arriving at the fictional Dupont University from a small town, who slides into depression as her soul is deconstructed.

The deconstruction of classical ideals—of truth, duty, and honor—and the accompanying growth of middling bureaucracy—of a postmodern elite—which separates the risk taker and worker from their natural reward, has not been relegated to government. Bogle laments the augmenting bureaucratic managerial class time and again in his speeches and books, with unparalleled eloquence. In The Battle for The Soul of Capitalism, Bogle writes:

Over the past century, a gradual move from owner’s capitalism—providing the lion’s share of the rewards of investment to those who put up their own money and risk their own capital—has culminated in an extreme version of manager’s capitalism—providing vastly disproportionate rewards to those whom we have trusted to manage their enterprises in the interests of their owners. –John C. Bogle, Battle for The Soul of Capitalism

And as Hayek reminds us that the humble worker and lone innovator—not the bureaucracy—are the source of all enduring wealth creation, it is imperative that academia join the charge in communicating and instilling the individualist ideals of freedom immortalized in the pages of the Great Books, for the epic stories of The Odyssey and the Bible—of Shakespeare and Dante—are the bedrock foundations of moral capitalistic systems—of Western Civilization itself.

And thus Homer’s Odyssey is a most valuable asset—do not take my word for it—listen to Thomas Jefferson who in addition to The Declaration of Independence that speaks of the Creator who created all men equal and endowed us with the natural right to pursue life, liberty, and happiness, also wrote, "as we advance in life. . . things fall off one by one, and I suspect that we are left at last with Homer and Virgil, perhaps with Homer alone."

In July I enjoyed the great opportunity and honor to speak at the Institute for Humane Studies Cinematic and Literary Traditions of Liberty workshop at UCLA. Organized by Patrick Reasonover and his colleagues, the event was a most unique and inspiring week, packed with quality panels and discussions pertaining to economics and culture—to literature and film.

On the opening night, I delivered a presentation entitled The Entrepreneur as Modern Hero, based upon the class I teach—Artistic Entrepreneurship & Technology, and the annual Hero's Journey Entrepreneurship Festival.

http://artsentrepreneurship.com

http://herosjourneyentrepreneurship.org

I proposed a new realm of video games which would bring to life the adage coined by Richard Weaver—Ideas have Consequences. Video games oft let us battle monsters—gruesome, graphic monsters. But yet, the greater monsters in reality—in this living world—are ideas—ideas which lead to societies which by and by deny freedoms while promising utopias—which devalue currencies to pay off debts incurred by massive governmental programs. Well, a game which allowed one to battle ideas—which endowed the graphically gruesome monsters with gruesome ideas and dark souls—could be a lot of fun. And too, the open-ended video game world could evolve in different directions—towards freedom, entrepreneurship, and capitalism in a moral context; or towards serfdom, tyranny, and dictatorships should the moral context be lost. One could witness what would happen both with and without the gold standard, as well as other economic policies. Furthermore, it is often said that video games lack story and soul; that they fall short of classical art—well, by endowing the game engine with a moral premise, perhaps higher art could be achieved. Imagine a Dante’s Inferno game, where the protagonist battled the demons in the nine levels of the inferno to the tune of Beethoven’s nine symphonies—now there’s a game I’d want to play a few times over, witnessing the varying outcomes based on varying degrees of success.

I also joined a panel devoted to property rights in the digital age, whence I argued that the right to intellectual property is a natural right, citing Mark Twain’s 1906 address to congress concerning the same topic. And my favorite panel, devoted to video games, was with the most prolific and accomplished Flint Dille and John Zuur, who have brought us the maverick The Chronicles of Riddick, The Fantastic Four, and the Transfomers video games, amongst many others—their IMDB bios read like novels—check them out. They are currently working on the Sin City game, based on the movie and graphic novel by Frank Miller, which sounded fascinating, for as Flint reminded us, "Sin cannot exist in a world free of the ideas of good and bad."

The moral premise is what defines all great art and enduring ventures, from Dante's Inferno, to 300, to The Science of Success, to the Vanguard mutual fund, which was based on that simple, humble entrepreneurial premise—the risk taker ought get the reward. The Libertarian Reader, edited by David Boaz, states,

Although libertarian ideas are evident in the writings of the Chinese philosopher Lao-tzu in the sixth century BC, the main thread of libertarianism goes back to the Jewish and Greek idea of a higher law, a law by which everyone, even the ruler, could be judged. The simple idea that the will of the ruler was not the ultimate source of authority helped lay the groundwork for a pluralist society, the flowering of individualism, and the eventually the scientific and economic miracles of Western civilization. –The Libertarian Reader, xii

Such ideas have ever come to us via story—the stories of the Iliad and The Odyssey—the stories of the Bible. For Moses did not come up with the ten commandments ever conducting case studies and studying for the bar in a coffee shop—no he came down from the mountain in a story, and delivered the stone tablets, which had been etched by the Hand of God. A rising renaissance, based on epic story and rugged principle, is yours for the taking, for mythology alone can capture our spiritual reality, and living mythology alone can exalt a generation.

The very same message resounds throughout Bogle’s “Vanguard: Saga of Heroes” speech delivered to the Artistic Entrepreneurship & Technology class—one must take action, that one must own the risk of the renaissance, and that before anything else, one must be an idealist. Both Battle for The Soul of Capitalism and The Odyssey sail this theme on home—the central keystone in all enduring ventures and the surest ticket to a worthwhile hero's journey is the moral premise:

A year ago, in a talk on entrepreneurship that celebrated the 300th birthday of Benjamin Franklin, I reflected on this 18th century connection with a wonderful quotation: "Soon we shall know everything the 18th century didn't know, and nothing it did, and it will be hard to live with us." These words were the opening epigram of Building a Bridge to the Eighteenth Century, by the late Neil Postman—prolific author, social critic, and professor at New York University. Postman's book presented an impassioned defense of the old-fashioned liberal humanitarianism that was the hallmark of the Age of Reason. His aim was to restore the balance between mind and machine, and his principal concern was our move away from an era in which the values and character of Western Civilization were at the forefront of the minds of our great philosophers and leaders, and in which the prevailing view was that anything that's truly important must have a moral authority. –John C. Bogle, Vanguard: A Saga of Heroes, http://www.vanguard.com/bogle_site/sp20070227.htm

I concluded my lectures at the UCLA IHS seminar with a talk devoted to Artistic Entrepreneurship & Technology, reflecting on how Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey provides a natural vehicle for not only the study of entrepreneurship, but for its manifestation in living ventures. After reading the classics, as did the Founding Fathers, the students must find their own path through the forest, as did the knights in Arthurian legend. The students must take Morpheus’s words to heart—“there is a difference between knowing the path and walking it.”

Artistic Entrepreneurship & Technology is a call to adventure—a call to “begin the world anew” and forge ahead in the creation of classes and curriculums, of books, movies, and video games, which exalt the eternal verities. Ideas have consequences, and the subtitle of Bogle's book suggests that our academies haven't been leading with the correct ideas, as it reads, “How the Financial System Undermined Social Ideals, Damaged Trust in the Markets, Robbed Investors of Trillions - and What to Do About It.” Koch quotes Emerson in calling upon the academy to teach not just case studies and ephemeral methodologies, but the eternal principles embedded in the classics—Emerson wrote: “The man who grasps principles can successfully select his own methods. The man who tries methods, ignoring principles, is sure to have trouble.”

To encourage a cultural renaissance while discouraging Wall Street scandals and the growth of government, and to inspire students to grab entrepreneurship by the right handle, there is no better route than celebrating the Great Books and Classics at all levels. By reading Shakespeare and Dante in their full glory—by celebrating them instead of deconstructing them—by letting yesterday’s masterpieces inspire tomorrow’s video games—by and by culture—and Hollywood and the Heartland—and Wall Street and government—will be reformed. For business and government bureaucracies never create immortal art, but only the rugged individual—the artistic entrepreneur.

The students, who yet show up to college with immortal souls, are longing for a classical revival and epic storytelling that trumps the reality TV and Hollywood remakes. In Homer's Iliad, Achilles states, "for as I detest the doorways of death, so too do I detest the man who speaks forth one thing, and holds in his heart another," and had Henry Blodget read The Iliad or The Inferno—if we had an academy that celebrated the truth over postmodern politics, perhaps Henry would have thought twice about saying one thing to the public, and another to the investment banks, and perhaps he would have not been banned from Wall Street for life.

My opening night IHS lecture was entitled, "The Entrepreneur as Hero." And by hero I don't mean the celebrity hero, but the humble hero—the often unsung hero who quietly goes about their tasks and innovations, simply because it is the right, or beautiful, thing to do. Throughout The Odyssey, Odysseus is known as the man who suffers much simply to bring his men on home and regain his homestead. Time and again he resists the temptations of the Sirens and short-term gratifications the Lotus Eaters succumb to—he resists boasting and revealing his identity. Heroes like Odysseus are idealists, as they navigate by higher ideals—a code of honor, and treat beggars and kings alike, holding them to the same standards as does Zeus. Long before Locke or Jefferson contemplated the Natural Rights of Men, the Greeks recognized that all-pervasive, natural, higher code of honor, which was embodied in Socrates' heroic quest for Truth and Virtue, and which powers the Biblical stories of the Judeo Christian Heritage. This common pursuit of excellence, or arête—of higher, enduring wealth—has ever marked the classic entrepreneur who grows rich not by making money, but by serving the higher ideals and creating wealth, jobs, and meaning. And the wealth that follows cannot be devalued, for it is based on something even greater than the gold standard—the God or honor standard.

All this—the entrepreneurial premise—may be found in Jefferson's words:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. –The Declaration of Independence

The only clause in the main body of the United States Constitution that mentions "Rights" states the following:

The Congress shall have power to . . . promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries; --The United States Constitution

Couple these two passages together, and one has the moral premise of Artistic Entrepreneurship & Technology. Every student ought be given the tools to create new ventures--to protect their intellectual property, and to pursue and profit from their dreams on their "Hero's Journey" into entrepreneurship. For it is along that journey that the long-term "wealth of nations" is generated.

Entrepreneurship has aspects of art—creation and the pursuit of higher aesthetics; and science—economics, finance, engineering, and physical invention. How these aspects, and many more—from intellectual property to corporate structures—combine to generate wealth, are part of an Epic Story that is told whenever an individual sets out to render their ideals and dreams real. Thus a most efficient way to study entrepreneurship—to unite its diverse aspects—is via Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey.

As a new cornerstone in a classical liberal arts education, Artistic Entrepreneurship is for those seeking to make their passions their professions. This festival is dedicated to all those embarking on the "Hero's Journey" to create enduring wealth, be it a new venture, video game, indie film, record label, book, DRM system serving artists and musicians, or course.

In his AE&T speech, John C. Bogle humbly expressed that he was not a hero, nor an entrepreneur, so much as an idealist—an idealist who nonetheless innovated the world's first index fund—the $1.2 trillion Vanguard Group. In studying the Great Books and Classics—the vast wealth that has been handed down for thousands of years—time and again we see that the stories are driven by idealists—those who seek to serve ideal, such as honor, courage, and commitment. “Humility,” Benjamin Franklin wrote as his thirteenth and most important precept, “Imitate Jesus and Socrates.” And Koch’s “Free Market Management” humbles itself before service’s higher ideals, for it places the needs of those who are served over the needs of the management, encouraging a moral capitalism.

The classic hero, from Odysseus on down, is one who serves. This moral premise pervades all enduring literature and entrepreneurial ventures, as expressed by John C. Bogle--the "student entrepreneur" who founded the $700 billion Vanguard fund based on an idealistic premise in his 1951 Princeton senior thesis. Mr. Bogle recently quoted his original thesis in one of his eloquent speeches—

"After analyzing fund performance, I concluded that "funds can make no claim to superiority over the market averages," perhaps an early harbinger of my decision to create, nearly a quarter-century later, the world's first index mutual fund. And my conclusion powerfully reaffirmed the ideals that I hold to this day: The role of the mutual fund is to serve--"to serve the needs of both individual and institutional investors . . . to serve them in the most efficient, honest, and economical way possible . . . The principal function of investment companies is the management of their investment portfolios. Everything else is incidental."

Watch the academy-award-winning movie Braveheart, and you will see the very same moral premise at the film's center and circumference, as expressed by William Wallace's actions and his words to the Scottish Nobles—

"There's a difference between us. You think the people of this land exist to provide you with position. I think your position exists to provide those people with freedom. And I go to make sure that they have it."

And Joseph Campbell, author of The Hero With a Thousand Faces which helped inspire Star Wars, The Matrix, The Lord of The Rings, and Dr. E's AE&T class wrote, “Man should not be in the service of society, society should be in the service of man. When man is in the service of society, you have a monster state. . .”

Entrepreneurship is the force that continually rights the world by rewarding those who serve—those who battle the bureaucracy with a better way. Entrepreneurship is an epic story wherein the world is continually "begun anew," as the humble risk-taker—the reluctant hero—the fount of lasting cultural and monetary wealth—happens upon an innovation, invention, or epiphany, and takes a risk in rendering it real for others.

The classic entrepreneur navigates on out while keeping the higher ideals over the bottom line, endures the road of trials en route to the countless showdowns with competitors and convention, seizes the sword, and returns on home with the elixir—with the rewards gained from risking their time, their talents, their passions, and their money in penning that novel, shooting that film, and creating that venture. And so often it is all based on some simple, pervading moral premise. For Google it is "Do no evil." For Apple it is "Think different." For Buffett it is "Our favourite holding period is forever." For Bogle, Wallace, and Campbell it is "institutions must serve." For this HJE Festival, it is "own the risk of the renaissance."

The most efficient way to teach eternal values is via eternal books—the most economical way to teach law, business, art, technology, and yes—economics—is via story—for story alone contains our mythical reality. Thus Homer's Odyssey and Bogle's Batte for The Soul of Capitalism and Koch’s The Science of Success make natural gatekeepers for a class on entrepreneurship, as they beckon us to look both forwards and backwards—forwards towards the students' independent projects and future ventures, and on back with humility towards the greatest that has been spoken and written. On many levels, Artistic Entrepreneurship & Technology is a revival of the classical liberal arts education, replacing case studies and politicized, ephemeral curriculums with the eternal verities.

For the rising generation is longing for Epic Story, and thus opportunity abounds for artistic entrepreneurs to perform the classical ideals in the contemporary context—in Hollywood and the Heartland, on Wall Street and Main Street, in video games and academia.

The primary goal of the AE&T and HJEF endeavors is to serve you with most useful, informative, and inspirational resources regarding how best to make your passion your profession, as we celebrate the words of that classic entrepreneurial document in living ventures, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Summer Arts Entrepreneurship & Technology

noreply@blogger.com (45 Surf Hero's Journey Entrepreneurship) — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 01:17:00 +0000

Hello All,

It was a most enjoyable class this summer, and went by way too quickly. I feel everyone got the hang of "Arts Entrepreneurship & Technology"--the greater, higher wealth--truth and virtue--is from where all lasting wealth derives.

Call that bluff as you write your final business plan. It isn't easy bringing a new venture into the world, and there're a lot of people selling snakeoil regarding how to "get rich quick." But all lasting value comes from hard work, constant innovation, and the consistent discipline it takes to perform a top-notch job, time and time again.

Know that the journey is a long, hard road, but also keep in mind that the biggest risk you take is never setting off on down that road. File those provisional patents! Register those trademarks! Take a couple hours and file some copyrights! Incorporate! Register a domain or two. It can all be accomplished in a few hours, and as way leads onto way, that first step is a vast one.

In fact, the greatest risk one faces in entreprneurship is not taking that first step.

"Way leads unto way" comes from a poem--I'm sure you've seen it before:

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Well, you all know that's Robert Frost. What's the market cap of his collected works? What's the P/E ratio? When contemplating value, always keep the fundamentals in mind, and always remember the difference between money and wealth--they can print money, but wealth you've got to create. Always focus on the higher ideals, and by and by the bottom line shall follow. As Socrates said to his fellow Athenians,

"I honor and love you: but why do you who are citizens of this great and mighty nation care so much about laying up the greatest amount of money and honor and reputation, and so little about wisdom and truth and the greatest improvement of the soul. Are you not ashamed of this? . . . I do nothing but go about persuading you all, not to take thought for your persons and your properties, but first and chiefly to care about the greatest improvement of the soul. I tell you that virtue is not given by money, but that from virtue comes money and every other good of man."

IF.....
by Rudyard Kipling
IF you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And lose,
and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, '
Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son! (or woman, my daughter).

Finally, Benjamin Franklin came up with a list of thirteen virtues:

1. TEMPERANCE. Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.
2. SILENCE. Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.
3. ORDER. Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.
4. RESOLUTION. Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.
5. FRUGALITY. Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e., waste nothing.
6. INDUSTRY. Lose no time; be always employ'd in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.
7. SINCERITY. Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and, if you speak, speak accordingly.
8. JUSTICE. Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty.
9. MODERATION. Avoid extreams; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.
10. CLEANLINESS. Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, cloaths, or habitation.
11.TRANQUILLITY. Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.
12. CHASTITY. Rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dulness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another's peace or reputation.
13. HUMILITY. Imitate Jesus and Socrates.

Franklin originally set down just twelve virtues, but then realized he'd left out the most important one--HUMILITY. Imitate Jesus and Socrates. Humility will be your best friend on the long journey on out--as an entrepreneur you must stay humble before the higher ideals and the bottom line, before your customers and your employees alike. Well, take ownership in those business plans! Dream the dream in the words--do not be lead by deadlines and assigments, but always make sure you're working for your those greater, enduring goals--those dreams that make you you, for that is where all lasting wealth derives from--owning one's destiny.

Best of luck with all those futue ventures, and remember all the entrepreneurship resources on the class's websites.

The Great Books Renaissance: Hero’s Journey Entrepreneurship Festival: Fay’s 300, Bogle’s Battle, & Homer’s Odyssey

noreply@blogger.com (45 Surf Hero's Journey Entrepreneurship) — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 14:59:00 +0000

The Great Books Renaissance

Hero’s Journey Entrepreneurship Festival: Fay’s 300, Bogle’s Battle, & Homer’s Odyssey

http://herosjourneyentrepreneurship.org/

Shot on a “spartan” budget with no major stars and breathtaking technological artistry, William Fay’s number-one movie 300 (Legendary Pictures) is breaking boxoffice records via that time-tested asset—classical ideals rendered in classical story. John C. Bogle, the founder and former CEO of Wall Street’s trillion-dollar Vanguard Group, built Vanguard upon a classic, idealistic premise—the risk takers—the common investors—ought get the rewards. Homer’s Odysseus makes it on home not just via his warrior strength, but by his ability to resist temptation while serving the higher ideals.

The students in Artistic Entrepreneurship & Technology 101 read Bogle’s Battle for The Soul of Capitalism alongside Homer’s Odyssey, joining a natural Fellowship that spans time and space, that ranges from Wall Street to Main Street, from Hollywood to the Heartland, from ancient Greece to popular culture. They see this—all lasting value has ever been built upon values. And they’ll get to hear it from William Fay, executive producer of 300, The Patriot, Superman, and Independence Day, as he keynotes The Hero’s Journey Entrepreneurship Festival on March 31^st at Pepperdine University: herosjourneyentrepreneurship.org.

A couple weeks back HJE was honored to host Mr. Bogle, who delivered a most eloquent speech “Vanguard: Saga of Heroes,” in which he paid tribute to the spirit of the Great Books, as well as the contemporary video game Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. Though he is the last to call himself a hero, the fact is that John Bogle always put his crew’s and clients’ interests before his own “spartan” desires. The Wall Street Journal reported on how he resisted the temptation of hundreds of millions dollars that could have easily been his throughout his career, had he not stayed focused on his simple moral premise—every fee taken by the management comes from the common investor. 300 captures the spirit of Bogle’s Battle, and one can almost envision Bogle leading a small crew of Spartans on Wall Street, motivated not by riches nor wealth, but by Honor and Duty, en route to creating Vanguard—the Street’s best deal.

Director Zach Snyder also lead a small production crew against common wisdom, and 300, based on the historic battle of Thermopylae described by Herodotus and rendered in Frank Miller’s graphic novel, is now making history. In this era of burgeoning Hollywood budgets and star-driven remakes, 300 was shot for less than 65 million—less than half of what a modern Hollywood epic costs—and instead of relying on stars, it created stars. 300 was shot entirely indoors, marrying cutting-edge technology to the timeless principles of Honor and Duty, and emerging with the lasting Glory of an Epic Story. King Leonidas’s can be heard resounding throughout Hollywood—“A new age has come—an age of freedom!”

And 300 touched a nerve. Though the fashionable postmodern sunglasses obscure this reality to many, the fact is that 300, like The Odyssey, “lifts the great song again,” via the ideals of Honor and Valor. 300 defines Artistic Entrepreneurship & Technology—marrying timeless ideals to tomorrow’s technologies, performing epic truths in the living language, and returning home with the elixir—the lasting value of a timeless epic. It is quite an honor to have William Fay keynoting the HJEF.

Fay and Bogle demonstrate that opportunity abounds for those seeking to perform the classical ideals in the contemporary context—for those willing to own the risk of the renaissance. The HJEF is also quite honored to be hosting Flint Dille and John Zuur—of filmandgames.com—who are pioneering the merger of the two mediums, as well as utilizing the interactive technologies of video games to bring story to life. And Christopher Vogler of The Writer’s Journey and David Whatley of The Hero’s Journey video game will make for a most fascinating panel.

Bogle's Battle opens with a flourish from St. Paul, I Corinthians, “If the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?” And 300’s King Leonidas tells us, “Well that’s an easy choice for us to make, Spartans never retreat, Spartans never surrender!”

So come join us on March 31st for that which has been a long-time coming—a Great Books renaissance—a revival of the classical spirit and soul which shall be driven by humble heroes—seeking not Glory itself, but the Honor and Duty that leads to the Glory of Epic Story—rendered in tomorrow’s video games, ventures, novels, and films.

http://herosjourneyentrepreneurship.org/

Hero's Journey Entrepreneurship: March 31st @ Pepperdine

noreply@blogger.com (45 Surf Hero's Journey Entrepreneurship) — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 05:24:00 +0000

Hero's Journey Entrepreneurship: March 31st @ Pepperdine
http://herosjourneyentrepreneurship.org/
"The stock exchange is a poor substitute for the Holy Grail" --Joseph Schumpeter

Imagine video games with plots, characters, and Epic storytelling. Imagine contemporary novels and movies with the same--with heroes and heroines--with Audrey Hepburns and Steve McQueens; whence our own John Wayne and Man with No Name ride into town for the showdown where story trumps spectacle, where Beatrice exalts Dante, and Odysseus sails on home to Penelope. Imagine software systems and startups that actually pay the artists and talent--the filmmakers, models, photographers, and bands. Imagine new classes/research programs/ventures supporting all this. Join the Hollywood Renaissance on March 31st, 2007.

John C. Bogle, Founder & Former CEO of Vanguard Delivers Entrepreneurship Week Keynote

noreply@blogger.com (45 Surf Hero's Journey Entrepreneurship) — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 04:05:00 +0000

Click To Play

John C. Bogle, Founder & Former CEO of Vanguard Delivers Entrepreneurship Week Keynote

Across the country, colleges and universities will celebrate Entrepreneurship Week (February 24 to March 3, 2007) with lectures and special programs reflecting on the significant role entrepreneurship plays in creating “the wealth of nations.” Typically thought of as a venue for business and industry, entrepreneurship’s ideals and precepts can be found in all realms of a classical liberal arts education—in every epic story based on the classic Hero’s Journey, from The Odyssey, to the American Founding, to Wall Street entrepreneur John Bogle’s founding of Vanguard.

Campbell’s Hero’s Journey tells of the reluctant hero hearing a “call to adventure.” They embark on a “road of trials,” ascend the mountain, and “return on home with the elixir”—ideals rendered real in the service of others. And classic entrepreneurs like Bogle, who keep the higher ideals above the bottom line as did Odysseus, are needed on Wall Street and Main Street, in Hollywood and the Heartland, in academia and government—such is the call to adventure in Artistic Entrepreneurship & Technology 101.

Bogle first heard the “call to adventure” in 1949, when, while searching for a senior thesis topic at Princeton, he came across a Fortune Magazine article which stipulated that money managers rarely beat the market. Why then—he applied common sense to the obvious—the same common sense which let Einstein, Shakespeare, and Twain spin gold from the obvious—are we paying money managers? Bogle’s 1951 senior thesis set his ideals in stone, “The principal function of mutual funds is the management of their investment portfolios. Everything else is incidental . . . Future industry growth can be maximized by a reduction of sales loads and management fees . . . Mutual funds can make no claim to superiority over the market averages . . . funds should operate in the most efficient, honest, and economical way possible.”

Walter L. Morgan, founder of the famous Wellington Fund, read Bogle’s thesis and became his “mentor” and boss. Bogle “crossed the threshold”—taking the train from Princeton to Wall Street—and went on to replace his mentor as head the Wellington Fund, whence he assembled a “fellowship” of whiz-kids who had achieved an extraordinary record over the previous years. They accompanied him on the “road of trials” as they lead Wellington to new heights. But then, during the market decline in the early seventies, Bogle found himself fired in a “reversal of fortune.”

In the darkness of the “belly of the whale,” he saw opportunity. He would ride back into town for a “showdown.” Bogle writes, “The Company directors who fired me comprised a minority of the board of Wellington Fund itself, so I went to the Fund Board with a novel proposal: Have the Fund, and its then—ten associated funds (today there are 100), declare their independence from their manager. It wasn't exactly the Colonies telling King George III to get lost, as it were, in 1776. But fund independence—the right of a fund to operate in the interest of its own shareholders, free of conflict and domination by the fund's outside manager—was at the heart of my proposal.”

Bogle won this battle, and he implemented the moral premise of his Princeton senior thesis in the form of the world’s first index fund, returning on home with the “elixir” that is Vanguard, enriching the common investor with “the ultimate boon.” Managing the Wellington fund by hiring partners based on past performance had been a “refusal of the call” he had heard back at Princeton—a “temptation from the true path.” But our humble hero, buoyed by the eternal ideals of service, simplicity, and common sense, was “resurrected” in Vanguard, stronger than ever.

Bogle humbly describes the apotheosis: “The magic, such as it may be, of the index fund is simply that it gets the croupiers largely out of the game: No sales charges; no management fees; tiny operating costs; virtually no transaction costs; high tax efficiency. Anyone could have had—and I imagine many others did have—this banally simple, completely obvious insight.” So it is that many hear the “call to adventure,” but all too often the story ends with the “refusal of the call.” Like Odysseus, Bogle sailed it on home.

Some controversy surrounded Bogle stepping down as Vanguard’s chairman, but by then our veteran voyager had demonstrated that there was but one who could string the bow. The Vanguard brand retains its value via Bogle’s senior thesis, books, and speeches—by his words, just as the Odyssey has voyaged over 2800 years by Homer’s words. Ideals are real, and thus make excellent long-term investments.

Just as Odysseus was opposed in his own home, Bogle has oft been opposed by Wall Street Lotus Eaters who prefer short-term temptations—the Sirens of speculation and Wall Street’s casinos—over the long-term wealth that is generated by the prudent allocation of capital towards rugged innovation, integrity, and classic entrepreneurship—the kind of investing that the world’s greatest investor—Warren Buffett—also happens to favor. The common sense premise of classic entrepreneurship—the risk taker ought get the reward—resounds throughout all of Bogle’s works.

While Odysseus was risking his life, serving his country in battle, the suitors to his wife Penelope stayed back home, partying and depleting the wealth of his estate, just as the ironic, managerial class is depleting the wealth of our savings, investments, and cultural heritage. In the opening words of The Odyssey, Homer tells us why we ought to read Bogle’s Battle for the Soul of Capitalism:

He saw the townlands
and learned the minds of many distant men,
and weathered many bitter nights and days
in his deep heart at sea, while he fought only
to save his life, to bring his shipmates home.
But not by will nor valor could he save them,
for their own recklessness destroyed them all
children and fools, they killed and feasted on
the cattle of Lord Helios, the Sun,
and he who moves all day through heaven
took from their eyes the dawn of their return.
Of these adventures, Muse, daughter of Zeus,
tell us in our time, lift the great song again.

--Homer's Odyssey, translated by Fitzgerald

Battle is a most optimistic book, beginning with a call to the rising generation “To begin the world anew.” Bogle “lifts the great song again,” reminding us that entrepreneurship is a humble hero’s journey—an art that must be performed in the context of immortal ideals. Bogle writes, “In retrospect, I believe that idealism—the dream of a better world; fairness to one's fellow human beings; focus on simplicity; emphasis on stewardship—has driven my life from Blair Academy to Princeton, and then through my long career. Happily, I've learned that the link between idealism and economics is a powerful one. Indeed, both Vanguard's structure and the index fund concept are classic examples of the fact that enlightened idealism is sound economics.”

As we celebrate entrepreneurship week, we must celebrate those Great Books and Classics that have bestowed upon us the everlasting wealth that exalts the better angels of our nature. The soul is defined not via science, but via Epic Story, and thus the soul of capitalism derives not from economics, but rather economics derives from story—from hero’s journey entrepreneurship performed both in living ventures and immutable classics. By studying artistic entrepreneurship, students will see the vast opportunity that abounds in the humble service of higher ideals—in owning the risk of the renaissance.

So come join us on March 31st, 2007 for the first annual Hero's Journey Entrepreneurship Festival!

Arts Entrepreneurship as An Academic Discipline

noreply@blogger.com (45 Surf Hero's Journey Entrepreneurship) — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 04:04:00 +0000

ENTREPRENEURSHIP AS AN ACADEMIC DISCIPLINE

a lecture delivered in Dr. E’s freshman seminar, October 2006

by Dr. Elliot McGucken, October 2006

BACK STORY

“When storytelling declines, the result is decadence.” –Aristotle, Poetics

“Flawed and forced storytelling is forced to substitute spectacle for substance, trickery for truth. Weak stories, desperate to hold audience attention, degenerate into multimillion-dollar razzle-dazzle demo reels. In Hollywood imagery becomes more and more extravagant, in Europe more and more decorative. The behavior of actors becomes more histrionic, more and more lewd, more and more violent. Music and sound effects become increasingly tumultuous. The total effect transnudes into the grotesque. A culture cannot evolve without honest, powerful storytelling. When society repeatedly experiences glossy, hollowed-out , pseudo-stories, it degenerates. We need true satires and tragedies, dramas and comedies that shine a clean light into the dingy corners of the human psyche and society. If not, as Yeats warned, ‘…the center cannot hold.’”—Robert Mckee, Story

Yet while Vanguard too has emerged as a sort of prototypical 21st century firm—a virtual organization, enormous in size, heavily reliant on process, on real-time communications and computer technology, and managed largely by the contemporary numeric standards of modern management—its founding values remain intact. At our core, we remain a prototypical 18th century firm, thriving on our early entrepreneurship, on our simple investment strategies, on eternal verities such as service to others before service to self, and on putting the interests of shareholders ahead of the interest of managers, doing our best to hold high the belief that ethical principles and moral values must be, finally, the basis for any enterprise worth its salt. –John Bogle, Founder and former Chairman of Vanguard

There's a difference between us. You think the people of this land exist to provide you with position. I think your position exists to provide those people with freedom. And I go to make sure that they have it. –William Wallace in Braveheart, by Randall Wallace

Man should not be in the service of society, society should be in the service of man. When man is in the service of society, you have a monster state, and that's what is threatening the world at this minute. –Joseph Campbell, author of Hero With a Thousand Faces

THE CALL TO ADVENTURE

The modern university can benefit vastly from the academic field of entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship serves the students by teaching them that the classical, eternal precepts of a liberal arts education are most useful tools. The field of entrepreneurship can exalt universities to higher roles of leadership, where rather than costing more via spiraling tuitions outpacing inflation to support esoteric studies, education regains a practical spirit, becoming an entity that creates wealth for the greater community, fostering small businesses run by and employing students and professors.

Entrepreneurship focuses a liberal arts education on practical, meaningful results; encouraging students to work for more than a grade—to work for their future, to take ownership in their lives and in investments of their time and money—to assess risk, call the bluff of the promised pension, and make their passions their professions. Artistic entrepreneurship can return the moral premise—that seed of every lasting work of art and epic business venture, of faith and the family—to Wall Street and Main Street; to Hollywood and the Heartland. And the Academy can lead the way.

In the digital age, rather than just studying case studies in entrepreneurship, the students can become the case studies on a small scale. With little capital risk, they can register domain names, file for copyrights and trademarks, and launch ecommerce sites. And when students have ownership in their own projects and visions, the textbook’s case studies come to life. It’s no longer merely academic—suddenly the university is about acquiring the practical and aesthetic tools to follow one’s dreams.

Entrepreneurship provides a method and means to unite the professional schools and the classical liberal arts disciplines that have become artificially separated on the modern campus. Business, law, art, and technology congregate in a single classroom, just as they must in the real world so as to provide useful and meaningful results such as the iPod and the xBox 360; and just as they do when a freshman shoots a digital picture, defines her rights, and uploads it for sale in a span of a few minutes. The field of entrepreneurship can inspire the academy with an exalted rigor, wherein students are inspired to read works such as the Constitution and Great Books more deeply, while working more diligently so as to further the projects they have ownership in.

CROSSING THE THRESHOLD

The Artistic Entrepreneurship & Technology class I am teaching at Pepperdine University and which I have taught at UNC Chapel Hill, whose syllabus maries Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey to the entrepreneur’s quest, offers an "artistic" and efficient way to communicate the natural value of entrepreneurship's classic ideals. Qualities such as character, honor, and integrity are perhaps the most important assets in entrepreneurship, just as they are in enduring literature, and there is no better way to teach them then via classical myths. All law derives from epic storytelling, and entrepreneurs such as Steven Jobs, Richard Branson, Randall Wallace, and John Bogle of the Vanguard Group, have all followed the Hero’s Journey in their entrepreneurial quests, which students may be introduced to via entities they already know, such as The Matrix, Star Wars, The Lord of The Rings, and Braveheart. Joseph Campbell’s Hero with a Thousand Faces makes an excellent central text for the class.

APPROACH TO THE INNER-MOST CAVE

In addition to hosting guest lecturers and successful entrepreneurs, in addition to case studies, an academic discipline must seek out the eternal precepts and principles of the field, which serve as practical tools when applied in the student’s living projects and ventures. Artistic Entrepreneurship and Technology is where the rubber hits the road, where Shakespeare, Homer, and Dante—and Jefferson, Hamilton, and Madison—provide practical inspiration complementing Jobs, Bogle, Branson, and Cuban. And over time a textbook may emerge, along with a workbook, based on the general structure of the Hero’s Journey, showing the importance of the moral premise in all lasting ventures, and offering accompanying workbooks and websites to help the students along in entrepreneurial endeavors.

MEETING THE MENTORS

We need to listen to distinguished mentors, both classical and contemporary, who are calling upon us to place the higher ideals over the bottom line—those who have taken risks and bet on moral precepts that have become blockbuster movies such as Braveheart and enduring ventures such as Vanguard. In a speech entitled, Capitalism, Entrepreneurship, and Investing The 18th Century vs. the 21st Century (January 25, 2006) John Bogle, founder of the Vanguard Group, writes:

But at its best, entrepreneurship entails something far more important than mere money. Please do not take my word for it. Heed the words of the great Joseph Schumpeter, the first economist to recognize entrepreneurship as the vital force that drives economic growth. In his Theory of Economic Development, written nearly a century ago, Schumpeter dismissed material and monetary gain as the prime mover of the entrepreneur, finding motivations like these to be far more powerful: (1) "The joy of creating, of getting things done, of simply exercising one's energy and ingenuity," and (2) “The will to conquer: the impulse to fight, . . . to succeed for the sake, not of the fruits of success, but of success itself.”

In order to reform Wall Street, Bogle is calling for nothing less than a literary renaissance, for as General Macarthur said, “It must be of the spirit if we are to save the flesh.” On the first page of his book The Battle for The Soul of Capitalism, Bogle quotes not an economist, but Joseph Campbell and the Bible.

. . . The most recent episode witnessed the culmination of an era in which our business corporations and our financial institutions, working in tacit harmony, corrupted the traditional nature of capitalism, shattering both confidence in the markets and accumulated wealth of countless American families… at the root of the problem, in the broadest sense, was a societal change aptly described by Joseph Campbell: “In medieval times, as you approached the city, your eye was taken by the Cathedral. Today, it’s the towers of commerce. It’s business, business, business. We had become what Campbell called a “bottom-line” society. But our society came to measure the wrong bottom line: form over substance, prestige over virtue, charisma over character, the ephemeral over the enduring, even mammon over God. –John Bogle, The Battle for the Soul of Capitalism

Bogle’s Vanguard index fund—an entrepreneurial startup based on his senior thesis at Princeton—is one of the world’s largest and most-trusted. It is a maverick fund that bypasses the intermediaries and provides maximum returns for small investors—a fund that embodies entrepreneurship’s central maxim—the risk takers ought get the rewards.

Wall Street will be reformed when the Academy is reformed—when the Academy again places the higher ideals over the bottom line and requires the study of the epic myths and everlasting principles. And the academic field of entrepreneurship could accomplish this.

The immediate case studies will change over time, and the student’s projects will have to surf the cutting edge of their day’s technology; but the textbooks on entrepreneurship must be founded upon those precepts that never change, from Homer’s Odyssey on down—the humble hero’s journey. So it is that the class becomes a core institution, serving freshmen and business and law students—teaching all that the greater wealth is to be had by keeping he higher ideals over the bottom line—serving film students in a most efficient manner by teaching them that the story of their films, lives, and business ventures—all based upon common moral precepts—are parallel journeys.

FORMING THE FELLOWSHIP

Entrepreneurship unites the professional schools—the business and law schools—with the undergraduate program, and my classes have included students from all, ranging from a freshman with a successful record label to a third-year law student. All forty-five of us learned from one-another and the classics, and even the student who came in with an anti-capitalist bent soon agreed it was a good thing that her favorite band get paid, so that they might make more songs. We learned that just like the “force” in Star Wars, capitalism can serve exalted or degraded purposes, and that its rightful role is letting creators protect and profit from what they do; rewarding not the bureaucracy nor the intermediaries nor the tech-transfer departments, but the risk-takers—the authors, inventors, investors, and innovators on the front lines of entrepreneurship. Simply put, we learned the United States Constitution:

The Congress shall have Power to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries; —The United States Constitution, Section 8, Clause 8

And I ask each class—“imagine what would happen if the CEO of Apple or Sony or Yahoo or Microsoft were to neglect the art, the business, the law, or the technology. Imagine if you worked your whole life for a pension that evaporated, whereas you could have invested in your greatest asset—your passions and dreams. Imagine if you could endow video games with epic storytelling—with a soul so that the photo-realism might gain a spiritual realism, so that video games might become enduring art; thusly increasing their markets and enhancing their brands. The world is yours for the making, and a renaissance is yours for the taking.”

THE ROAD OF TRIALS: TEST, ALLIES, AND ENEMIES

While MBA programs typically want the liberal arts students to walk on over to the business school to learn about accounting and business structures before launching ventures, MBAs have just as much to gain by walking over to the arts and literature departments, to learn of aesthetics and the everlasting principles expressed in Homer on down--for who has ever created a greater brand than "homer's Odyssey?" Would that more MBAs who ran the likes of Enron and Worldcom and the countless other postmodern debacles had read classics such as Dante’s Inferno and The Iliad, in which Achilles said, “For as I detest the doorways of Death, I detest that man, who hides one thing in the depths of his heart, and speaks forth another.” Would that more artists had read the classics too, so that we might have avoided the recent scandals in NY publishing of plagiarism and fake memoirs, and so that the Hollywood box office might be revived with classical ideals performed in the contemporary context, rather than soulless remake after remake after remake.

As Aristotle said, “When storytelling declines, the result is decadence.” And so it is that Artistic Entrepreneurship is after that higher exit strategy, that, in Herman Melville’s words, cannot be “counted down in dollars from the mint.” The wealth of a renaissance might not show up on the immediate balance sheet of the day-trader or intermediaries seeking to maximize transaction fees, but there is no better long-term investment for civilization.

Einstein noted, “Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.” Too many economists, by neglecting the family, literature, and our cultural heritage; and instead focusing on obscure equations that the world’s greatest investors—such as Bogle and Buffett—deem as useless at best and devious at worst, end up as siphoners and transferrers of wealth instead of creators of wealth. The field of entrepreneurship must recognize the source of wealth—the individual creators and those systems, recognized by classic economists such as Adam Smith—that benefit and bolster the individual creator. The study of entrepreneurship must be a study of those systems that recognize and protect the natural rights of every person to say what they want and own what they do.

In his 1906 address concerning copyright delivered to Congress, Mark Twain paid homage to these natural rights, citing two fundamental documents which are either ignored or taught only to be deconstructed:

I am aware that copyright must have a limit, because that is required by the Constitution of the United States, which sets aside the earlier Constitution, which we call the decalogue. The decalogue says you shall not take away from any man his profit. I don't like to be obliged to use the harsh term. What the decalogue really says is, "Thou shalt not steal," but I am trying to use more polite language. . . The laws of England and America do take it away, do select but one class, the people who create the literature of the land. They always talk handsomely about the literature of the land, always what a fine, great, monumental thing a great literature is, and in the midst of their enthusiasm they turn around and do what they can to discourage it.

So it is that in seeking to teach entrepreneurship, we must be careful of discouraging it. “Can entrepreneurship be taught?” is a question that echoes of Socrates’ classic question— “Can virtue be taught?” Socrates wasn’t sure, and his humility should serve as a guiding beacon in devising curriculums on entrepreneurship, as it did for Benjamin Franklin, whose thirteenth precept was, “Humility: Imitate Socrates and Jesus.”

The eternal aspects of art are no stranger to the world’s greatest investor. Warren Buffett claims, “I am an artist—not an investor.” And too, he says that his favorite time for holding a stock is eternity—that would be the very same eternity Shakespeare and Dante wrote for, based on the very same classical entities Buffett studies—the fundamentals of truth and beauty—of simple, honest arithmetic over convoluted, pretentious, postmodern, and ultimately devious financial chicanery with but one intent—to transfer all the wealth to the intermediaries and the all risk to the investors, workers, and creators. ‘Tis a world inverted, and it brings to mind Hamlet’s words, “The time is out of joint: O cursed spite, That ever I was born to set it right!”

Buffett says, “It has been helpful to me to have tens of thousands students turned out of business schools taught that it didn’t do any good to think.” Buffett is making his point in a comic manner, as one laughs that one might not weep, but there has been tragedy too. As John Bogle points out, the lack of higher, exalted knowledge amongst the MBAs on Wall Street has not benefited the common worker—the teachers, preachers, and firemen—who trust Wall Street with their savings, investments, and pensions. Indeed—it is not Wall Street that creates wealth—it are the people of this country and the world living the free market system and taking the risks—the workers, business owners, natural entrepreneurs, and visionaries. As Buffett acknowledges, “too much intelligence and energy is being devoted to scraping the crumbs off the table of capitalism instead of preparing the meal.”

The academic field of entrepreneurship must be devoted to recognizing, bolstering, and empowering those rugged individuals who are “preparing the meal.”

THE APOTHEOSIS

The field of entrepreneurship has a wonderful power to focus diverse academic pursuits on a common goal—it calls upon education to focus on practical, tangible, and useful results—to render lofty ideals real, thusly emphasizing the great value of a liberal arts education in all pursuits. And it calls upon students to focus their energies on their passions and dreams, whereby they learn that a big trick of success is “working hard at what you love,” as Steve Jobs suggested in his 2005 Stanford commencement address.

In many ways a class on entrepreneurship is a study of American History, bringing in the founding documents on the first day, showing the students the words that stipulate that they get to say what they want and own what they do. Entrepreneurship, rather than displacing the liberal arts as some might have feared, exalts the liberal arts to a guiding role and calls upon the students to take the classical precepts to heart. For just as the liberal arts are the center and circumference of that most enduring business plan by which all modern business plans are written—the United States Constitution—so it is that the liberal arts must be the center and circumference of any curriculum devoted to entrepreneurship. Classic entrepreneurship has ever been about holding the higher ideals above the bottom line, about creating value as opposed to making money. And this is a lesson best taught by the enduring poets and prophets of yore—to be introduced in classes devoted to entrepreneurship, answering the natural yearning in every student’s heart and soul to serve a greater purpose, and create wealth via exalted meaning.

A man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone.
--Henry David Thoreau

In seeking out its defining precepts, the academic field of entrepreneurship looks towards those classic stories told over and over, with similar themes but ever-changing characters. From Braveheart, to The Matrix, to The American Founding, it's always about “we the people” stepping up and creating “a better form of government,” or business, or enterprise in the context of property rights where one gets to profit from the fruits of one’s labor, where integrity and honor walk hand-in-hand with owning what one creates; where freedom comes with the responsibility to do something useful with it. It's about long-term investing paralleling Odysseus's journey—forgoing the temptations of the Lotus Eaters and Sirens to serve one’s men—one’s employees and shareholders and customers—to make it on home. Entrepreneurship emphasizes value-investing as do Buffett and Bogle—investing one's time in worthwhile pursuits that have solid foundations—based in truth, beauty, and duty—based in service not of the bottom line, but the higher ideals. Based in service not of the managers, but of the customers.

THE ULTIMATE BOON

The world is ready for a renaissance, and entrepreneurship as an academic discipline can lead the way. The higher ideals must be placed above the bottom line on Wall Street and in Hollywood, on Main Street and in the heartland. And who better to accomplish this than today’s Academy—by communicating the vast opportunities of applying classical ideals, to every student? So it is that the academic discipline of entrepreneurship could exalt and entertain the contemporary culture, taking it to a better place.

Thinking entrepreneurially can also help students in the context of established companies and institutions—all of which must serve the customer in novel, ever-changing ways that surf the cutting-edge of technology—all of which must seek to continually reward the risk-takers and reign in the bureaucracy. Entrepreneurship can provide the student with the basic tools to launch new ventures centered around the novel, useful ideas that their boss’s bureaucracy rejects.

While most business schools hold business plan competitions and teach classes on entrepreneurship, they don't always do a great job at reaching out to the world's natural entrepreneurs and authentic founts of wealth—artists, coders, web designers, creative writers, science grad students, and local small-business owners—those reluctant heroes who’re following their passions and dreams. They possess the natural integrity and idealism that will allow them to follow those dreams come hell or high water—on past all those hurdles—on towards rendering sustainable ventures, as the rugged precepts in their souls become the character of their enterprises. Such naturals need to meet one-another—they need a class or two providing them with all the fundamentals of incorporation and intellectual property law. That is the purpose of Artistic Entrepreneurship and Technology 101.

I knew so many indie labels in Chapel Hill, so many coders running small but profitable ventures—so many grad students with cool ideas who never made it over to the business school—true entrepreneurs who could benefit from an efficient, useful class that taught of entrepreneurship’s immortal precepts and the practical tools of the trade, and married it all to technology and most useful books resources on the web. Those who would benefit most not from handing over their creations to the bureaucracy of the technology-transfer departments, but from networking with one-another, and learning how to incorporate, leverage technology, and protect and profit from their intellectual property. Who would benefit not from studying venture capital, which is oft little more than a lingering legacy of a bygone era which corrupted entrepreneurship by making it a tool of elite insiders to profit off of fake companies in 1999, but who could benefit from learning about entrepreneurship from that original American entrepreneur—Benjamin Franklin—who emphasized virtues first and foremost—virtues such as frugality and humility. For what does it profit one to gain the world and lose one’s soul?

THE ROAD HOME

So I created a business class for artists and an art class for MBAs—a class for the creative types across all disciplines, as every artist is an entrepreneur and every entrepreneur is an artist—and I based the class on Joseph Campbell's "Hero's Journey." The classic hero’s journey speaks to all levels, to all cultures, to all religions. There are multiple parallels between the entrepreneurial journey and the classical myth that pervades movies ranging from The Matrix to The Lord of The Rings to Star Wars—the call to adventure (seeing an opportunity), refusal of the call (it's too hard—somebody else would have done it—working a corporate job with a pension is safer), meeting the mentor (finding the angels/professors/books/coaches/leaders/entrepreneurs who can help), crossing the threshold (the point of no return—signing the lease/hiring employees), seizing the sword from the stone (getting the patent/raising funds), the showdown/ordeal (facing down competitors), tests, allies, and enemies (collaborators, competition, and shapeshifters). And even after all that, even after the patent has issued and the funds have been raised, there's still the classic road on home (getting the product to market!) and the return with the elixir—the exit strategy.

And too, there's the belly of the whale (Steve Jobs being kicked out of Apple by the MBAs and into the darkness of NEXT) and the resurrection (Steve Jobs returning on home, reinventing Apple with the iPod, and leading it to new heights). And it's always the least likely suspect—the reluctant hero—who somehow succeeds by keeping the higher ideals over the bottom line—Frodo was just a little Hobbit, Neo was a lowly cubicle worker—and Jobs, Branson, and Gates have not a college degree between them.

The class teaches that failure isn't failure, so much as a small step along the greater journey. In tirelessly testing different filaments, Edison said, "I have not failed 1,000 times. I have successfully discovered 1,000 ways to NOT make a light bulb."

The rigor of the Great Books and Classics is present every step of the way, along with practical applications of that wise rigor. We read the US Constitution wherein the only place the word “right” is mentioned is with respect to the right of the creator to own what they do. And then we surf over to the uspto.gov website to see how simple it is to conduct trademark and patent searches, and to find the forms for patents, copyrights, and trademarks. The class mixes the eternal, abstract principles of entrepreneurship—most of which can be found in the classics—with cutting edge, living examples.

RETURN WITH THE ELIXIR

Again, the field of entrepreneurship serves the typical liberal arts students first and foremost, as it calls on them to contemplate the eternal precepts and wisdom of the classics they are reading; and it brings the ideals to life by having them apply them to real-world scenarios in the form of their living ventures. So it is that their projects become the primary case studies, and suddenly “textbook” case studies come to life with more pertinent meaning. Entrepreneurship calls upon the student to take ownership in their ideas and their future, and it teaches that to lead is to serve—that the best way to get rich is to create wealth.

AE&T comes to life in the classroom, and developing the curriculum is akin to asking, “What eternal principles, books, and resources can form a lasting syllabus and course of study?” It's about respecting those things that never change, and once arming students with those ideals, telling them that they've got to respect that the state of life and business is constant change, and then encouraging them to go forth and capitalize on that change, as they take the responsibility of manifesting the eternal ideals in maverick manners on their very own Hero's Journeys. The greater risk is not in following dreams and ideals, but forgetting them.

Too often the liberal arts are viewed as a useless pursuit, and a Great Books education is thus replaced by business and marketing classes that offer but “cliffsnotes” versions of the fundamental principles by which all business and art last. To often entrepreneurship is viewed as the art of exploitation—MBAs marching into companies and exiting with the pensions and investments of the duped workers and stockholders—and humanities students are rightly discouraged from walking over to the business school, for in the wake of all the corporate scandals, what business school has ever passed judgment or apologized? Famous entrepreneurs such as John Bogle and Warren Buffett regualrly pass judgement on Wall Street, but MBA programs do not teach their works. Sure, the business schools offer a class on “ethics” here and there, but does that imply that accounting can be done without ethics? Sadly enough, accounting without ethics has time and again proven to be far more profitable to the short-term investors and insiders who do not get caught—and all too often to even those that do. Although Wall Street firms have been fined millions in the wake of the scandals, it all amounts to a tiny slap on the wrist--fractions of pennies on the dollars--after seven trilion was transferred circa 2000. So it is that they earn a reputation that the main requirement is not a pursuit of the truth—the classic calling of the vast majority of students—but a tacit circumvention of it. And the students they attract further reinforce the atmosphere.

How ironic it is that in this era of celebrated and revered business books such as Built to Last, nothing lasts. The family, like the pension and postmodern politician’s promise, are as ephemeral as the modern movies Hollywood produces and hypes, which less and less people are seeing. To build meaningful ventures that truly last, the moral precept must be returned to the center and circumference of every institution. This is the role of rugged entrepreneurs. And vast opportunities exist for those bold enough to lead the renaissance that places the higher ideals above the bottom line--on Wall Street and Main Street--in Hollywood and the Heartland.

Tying entrepreneurship to classical myth is a lot of fun, and if the students don't quite know who Richard Branson or John Bogle is yet, if Joseph Campbell seems a bit esoteric, they know Frodo and Neo and Luke Skywalker—a farm boy who felt there was something more out there—who heard that call to adventure and went on to save the universe. If they’ve not yet heard of Randall Wallace, the author of Braveheart, they yet know William Wallace, who lived a parallel journey. And the class reminds them that life is a great adventure to be lived with a brave heart and a free spirit.

During the most recent class the students discussed how they're watching movies and reading books differently—how they're extracting the eternal principles—the classic call to adventure, the meeting with the mentor, the road of trials, tests, allies, and enemies, the showdown/ordeal, and the return on home. And how they’re growing to see the act of following moral precepts are why the very same plot points appear in Steve Job's and Branson's careers.

In reading both The Odyssey and The Battle for The Soul of Capitalism, they see that it was simple moral precepts that guided Odysseus on home, and which inspired John Bogle to found Vanguard based on higher ideals that countered Wall Street's wisdom—the higher ideals he had felt as a senior at Princeton—that paying people to manage money was by and large a waste for the investor. Regarding Vanguard, Bogle writes,

The first invention took place only months after we began, when a simple thought, indeed one that had first occurred to me when I wrote my senior thesis at Princeton University in 1949-51, began nagging at my mind. If mutual funds as a group fail to deliver stock market returns by the amount of their heavy costs, why not own the entire market at the minimal cost we were prepared to deliver? Then, investors could capture almost 100% of that annual return, rather than the 70%-80% fraction that would likely be achieved by our peers. This banally obvious insight quickly led to the simple invention that has been the most powerful manifestation of Vanguard's philosophy—the first index mutual fund in history. Today, "Bogle's Folly"—now Vanguard 500 Index Fund—is the largest mutual fund in the world.

Bogle was a common worker on Wall Street for twenty years, just like Neo in The Matrix, before he finally launched Vanguard; to follow that ideal that he alone saw, that nobody could ever convince him wasn’t real—that fundamental moral premise that the risk takers ought to reap the rewards of their investments.

Bogle was lost his job on Wall Street during the seventies recession; forcing him to finally follow the youthful idealism of his thesis and found Vanguard, just as Randall Wallace was fired from his job in TV before being “forced” to write his very first feature film—Braveheart. So it is that failure and setbacks are contextualized—they become steps along a greater journey, where one trades ones job for one’s higher ideals; which although they pay nothing today, are infinitely better long-term investments.

I recently heard Randall Wallace speak, and he said, “I had never written a feature-length screenplay before. But I decided that I would go down swinging. I was going to write what I wanted to write, and if Hollywood decided it wasn’t good enough, that was how I was going to go out—swinging.” And Braveheart, as you know, won numerous Academy Awards, including best picture and best director. Wallace was nominated for an Academy Award.

So there it is—in the personal journeys of Bogle and Wallace—they lived epic myths centered about a moral premise, and created enduring ventures in their wake. One might call them risk-takers, but look closer, and each knew that the bigger risk was in forgoing one’s moral premise to merely “go with the flow.” So it is that entrepreneurial risk has nothing to do with the roulette wheel that Wall street has become—it has nothing to do with MBAs risking pensions in hedge funds—but risk has everything to do with the lone individual following higher ideals—providing true leadership in going against the establishment; and creating lasting wealth for all.

Wallace had lost his job in TV after telling his boss that Hollywood could do better—that Hollywood could aim higher and voyage deeper. The producer had said, “If we tried for anything deeper, the backwoods folks in Nebraska wouldn’t get it.” To which Wallace said, “I am from the backwoods folks from Tennessee, and not only would they get it, but they would love it. And it is our duty to give it to them.”

And that very same exchange became the moral premise of Braveheart,

And too, it is the moral premise of Vanguard:

Just as my book points out, mutual funds are the paradigm of the triumph of managers' capitalism over owners' capitalism. Yet the winning strategy ultimately is held by the firm that provides a community advantage that serves shareholders and owners, simply by taking the lion's share of those oppressive costs out of the investment equation. It is hard to imagine that Dr. Franklin, reborn in our age, wouldn't have sought to serve, not himself, but the community in exactly the same way. –John Bogle, Capitalism, Entrepreneurship, and Investing—The 18th Century vs. the 21st Century, Founder and Former Chairman, The Vanguard Group At the Greater Philadelphia Venture Group

January 25, 2006

And too, it is the moral premise of Joseph Campbell’s life and works—of the Hero’s Journey:

And when students hear these epic stories, courage is gained—the courage to fail for the moment, or get fired—but only because one is adhering to higher principles while dreaming of an exalted goal—of freedom as it was meant to be. The courage to believe in and follow Jefferson’s eloquent words, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” The courage to build those better ventures based on those higher ideals. Such courage will be needed to lead a renaissance; and I see that courage in each and every student I meet. May the Academy embrace it, and never stand in its way.a

Bootstrapping & Angel Investors Play Far Greater Roles Than Venture Capitalists in Financing Entrepr

noreply@blogger.com (45 Surf Hero's Journey Entrepreneurship) — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 04:02:00 +0000

"Rules of Success. #1: Sweat Equity is the best equity!" --Mark Cuban

Neither a borrower nor a lender be;
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry. --William Shakespeare

Although MBA programs tend to emphasize venture capital when it comes to funding entrepreneurial ventures, angel investing and bootstrapping play a far greater role when it comes to financing startups--in fact, they provide funding for upwards of 90% of all enduring ventures.

Any book which emphasizes bootstrapping and thriftiness--which emphasizes taking maximum ownership in one's dreams and destiny--will be required reading in my Artistic Entrepreneurship &Technology class, right alongside Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography, in which he emphasizes the following virtues:

FRUGALITY. Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e., waste nothing.

INDUSTRY. Lose no time; be always employ'd in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.

Such a book is Angel Investing: Matching Startup Funds with Startup Companies, by Mark Van Osnabrugge and Robert J. Robinson. They write, "Funding is particularly critical to the success of a start-up firm, although ironically it is at this early stage that funding options are most limited because of the high risks involved. . . bootstrapping is the most likely source of initial equity for 94 percent of new technology-based firms (Freear, Sohl, and Wetzel, 1991); it was initially used by more than 80 percent of the five hundred fastest-growing privately held entrepreneurial firms in the United States (Bhide, 1992). Bootstrapping offers many advantages for entrepreneurs and is probably the best method to get an entrepreneurial firm operating and well positioned to seek equity capital from outside investors at a later time. For this reason, it is worth examining the strategies of bootstrapping, before turning to matters relating to angel investors and venture capitalists."

Bootstrapping is how Walmart, Microsoft, Amazon, and Epic Games all started. Bootstrapping is how the vast majority of record labels and film production companies came to be, and it is how J.R.R. Tolkien created the billion-dollar Lord of The Rings empire. Bootstrapping ought be emphasized in any class on entrepreneurship.

Angel Invetsing goes on to state:

"If effectively used, bootstrapping can present entrepreneurs with a wealth of new and alternative options (Van Osnabrugge, Robinson). . ."

Bootstrapping offers a plethora of advantages, including:

"*Waiting as ong as possible to seek equity financing (Van Osnabrugge, Robinson)." This means that the entrepreneur can maintain a maximum amount of equity.

"*By waiting until the firm is more developed, entrepreneurs have greater authority and overall control (Van Osnabrugge, Robinson)." Whenever one accepts money--be it a loan, grant, or other form of financing, equity, along with control, is most usually given up. At that point, not only is one subject to one's own mistakes in the early stages of the company, but they are subject to the mistakes of others. Risk is generally enhanced as reward is lessened.

"*Deciding from day one to bootstrap the initial growth of a firm enables entrepreneurs to allocate all their times and resource to growing the firm (Van Osnabrugge, Robinson)." Instead of seeking investors, which can be a full-time job in itself, the company can focus on building the product, honing the website, and finding the most efficient road to deliver maximum value while retaining maxium equity.

"*It is also possible to experience problems associated with raising too much money." If one raises too much money too soon, one might be tempted to do such things as build one's own factory instead of outsourcing production (I heard how this happened to a drug manufacturer, and ended up shackling them in the long run.) Money is an accelerant, and if the early-stage company is heading in the wrong direction, it will only get there quicker, which leads us to the book's next point:

"*Hidden problems can be revealed (Van Osnabrugge, Robinson)." A lot of details can fall into place during the bootsrapping phase. A stronger brand or logo may emerge. A more efficient software solution may become apparent. A new patent might be filed, or another competitor may appear and be incorproated into the overall strategy. Bootstrapping in the early stages forces a natural due diligence, thusly lessening risk in the long run.

Of course one cannot wait for every light to be green before setting off, but generally speaking, one wants to wait as long as possible before giving up equity--one wants to see the shortest path to that distant goal before setting out, as entrepreneurship can be a long, hard road, full of twists and turns--twist and turns that a nimble sports car can handle far better than a bus filled with employees.

The art of bootstrapping and angel investing ought be an integral part of every curriculum on entrepreneurship, and every MBA program.

Indeed, venture capital enriched many insiders in 1999, while leaving the public holding worthless stocks, but VC is not the engine, nor the primary fuel, of our entrepreneurial economy. To a large degree, this is because money is a commodity. Whereas passion, talents, and innovations tend to be unique, money is not. The average value of all paper currencies over time is zero, while the value of ideas and innovations are infinite--indeed, ideas and innovation are from where money receives its value.

Entreprneurs,artists, and innovators ought always be aware of their value as the talented risk-taker, for in trying to raise funds, their value will often be talked down. And that's where one has to call the bluff, and believe in teh inevitable value of one's dreams, and inherent ability to innovate and dream even greater dreams.

Throughout the course of history, true wealth came not fromVC firms, but from tireless innovators such as Einstein, the Wright Brothers, Thomas Edison, Galileo, Newton, Shockley, and the Founding Fathers.

Angel Investing dispells several misconceptions:

"Misconception Three: Venture Capital Comes from the Venture Capital Funds listed in Pratt's Gudie to Venture Capital Sources. The trurth: business angels, rather than formal venture capitalists, make the most venture capital-style investmets to young entreprneurial firms. Business angels--the invisible segment of the venture capital markets--fund thirty to forty times as many entrepreneurial ventures as do venture capitalists, the market's visible segment. Angels tend to play complementary roles in financing young firms, since they support those start-up firms that later become candidates for formal venture capital."

Angel Ivesting also states: "Misconception One: Jobs Are Created Primarily by Fortune 500 Companies. The truth: most new jobs are created by a small percentage of firms growing at a rate of at least 20 percent per year, the so-called entrepreneurial firms. Since 1979, more than 75 percent of net new jobs have been created by around 8 percent of cmall businesses. These firms are started and driven by entrepreneurs, not small businessmen or businesswomen."

Finally, the authors share this fact, calling for more equity financing: "Misconception Two: Access to Credit is the Major Financial Obstacle to Job Creation. The truth: access to equity capital, not credit, is the major financial obstacle to job creation. The business history of the United states is the history of equity financing. Entreprneurial firms, especially those in their earliest stages, need high-risk, patient, value-added equity financing to supplement internal cash flows. U.S. entrepreneurs face an annual equity shortfall of more than $45 billion. This is our nation's real capital formation challenge."

So it is that angel investing, and that far greater equity capital of blood, sweat, and tears that is paid via bootstrapping, ought be emphasized over venture capital in the course of entrepreneurship education.

For money and capital are commodities, while creativity, innovation, heart, and soul--the attributes of the rugged, entrepreneurial individual--are not.

And thus every entrepreneur ought to set out on their "Hero's Journey" with the knowledge bolstered by the likes of Mark Cuban, Shakespeare, Benjamin Franklin, and Angel Investing--sweat equity is the most valuable equity there is. Believe in yourself--hold on tight for the wild ride, and rock your dreams. You take the risks--you ought get the rewards.

Bogle's Vanguard & Wallace's Braveheart: Hero's Journey Entrepreneurship

noreply@blogger.com (45 Surf Hero's Journey Entrepreneurship) — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 04:02:00 +0000

"I say, follow your bliss and don't be afraid, and doors will open where you didn't know they were going to be." -- Joseph Campbell

The true source of every academic discipline, from law, to religion, to economics, to entrepreneurship, is Story, and thus tying entrepreneurship to classical myth is a lot of fun, as Story is a most efficient schoolmaster. So often it is that great ventures originate in inconspicuous events on an ordinary day--Luke Skywalker bought a couple robots, Bilbo Baggins came across a small ring and took it back to the Shire, and Neo followed the white rabbit. Entrepreneurs ranging from John Bogle, who founded the Vanguard Group based on his college senior thesis which went against Wall Street's conventional wisdom, to Randall Wallace, who left a job in TV to pen something closer to his heart--the classic Braveheart--all leave the "Ordinary World" to "follow their bliss." So often it is that the beginnings of the journey is marked by a seemingly whimsical happening: John Bogle, while seeking a topic for his Princeton Senior Thesis, came across an article in Fortune Magazine saying that money managers rarely outperformed the market, and so the idea for his "common sense" index fund was hatched. While visting Scotland after having left his job in TV, Randall Wallace came across the statue of Robert the Bruce, and standing next to him was a statue of William Wallace. Since he shared the same last name, Randall asked the museum guard, "Who is this William Wallace?"

If the students don't quite know who Richard Branson or John Bogle are; if Joseph Campbell seems a bit esoteric, they are yet familiar with Frodo, Luke Skywalker, and Neo—farm boys and a cubicle worker who felt there was something more out there—who heard some call to adventure and reluctantly went on to save the universe. If they've not yet heard of Randall Wallace, the author of Braveheart, they yet know William Wallace, who lived a parallel journey on the silver screen. The class seeks to remind them that life is a great adventure to be lived with a free spirit and brave heart, and without the assistance of classical myth and real-life entrepreneurs who followed their bliss, we would be unable to teach such things.

During the most recent freshman seminar, the students discussed how they're watching movies and reading books differently—how they're extracting the eternal principles—the classic call to adventure, the meeting with the mentor, the road of trials, tests, allies, and enemies, the showdown/ordeal, and the return on home with the elixir. And too, they're seeing the deeper secret of the "Hero's Journey"--the common moral precepts that are at the center and circumference of all everlasting stories. And thus it makes sense that similar plot points appear in Job's, Branson's, Bogle's, and Wallace's careers.

In reading both The Odyssey and The Battle for The Soul of Capitalism, students see that it was similar moral precepts that guided Odysseus on home and inspired John Bogle to found Vanguard. Both Odysseus and Bogle saw the folly of short-term temptations--the Sirens, Lotus Eaters, Hedge Funds, and speculation based on daily market fluctuations--and the virtue of long-term investing--of investing in and living by the fundamentals--family, faith, and the home back on the Shire. 'Tis why Buffett never left Omaha.

So it is that eventually Bogle founded Vanguard based on higher ideals that countered Wall Street's wisdom—the higher ideals he set down in his 1951 senior thesis at Princeton—that paying Wall Street intermediaries to manage money was by and large a waste for the common investor. And like his 1951 thesis, Bogle's 2005 book shows how mutual funds and hedge funds, despite all the hype, typically harbor greater risk and less rewards than the Vanguard index fund--and time has proven his thesis true via abundant empirical data.

Regarding Vanguard, Bogle writes,

Bogle worked a normal job on Wall Street for over twenty years, just like Neo in The Matrix, but throughout it all, he never lost sight of the moral premise he had set down in his senior thesis--the ideal that nobody could ever quite convince him wasn't real—that fundamental premise of all entrepreneurship--that the risk takers ought to reap the rewards of their investments, and thus that the overarching Wall Street setup was fundamentally immoral in that it reaped the majority of the rewards while relegating all of the risk to the common investors—the teachers, preachers, and firemen.

Bogle lost his job on Wall Street during the seventies recession; forcing him to finally follow the youthful idealism of his 1951 senior thesis and found the Vanguard Group, just as Randall Wallace lost his job writing for and producing TV, before being "forced" to write his very first feature film—the multiple academy-award-winning Braveheart. So it is that failure and setbacks are contextualized in artistic entrepreneurship—they become steps along a greater journey, where one sometimes trades one's job for one's higher ideals; which although paying little or nothing today, are infinitely better long-term investments.

I recently had the privilege of hearing Randall Wallace speak at the Director's Guild, and he told us a great story about the writing of Braveheart, which very much parralleled the narrative of the movie (without the battle axes).

Wallace had lost his job in TV after telling his boss that Hollywood could do better—that Hollywood could aim higher and voyage deeper. His boss had replied, "If we tried for anything deeper, the backwoods folks in Nebraska wouldn't get it." To which Wallace said, "I am from the backwoods folks from Tennessee, and not only would they get it, but they would love it. And it is our duty to give it to them."

And that very same exchange--in which Wallace, like Bogle, Buffett, and Odysseus hears that call on home--became the moral premise of Braveheart:

And too, such sentiments are the moral premise of Vanguard:

"Just as my book points out, mutual funds are the paradigm of the triumph of managers' capitalism over owners' capitalism. Yet the winning strategy ultimately is held by the firm that provides a community advantage that serves shareholders and owners, simply by taking the lion's share of those oppressive costs out of the investment equation. It is hard to imagine that Dr. Franklin, reborn in our age, wouldn't have sought to serve, not himself, but the community in exactly the same way. " –John Bogle, Capitalism, Entrepreneurship, and Investing—The 18th Century vs. the 21st Century, Founder and Former Chairman, The Vanguard Group At the Greater Philadelphia Venture Group
January 25, 2006

It is the moral premise of Joseph Campbell's life and works—of the Hero's Journey:

'Tis the very same moral premise of America--"a government of the people, by the people, and for the people."

And that's where entrepreneurship comes in--the living embodiment of this classic American ideal--the constant creation, renewal, and revival of ventures that exist not to tax nor exploit nor limit freedom, but to serve--that exist not to make money by following the bottom line, but to create wealth by serving higher ideals.

So there it is—in the personal journeys of Bogle and Wallace—they lived epic myths centered about a moral premise and created enduring ventures in their wake. One might call them risk-takers, but look closer, and each knew that the bigger risk was in forgoing one's moral premise to merely "go with the flow."

So it is that entrepreneurial risk has little to do with the roulette wheel that Wall Street has become—it has little to do with MBAs extracting fees for risking other peoples' pensions and savings in hedge funds—but risk has everything to do with the lone individual following higher ideals—providing true leadership in going against the establishment whenever and wherever the establishment goes against the hgher ideals; heeding that call to adventure, siezing the sword from the stone, and returning on home with the elixir--creating lasting wealth for all on the Hero's Journey.

And when students hear these epic stories, courage is gained—the courage to perhaps forgo a "safe" job at a mutual fund, or even get fired from their cubicle in the Matrix--to "lose one's life so as to find it"—but only because they are adhering to higher principles and dreaming of an exalted goal. The courage to believe in and follow Jefferson's eloquent words--"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness ." The courage to build those better ventures based on those higher ideals, for while the average value of all paper currency over time is zero, paper printed with the prophet's poetry pays in dividends.

Such courage will be needed to lead a renaissance--"to begin the world anew," as Bogle quotes Hamilton.

One of William Wallace's most endearing qualities was the hope he saw in everyone--in Robert the Bruce and the future Queen of England--he saw the better angels of their nature and spoke to them, regardless of their positions, for "men follow courage, not titles." And in hearing Randall Wallace speak at the DGA, one could see from where William had inherited such traits.

And finally, speaking of inheriting traits, Randall Wallace told us the story of how royal historians had contacted him from England after Braveheart's resounding success.

As you all know, at the end of movie the Queen of England carries William Wallace's child, and the royal historians were worried and perhaps a bit upset about what the fictional account might lead some to believe about the lineage and constitution of the actual Royal Family.

So Randall Wallace apologized, "I never meant to imply any such thing, and I apologize to Scottish people everywhere."

Well thanks to Bogle and Wallace for providing living examples of the "humble hero's journey." For as students to see that such epic myths are not solely the province of the silver screen, Joseph Campbell's advice to "follow yor bliss" is brought to life.

Artistic Entrepreneurship & Technology 101 Advice for Disney

noreply@blogger.com (45 Surf Hero's Journey Entrepreneurship) — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 04:01:00 +0000

The following was published in the OC Regsiter:

Orange Grove: Don't vote Tom off the island
Linking to literary classics smarter strategy than playing off 'Pirates'
By ELLIOT MCGUCKEN

"If Disney film execs have their way, a 'Pirates of the Caribbean'-themed attraction reportedly will take over Tom Sawyer Island – a Disneyland playground designed by Walt Disney himself.

"The Disney watchdog Web site, miceage.com, reported Wednesday that the island, which began in 1956, will be updated. Disneyland officials refused to confirm or deny the news."

– The Orange County Register, Oct. 4, 2006

If the Walt Disney Co. has any long-term interest in the health of the box office and Hollywood's bottom line or in leading a renaissance in video games with greater emotional depth and a cultural revival where plot trumps spectacle, it will keep Disneyland's Tom Sawyer Island as "Tom Sawyer Island." If Disney has any interest in serving the long-term wealth of its shareholders, it will look to build more upon rock-solid literary foundations such as Mark Twain, rather than the shifting pop-culture sands of "The Pirates of The Caribbean."

Tom Sawyer represents far more than an American icon, far more than a unique character created by a classic author. Tom Sawyer represents the classical manner in which all everlasting art is created – by some rugged individual holding the higher ideals above the bottom line and setting out for that treasure all alone.

On the other hand, "Pirates" represents the MBA/MFA-izaton of Hollywood. The bottom line is placed over higher ideals, a nameless, faceless entourage of fine-arts grad schoolers is hired to write and rewrite some cookie-cutter script; and the result is a muddled plot lacking a center and circumference, lacking a heart and soul, lacking "story" – that essential element by which art achieves eternity.

The reason for numerous rewrites is that MBAs believe it lessens the risk; but to take no risks in art is the biggest risk one can take. Imagine if "Hamlet" or "Moby Dick" or "Tom Sawyer" had been outsourced to a team of writing consultants. Hamlet and Captain Ahab would have been sent to a shrink played by Robin Williams, who also would have diagnosed Tom Sawyer with attention deficit disorder, then cured him and killed the story.

In contemplating the dramatic arts in his Poetics, Aristotle placed plot first and spectacle second to last. With "Jackass" movies dominating the box office and reality TV replacing sitcoms across the TV spectrum, contemporary Hollywood has gotten its Aristotle backwards.

Aristotle said, "When storytelling declines, the result is decadence." So it is that that far greater treasures are to be had with a classical revival, which, in Herman Melville's words, "cannot be counted down in dollars from the mint."

Declining movie ticket sales (down 8.9 percent in 2005 from 2004) cannot be written off as people's preference for DVDs, as DVD sales have slipped, too. What has happened is that the classical, epic story has been banned – it has been banned in academia, in New York publishing circles and in Hollywood. And so it is that a Hollywood renaissance is there for the taking, by someone who understands that all value ultimately derives from values.

Without the noble vessel of an Aristotlean three-act plot – without the classic structure of Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey, movies are boring. The center cannot hold, and things fall apart.

Nor is it enough to tack on Joseph Campbell's structure as an afterthought to please the studio or network publicity departments; but the leaders of Hollywood and New York publishing houses must lead by leading with truth – within living art – by performing the classical ideals in the contemporary context, by respecting the individual author. When Hollywood returns to navigating by the fixed stars, they shall find blockbuster movies floating in their wake.

For the true captain knows where the treasure is and then navigates on towards it. It's how Hollywood's most-produced screenwriter – William Shakespeare – succeeded, and it's why every classic bears the unique, branded imprint of some individual's soul. Merely drifting along with the fickle winds of pop culture is why Hollywood's fleets of grad-school filmmakers keep running aground.

The Hollywood renaissance will go to the one who can string the bow – filmmakers, writers, directors, and producers who sail beyond the postmodern fog and rediscover that deeper treasure on Tom Sawyer Island – the classical ideals performed in the contemporary context.

Check out the original in the OC Regsiter:

Arts Entrepreneurship Educator's Network

noreply@blogger.com (45 Surf Hero's Journey Entrepreneurship) — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 04:00:00 +0000

Gary Beckman has launched a great new resource reflecting the development of an Artistic Entrepreneurship curriculum aimed at empowering undergrads, MFAs, and MBAs alike.

Artistic Entrepreneurship has many layers--it's not just about teaching artists to use powerpoint and excel for five-year financial projections, but it's about teaching MBAs and MFAs about the vast value of a classical liberal arts education. All of the laws upon which entrepreneurship is founded are natural rights as expressed in the US Constitution and other classical literature. Thus the curriculum marries the "can do" spirit to common sense and self-reliance, reminding the students that all rights come with responsibilities. Ideals are real, and they are most useful tools in the arts--both on the artistic and the business level.

Warren Buffett has stated, "I am not an investor--I am an artist," and also, "My favorit time for holding a stock is eternity." --the same eternity Shakespeare and Dante wrote for.

The front page of Gary's site states:

Visit often for updates in events, articles of interest and other content for Arts Entrepreneurship Educators. If you have any questions about Arts Entrepreneurship, suggestions for additional features, submissions or comments, please see the Contact Page. Also, please view the AEEN's mission statement.

This site is a partial outcome of my recent study on Arts Entrepreneurship programs funded by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. After months of on-site interviews, it became clear that those interested in the topic lacked resources, information and a method to communicate. The AEEN is an initial step in addressing this lacuna. Again, my thanks to all who participated.

The site has three distinct modules: 1) A series of reports on the state of the discipline (including a catalog of institutions) 2) Reading Lists & Events 3) Interviews with Arts Entrepreneurship educators, program directors and administrators in the initial phases of program design. A dedicated listserv will be added if interest dictates.

Gary's "State of the Discipline" offers wonderful insights, as well as a call to create a currciculum better serving the students:

As a response to poor student outcomes in the arts, colleges and universities have been offering career-based courses and services for decades. However, in recent years this concern has gained national attention. Today, Entrepreneurship education in the fine arts is the most dynamic and exciting trend to appear in recent memory.

The discipline itself is in a shaping process. Given the suffix - "entrepreneurship" - much of the curricular content and thrust is drawn from the business school. Accounting, management, organizational principles and New Venture Creation (NVC) are weighted heavily in many Arts Entrepreneurship efforts. Yet in the past decade, new ideas about the nature of entrepreneurship and arts higher education have begun to broaden the curriculum.

Today, arts administrators are wrestling with a number of issues in this context. Questions of curricular design are perhaps the most obvious. Yet as the financial realties of higher education funding collide with a sense of moral duty to the students they nurture for four or more years, decision makers are increasingly looking for the most effective method to a "successful student outcome" and the benefits institutions may enjoy thereafter.

Thanks to Gary for creating a flagship resource to lead this rising curriculum.

The Battle For The Soul of Capitalism

noreply@blogger.com (45 Surf Hero's Journey Entrepreneurship) — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 04:00:00 +0000

Entrepreneurship is all about taking ownership in what one does.

It's about accepting the risks, taking the responsibility, and reaping the rewards.

Too often these days, it seems that students are taught it's one class of people who do the work and take the risks, and another class of people who reap the rewards.

And that's why "The Battle for the Soul of Capitalism: How the financial system undermined ideals, damaged trust in the markets, robbed investors of trillions--and what to do about it," is a great book for a freshman seminar. For it was penned by John Bogle--the founder and former chariman of the Vanguard Group--who actually founded Vanguard based on a paper he wrote as a student.

So it is that youthful idealism, when followed in entrepreneurial ventures, can rock the world.

Time is money, and thus any investment made in following passions and dreams ought to be owned by the investor. The risk taker ought always get the reward.

This fundamental entrepreneurial theme pervades Bogle's book, wherin he states that the financial industry needs to return to an "ownership" model, where investors--those who take the risks--reap the rewards.

Bogle's major theme is the exact same classical theme that must be taught in every class on entrepreneurship--"For better or worse, my youthful idealism--the belief that any truly sound business endeavor must be built on a strong moral foundation--still remains today, at least as strong as it was all those years ago."

This simple statement echoes of the classical ideals by which entrepreneurs founded and built America, and Bogle' s book is filled with great quotes. I'd like to share some of them with you today.

"When we should be teaching young student about long-term investing and the magic of compound interest, the stock-picking contests offered by our schools are in fact teachingthem about short-term speculation. And the biggest financial circus of all--today's incarnation of the Circus Maximus--is thegarish eight-story NASDAQ MarketSite Tower in Times Square, displaying stock prices on what is proudly billed as "the world's largest video screen." That display, it seems to me, is the visual paradigm that has become not only a circus, but a casino for speculators. Yet as Lord Keynes warned us: "When the capital development of a country becomes the by-product of a casino, the job is likely to be ill-done. (Italics added)

"Our society today, then, is no longer an "owenership society." It has become an "intermediation society," and it is notgoing back. In the ideal, if we all work long enough and hard enough at the task, it will become a "fiduciary society," one in which the citizen-incvestors of America will at last receive the fair shake they have always deserved from ourcorporations, our investment markets, and our mutual fund industry. Public, private, and individual retirement savings are the backbone of our financial system, but our intermediaries consume far too large a portion of whatever returns our finacial markets are generous enough to provide, with far too small a protion going to the last-line investors who put up all the capital and assume all the risks. (Italics added)

This book is my attempt to address one of those major threats: the remarkable erosion that has taken place over the past two decades in the conduct and values of our business leaders, our investment bankers, and our money managers. --Introduction, xvi

As St. Augustine suggested, it was self-love that lead to the fall of the Roman Empire. Gibbon's conclusion is expressed in this profound warning, "O man! Place not thy confidence in this present world!" --Introduction, xvi

Entrepreneurship is the center and circumference of our economic engine, and students need to learn the ideals by which the engine has ever run.

Whether studnets are heading of to Wall Street or to Main Street, the classical ideals will serve them well. It'll be fun book to teach!

AE&T Freshman Seminar: Homer's Odyssey & John Bogle's The Battle for The Soul of Capitalism

noreply@blogger.com (45 Surf Hero's Journey Entrepreneurship) — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 03:59:00 +0000

This fall, in addition to an upper level AE&T course, I'll be teaching a freshman seminar called, "Artistic Entrepreneurship & Technology: A Fellowship of Humble Heroes," at Pepperdine University.

How does one go about introducing the spirit of not only entrepreneurship, but the university, to incoming freshmen?

Answering this brought back to mind that day my parents had dropped me off at Princeton and headed on back to Ohio.

It seems like yesterday I was a freshman, walking into Palmer Hall for that first time--where Einstein and Feynman and so many other giants had worked. When one ponders all the vast wealth that physics has bequeathed, from the transistor (quantumn mechanics/condensed matter), to nuclear energy (Einstein's relativity), to electric power (Faraday's Law, E&M), one sees that these humble heroes, who never thought of themselves as entrepreneurs, created that very foundation upon which so much modern wealth is built--the internet, medical technoloies, airlines--the list goes on and on. It would be good to keep in mind their tenacious, tireless dedication to the search for and allegiance to higher truths, for those seem the devices by which all true, lasting wealth is created.

So there we were that first day at Princeton--the fifteen freshmen physics majors--and in walks John Archibald Wheeler in a suit and tie (he wore a tie every day to the department)--a giant in his own right who had helped Bohr split the atom and written the definitive texts on Gravitation. And immediately what stood out most was his soft voice and humility--I still recall two things he told us. He asked that we always remember what Newton had said--"I have seen further because I have stood on the shoulders of giants." And he told us that as incoming freshmen it was time for us to start research. "And whenever you have questions, ask the grad students, as the professors are no longer on the cutting edge," he said with a winking humility as great as his accomplishments.

He'd quoted Newton and passed the baton to us, never mentioning his own great accomplishments. So it is that those who show the greatest reverence for those who have come before, are so often those who show the greatest reverence for those who come after.

Benjamin Franklin--that original American entrepreneur--once made a list of twelve virtues including frugality and industry. After completing it, he realized he'd forgotten one, and so he added the thirteenth, which he later said was the most important--"Humility: Imitate Socrates and Jesus."

I'm currently completing a book on AE&T, and Benjamin Franklin's list of virtues mark the first page.

Einstein once told a class, "Do not worry about your difficulties in mathematics--I can assure you that mine are much greater." And he also said, "imagination is more important than knowledge."

The common hallmark of the greatest entrepreneurs and innnovators, of leaders, philosophers, and teachers, of artists and scientists, has ever been humility.

Though they were heroes, their simple humility always transcended their heroics.

Two of the required books in the freshman AE&T seminar are Homer's Odyssey and John Bogle's (the founder and former chairman of Vanguard) The Battle for the Soul of Capitalism. Both books are about living for higher ideals and forgoing short-term temptations in favor of that far-greater quest of long-term investing. Both books are about "owner's capitalism," about the risk-takers getting the rewards, about common investors reaping the benefits of the markets as opposed to the managerial class, about the empowerment of the individual.

Both books are about private-property rights, as after his long voyage, Odysseus must reclaim his home from all the false-suitors, just as Bogle reminds us that investors must reclaim the rewards of their investments which are all too often siphoned away by the intermeidaries, either via small fees here and there, or sudden debacles, such as the dot-bomb fiasco or an Enron. For trillions in wealth were not lost--they were transferred. From the investors to the intermediaries.

And as sure as only Odysseus can string the bow, the rightful beneficiaries of the creation of wealth must be those who invest their time, their talent, and their wealth. Independent investors and entrepreneurs--the rugged innovators and inventors--are the fount of this nation's wealth, and we're lucky to have a Constitution that stipulates they get to own and profit from what they do. Students love hearing this, as it reminds them that their dreams are worth dreaming, owning, and seeing on through, all the way on home as Odysseus did.

I first heard Mr. Bogle speak at a Princeton conference on entrepreneurship where he told the story of Vanguard--the regal financial insitution which he based on the youthful idealism of his Princeton senior thesis. Back in the 50's, while considering thesis topics in the library, he came across an article in Fortune Magazine which stated that one could not consistently predict the stock market. "Why then," he wondered, "does Wall Street pay people to manage money when over time an index fund would perform as well or better?"

Upon graduating he headed to NY to work in the finance industry, and Wall Street told him that the overarching idea of his thesis wasn't all that good, as if it were, certainly someone would have done it by now! Although Mr. Bogle was very successful working at more traditional firms on Wall Street, for the next twenty years his youthful idealism persisted. And when the seventies recession set him free, he founded Vanguard--one of the most successful, and trusted, financial institutions ever.

And to this day, he maintains,

"For better or worse, my youthful idealism--the belief that any truly sound business endeavor must be built on a strong moral foundation--still remains today, at least as strong as it was all those years ago." --John Bogle, Founder of Vanguard, in the introduction to The Battle for The Soul of Capitalism

I fell in love with Bogle's book in the opening pages where he wrote:

My generation has left America with much to set right;
you have the opportunity of a lifetime to fix what has
been broken. Hold high your idealism and your values.
Remember always that even one person can make a
difference. And do your part "To begin the world
anew."

That's a great message to every student--to "hold high their idealism and values."

And Homer's Odyssey opens with a similar theme:

Muse make the man thy theme, for shrewdness famed
And genius versatile, who far and wide
A Wand'rer, after Ilium overthrown,
Discover'd various cities, and the mind
And manners learn'd of men, in lands remote.
He num'rous woes on Ocean toss'd, endured,
Anxious to save himself, and to conduct
His followers to their home.

The Odyssey is about a journey based on "idealism and values." We love it because we know it--it's a story about resisting short-term tempatations such as the Sirens and Lotus Eaters for that far greater goal--making it on home. It's a story about a poet warrior who makes it home not by strength, but by Character. It's a story of every entreprneur--seeing a vision on through, living humbly for higher ideals, and serving one's customers and employees.

And when Odysseus gets on home, he has to reclaim his home from all the imposters who have been pursuing his wife and living off his estate while he was off fighting for his country. So it's a story about property rights, about the risk-taker getting the just reward, about valuing the higher ideals over the bottom line, about faith and family, about classic, rugged entrepreneurship.

And from Homer on down--from Socrates, to Jesus, to Benjamin Franklin who held the former two's humility in the highest regard--the greatest value has ever come from valuing the higher ideals over the bottom line--just ask Warren Buffett who sat out the dot-com debacle and who has stated that his favorite time to hold a stock is eternity--the same eternity Dante wrote for.

A humility before eternity's fundamentals pervades the most successful art and buiness alike.

Students are just beginning a great journey, and eternity's principles will serve them well in all their intellectual and entreprneurial endeavors.

And just as Homer calls on the muse for help in speaking the story, so must we call on the muse to help us find the right words to inspire.

I'm grateful that Homer and Wheeler and Bogle did such a great job, as they'll be great companions on this voyage on out, during this Fellowship of Humble Heroes, where the students are invited to journey not before nor after, but alongside those true, everlasting leaders who exlted all in their humility before higher ideals.

Intellectual Property and Entrereneurshp in Literature/Film

noreply@blogger.com (45 Surf Hero's Journey Entrepreneurship) — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 03:58:00 +0000

I've been researching references to intellectual property in literature and film, and came across some cool quotes from Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged--Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie recently agreed to play the leads in the upcoming film

"Precisely," said Dr. Ferris. "It's extremely important to get those patents turned over to us voluntarily. Even if we had a law permitting outright nationalization, it would be much better to get them as a gift. We want to leave the people with the illusion that they're tsill preserving their private property rights. And most of them will play along. They'll sign the Gift Certificates. Just Raise a lot of noise about its being a patriotic duty ad that anyone who refuses is a prince of greed, and they'll sign." --Atlas Shrugged

"Point three. All patents and copyrights, pertaining to any devices, inventions, formulas, and processes and works of any nature whatsoever, shall be turned over to the nation as a patriotic emergency gift by means of Gift Certificates to be signed voluntarily by the owners of all such patents and copyrights. The Unification Board shall then license the use of such patents and copyrights to all applicants, equally and without discrimination, for the purpose of eliminating monopolistic practices, discrding obsolete products, and making the best available to the whole nation. No trademarks, brand names or copyrighted titles shall be used. Every formerly patented product shall be known by a new name and sold by all maufacturers under the same name, such name to be selected by the Unification Board. All private trademarks and brand names are hereby abolished." --Atlas Shrugged

A lot of other great passages may be fond throughout--the title Atlas Shrugged refers to the notion of the entrepreneurs of the world--the inventors and innovators--"shrugging" and going on strike.

And here's a quote from Mark Twain from a speech given to congress:

They always talk handsomely about the literature of the land... And in the midst of their enthusiasm they turn around and do what they can to discourage it. – Mark Twain, Speech in Congress, 1906

MARK TWAIN ON COPYRIGHT

http://www.bpmlegal.com/cotwain.html

MBAs need MFAs as much as MFAs need MBAs

noreply@blogger.com (45 Surf Hero's Journey Entrepreneurship) — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 03:57:00 +0000

Not only would it be great see more arts departments encouraging their students to walk over to the business and law schools, but it would be cool to see the business and law schools encourging their students to walk over to the arts departments. More and more business schools, ncluding Harvard and Stanford, are teaching courses on ethics that are rooted in the classics. So it is that artists--those who study and live higher aestehtics--have great potential for leadership.

"I am not a businessman—I am an artist." –Warren Buffett

Too often it seems modern academia tries to pigeon-hole people,thereby undermining the full range and potential of anyone with a dream that transcends the program. We're told that it's one kind of person who does science, another who does art, another who does law, and then another who does business. It's as if once you learn how to walk, you're never supposed to talk--you have to get someone from a different department. But in the real world, in order to lead and innovate, you have to both walk and talk--you've got to get your hands into everything. Is it law that makes the iPod successful? Is it art? Is it technology? Is it business? It are all of these things, and Steve Jobs' didn't first have to get degrees in art, technology, business, and law. But he did sit in on a Calligraphy class after he dropped out. In his own words at the Stanford commencement:

"Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space
between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating." (Jobs)

"None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later." (Jobs)

The arts--aesthetics--are of huge value to the business world--now more than ever.

Artistic entrepreneurs--those who see the value of keeping the higher ideals above the bottom line--will be a great assett to tomorrow's mutual funds and Hollywood studios alike. For long-term investors must always navigate by the higher ideals.

Here's Donald Trump on business & art:

"I view my business as an art, which it is. You should view your work that way too. . . Here's why. Artists are known for their
dedication, to their ideals, to their muse—whatever that might be—and for their perseverance in getting things just right. Those are admirable traits to possess. They will go to great lengths to achieve the desired result. Just recently a Beethoven manuscript was discovered in a library. He had made so many changes and scratches on it that he had punctured holes in the pages in some places. This work was done towards the end of his life, so he wasn't a novice at writing music at that point. That was just how he worked. Beethoven was a perfectionist, who wouldn't settle for less than his best. He didn't need to impress anyone except himself. That's a good way to be, whether you're a businessperson or a musician." –Real World Art: The Canvass that is Business, Donald J. Trump, Chairman, Trump University

Well it'll be fun to create programs where artists and entrepreneurs not only hang out, but where artists are entrepreneurs, and entrepreneurs are artists.

Art is a great unifier--it naturally transcends so many false boundaries. Arts curriculums are thus great vehicles for manifesting IE. When graduate students are given full opportunities to reach their potential, everyone wins.

The Entrepreneur as Hero Storyteller: Jobs, Branson, & Aristotle's Three Acts

noreply@blogger.com (45 Surf Hero's Journey Entrepreneurship) — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 03:56:00 +0000

Start a blog and read the Great Books. ‘Tis the first steps towards your media conglomerate. –Dr. E

When Steven Jobs rocked the music industry with the iPod, was it because he was a master musician? Does he even play any instruments? Is he an expert in technology? Does he program or design computer chips? Is he a master of business—does Jobs have an MBA or even a college degree? Is he an expert in the law behind digital rights management (DRM)? Or does his classic vision and leadership derive from some higher entity?

First and foremost, Jobs is a classic storyteller. The iPod rocked the world because it obeyed the three-act structure of Aristotle’s Poetics: it had a beginning—Apple’s online music store and contracts with major and small labels; a middle—the internet and millions of PCs and Macintosh computers; and an end—the maverick iPod. Because Steven Jobs saw the bigger picture—because he was able to tell a classic story to the record labels, to his design team, and to the public, he was able to beat out far larger competitors such as Microsoft and Sony and Time Warner.

He actually cast his larger rivals as the Death Star, the Matrix, and Sauron, with the iPod being the light saber and the One Ring. You too could join the rebels and fight the Orcs and forces of evil by thiking differently and buying an iPod. The story Jobs told made the iPod experience as much about fashion, music, and art as technology. Look closely, and you will see that every successful company tells a classic story, as story is the heart and soul of brand.

Joseph Campbell’s Hero With a Thousand Faces has perfect parallels with entrepreneurship. From the Call to Adventure, to the Meeting of the Mentor, to the Crossing of the Threshold, to the Belly of the Whale, to the Road of Trials, to Battle with the Dragons, to the Seizing of the Sword from the Stone and the Return on Home, Entrepreneurship shares all the high adventure of any movie based on Campbell’s classic, from Star Wars, to the Matrix, to Harry Potter, to the Lord of the Rings. To teach entrepreneurship is to inspire entrepreneurship, and as the purpose of all classical art is to inspire and awaken ideals within our souls, there is no better way to teach entrepreneurship than with the Great Books and Classics and movies that share their themes. For every entrepreneur who sets off on their own must live by higher ideals—by an absolute code of honor. Without deep knowledge of higher law, the 45 Revolver is rendered useless in the service of the Good.

Our heroes, from Odysseus, to Neo, to Luke Skywalker, to Frodo, to Stephen Jobs, to Richard Branson, are never specialists, but instead they must master a wide array of skills en route to Destiny. They must act courageously and think on their feet, and while such talents cannot be taught, a vast wealth of knowledge that can assist artists and entrepreneurs may be found in the mentorship of the Great Books and Classics. Although our heroes must brave the ultimate tests alone, they have much to learn from Morpheus, Obe Wan, and Gandolf—from Shakespeare, Dante, Campbell, and the Bible.

And so it is that this book constantly seeks to point you towards the greatest that has been spoken and written. For in studying Artistic Entrepreneurship, one must begin by asking that fundamental question of all art, which bleeds on over to all business, law, and technology—what grants a work immortality? Look behind the poetry and all that is lost in translation, and long after the superficial semblance is gone, the skeleton yet remains—the scaffolding—the classic, immutable story. The Odyssey, though originally spoken in ancient Greek, thrives in every single language today via Story. Hero is a most often misunderstood word in this postmodern day and age. In this era of Wall Street and NY publishing scandals and Hollywood hype, our heroes so often turn out to be boisterous, plagiarizing, thuggish, self-serving, lying, downright inconsiderate, dishonest, and selfish. While it makes for good reality TV, there are those higher heroes, so often unsung, jepordizing their lives and freedom to protect our lives and freedom. And the Great Books remind us of this—true heroes throughout classical literature were ever the most humble. From Odysseus who rejected a Godess and immortality to return on home to his wife, who dressed as a beggar to regain entrance to his kingdom, to Socrates, Moses, and Jesus who had little in the ways of means, but eternity in the way of morality.

Look closely at Steven Jobs and Richard Branson—there is a humility about them. Both lost their original startups—Steven Jobs had Apple taken away by MBAs, and Richard Branson had to sell Virgin Music to save Virgin Airlines. They both know that everything they do hangs in the balance at every second—they both know that the greatest risk in this life is to take no risks. They both understand Benjamin Franklin’s words on a deeper level, “He who trades freedom for security deserves neither.”

From Odysseus using his infinite cunning and courage to return on home to Penelope, to Dante crossing through Hell itself to win Beatrice, to Frodo enduring a thousand battles to get the ring to Modor, artistic entrepreneurship—living life in the service of some higher, romantic ideal—is the highest of all adventures. And this book—the 45 Revolver—is your light saber and One Ring. May you use it wisely.

While the goal of the modern corporation, academy, and Hollywood often seems to deconstruct myth and deny story so as to bolster bureaucracy at the individual’s expense, the fundamental right, and duty, of every free man and woman is to find that higher Story that they were created for, and to live it. America the Beautfiul has presented you with that rarest of all opportunities in the history of the world—to say what you want and own what you do—and to make your passion your profession.

Story is your most valuable entity on this journey. Never forget it. Always keep it by your side.

Welcome to the Renaissance.

Artistic Entrepreneurship & Technology : The Class\'s Final Lecture : Class Begins Today

noreply@blogger.com (45 Surf Hero's Journey Entrepreneurship) — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 03:52:00 +0000

Read student comments:

Teaching is all about inspiring people to realize their full potential, and in that sense, AE&T was filled not with students, but teachers.

Every artist is an entrepreneur. Every entrepreneur is an artist. And all artists and entrepreneurs are teachers.

Think about the immense amount you learned from your peers in this class.

A guest professor from Computer Science sat in on Tuesday's class, and she was vastly impressed with the presentations—the professional photography, the classical music video, the PR firm, Charlie & Stephen's technology startup—all of them. And that was but the tip of the iceberg of all the class's talent.

Perhaps the greatest trait of this class was the rich idealism and exalted values expressed throughout the semester—the immense faith that the world is yet to be born, that we can do better, that movies can more aptly signify the depths of our souls, that music can better exalt our higher aspirations, that visual art and sculpture carry a unique, precious value that can be found in no other medium and which must be revived or lost; that we could use a renaissance in storytelling across the board—in NY publishing and Hollywood and Video Games, that Wall Street would be better off focusing on the higher ideals—long term investing in Truth’s Beauty—as opposed to the bottom line marketing and hype that afflicts so many contemporary ventures from Mutual Funds to Music. That we could build better systems for digital rights management, wherein artists chose their rights, thus realizing the full beauty of the cutting edge technologies as well as the classical rights laid out in the Constitution. That art, business, law, and technology could better be served with a simple, age-old, philosophy—Ideals are Real.

What I witnessed in class was leadership at its highest level. People committed to their craft, to their ideals. Not leadership presented in power point presentations nor recognized with high ceremony, but that quiet, consistent, humble leadership that always ends up getting everything done. The very hallmark of that classic, rugged American spirit that's perfectly happy to take one small step at a time on towards that infinite goal. You guys are artists, and after spending a semester with you, it makes sense that you're seeking to make your passions your professions, as your passions abound. And there is no greater value you can give to the world.

This class is a fellowship. We shall all meet again, but for now we must part way to pursue our own ventures—to embark on our own private Hero's Journeys, as the true class begins.

Take the good spirit and cheer of the class with you. Know that you are in good company when you're filling out the grant proposals, finishing that photography exhibit, setting up that art show, or writing those short stories that are begging to be written, to be turned into a novel, to be shot as a movie. And keep in mind that the artistic life is ironic—there is nothing that is more encompassing of all of humanity—there is nothing that crosses so many barriers and borders—there is nothing that more deeply touches the heart and soul, the mind and spirit, all simultaneously—there is nothing that brings us closer together than books, movies, music, and art; and yet, at times, there are few endeavors as lonely. For all great art, as all lasting leadership, comes from some individual staring off alone. But take the light side of this irony to heart—although you labor alone for the moment, you're in very good company in doing so. In the deep of night, as you finish that final cut all bleary eyed, know you're part of a vast Fellowship. T.S. Eliot called it the community of eternal souls, and it is that unique individuality by which you stamp all your work that exalts all of us in our own unique individualities, setting us free from the madding crowds.

The arts are yours for the making—the renaissances and revivals are yours for the taking. And by the taking, I mean seizing that sword from the stone, claiming that treasure at the pinnacles of your journeys, and bringing them on back for the rest of us to see. For that is the artist's job—to seize those distant treasures and share them with her audience.

It ain't easy, climbin' that mountain.

And it's been inspiring watching all of you doing it.

From all the talent in Language Arts—from the raw charisma and music, all the way to Pierce's natural leadership and quiet faith—the living, ineffable poetry that will take him far in all he does. Such qualities resounded throughout the class, and know this—it is that deep-down poetry that is your most valuable asset in all you do. Never trade it, sell it, nor forget it. In all business, law, and technology, it is the art that must lead, as art is the manifestation of the higher ideals—art is the immortal parts of our souls setting themselves free.

Art is what resounded throughout the class—Amanda Smith's rockin' music and Nashville dreams—she will be there. The Black Swamp Bootleggers' sense of destiny that we all now share—did you guys know that they just formed in January? That they just bought their very first PA system? That they got radio airplay, performed for the Chancellor, and booked gigs throughout the summer? And that they just bought a Greyhound tour bus? Well, not just yet.

Daniel Heath's immense talents and humble postings reminding us of that Higher faith from which all other value derives, and the good humor of so many—will Daniel be a successful entertainment lawer? A singer/songwriter? A producer? All those are just names for jobs, and Daniel will be something that transcends them all—an artistic entrepreneur—exalting us and fellow artists in all he does.

Charlie's & Stephen's professional business plan that would bring jobs and value and wealth to Chapel Hill would but some Angel investor see it—Franklin Street longs for such ingenious startups to attract and employ talent—maybe there's room to build it over Players; Travis's interests in everything and genuine enthusiasm that'll open doors in evey venture he pursues—video games, movies—next-gen storytelling; James heading off to LA to dance with Janet Jackson after the first lecture, Lauren & Triple Threat's cool dreams of starting a school to help artists rock their dreams—starting in Charlotte, and then heading up to NY, Candy's firm faith that artists ought to be paid, that artists must be paid, that artists will be paid—backed up with the action of setting up two art shows—one for the Chancellor; Rebbecca/Kelly/Jane's exploration of a PR firm that they'll be continuing in internships and jobs—watch for Rebecca's VH1 "Where are they now?" special about our class.

Will Hackney—the class's only freshman—most rockin' record label—Trekky Records. Sweater Weather's and the Anchor Comes Home's rockin' music and the multiple talents of Bobby Sweat & Ryan Dean—artists, musicians, poets, and natural entrepreneurs—just rockin' every day and in every way as they were born to do. Jessica's hard work & talent in shooting & editing the videos, Jordan's answering her call to join the world of film, accepted into the screenwriting program, and Hannah's professional award-winning documentary and inspirational spirit—all three—Jessica, Jordan, and Hannah will be heading to LA over the summer. Kaushal Shah's thirty year plan rocked—he's got the music, the site, the spirit, he kicked off Rocky Raccoon's, and was one of the first business students to get in on AE&T—send us a link to your thirty year plan! Michael Woods' immense energy and plans to light up the Chapel Hill and Triangle nightlife with events at La Rez—he's on the right track here to something huge. This area needs more rockin' arts, fashion, and music shows—and Michael's gonna throw some video gaming in there as well—the Triangle's hungry for this, and where there is demand, there lies a business.

Hannah lived the Hero's Journey in shooting her documentary—the call to adventure, the magic flight/escape from Thailand, the numerous cuts/editing and complete changes of direction, and the final delivery of a film that rocked the Full Frame festival and PBS the same weekend. Tiera's rockin' promotional company, Loose Bricks clothing to help charities, Billow's future fashion line, and Phil Gennet's myriad ventures, all united under Phil's "can-do" spirit. Everyone keep an eye on Phil—I bought four suits from him, and so did the Chancellor.

Summer & Gail's rockin' classical music video—the first time they ever picked up a camera and edited something, and they blew us all away with the first classical music video ever shot. There's a solid business there—they could get financing to produce upscale classical music videos and sell them throughout the world—educational & beyond—rock those dreams Summer & Gail. Brooke's rockin' fashion designs and the awesome dress she had made and modeled—so many ways Brooke can be a player in the fashion industry—it was cool watching her approach it from every angle, looking for the best way on up that mountain. That’s what school’s all about, as when you graduate, there’s going to be more pressure to choose a definitive path. Crystal's most inspiring photography and her wise advice—“when you make contacts—don't just talk shop—hang out with them too." Bill & Max rockin' the myspace page and plans for law school—we need more lawyers with artist's souls, as when you read the Declaration of Independence or Constitution, you'll note a profundity and eloquence that could only have been rendered by classical poets.

Keep runnin' with it. Keep rockin’ it.

That dream that the world has not yet seen. That new vision.

You've never done it before.

But don't be scared.

Because nobody has.

By following our dreams long enough, we become them, embodying the abstract ideals we once saw upon that distant horizon.

I haven't mentioned nearly everyone in this, but there wasn't anyone in the class who doesn't have what it takes to direct.

To shoot. To build. To sculpt. To record. To rock. To rap. To teach. To promote.

To create.

To make your passion your profession.

They're gonna tell you no—especially in this day and age that all too often emphasizes group-think, marketing, and hype over intrinsic value, but you gotta call the bluff. You see the cards you're holding. And those things that make you you—your ideals and dreams and truth and beauty—are four aces. And don’t ever let anyone talk it down, ‘cause know this—the cards call themselves.

I've said it a hundred times—there is nothing more valuable that your passions and your ideals. They are you.

The biggest risk you face is not dreaming big enough, not working hard enough.

Not believing that it is your right, as it is your duty, to dream until your dreams come true.

The biggest risk you face is being somebody else.

You are surfing a giant, unstoppable wave.

It is called time.

You are on its cutting edge—the present.

You've got to take chances—you've got to weigh the odds now and then, look for the opening, and do what you've got to do to ride his wave as you were born to do.

You’ve gotta know your limitations, but you can’t fear them.

And those chances you take in testing your full potential aren't risks—if you stop taking chances on that cutting-edge wave—if you opt out, the wave will wash right on over you.

You've got to think on your feet—one wrong move, one suspect second, and you could wipe out.

But you'll get back up. And do it again. And you'll know what it takes next time.

The greater risk is in not following your ideals, in not remaining loyal to your deep-down dreams.

The greater risk is in taking no risks. The greater risk is folding while holding four aces.

As Wayne Gretsky—the NHL's all time leading scorer—said, "I missed every shot I never took."

You get what you put in. And people get what they deserve.

Thanks to each and every one of you for teaching us all this semester.

Define the world with your higher ideals—with your music & poetry & art & living literature—or it will define you via its bureaucracy.
You were born into a most rare era, and a most unique country, where you get to say what you want and own what you do. But with these rights come duties—the duty to inspire.

Ideals are Real.

Rock those Dreams.

And so it is that this class ends.

And AE&T begins.

Read student comments:

Artistic Entrepreneurship & Technology : The Class's Final Lecture : Class Begins Today

noreply@blogger.com (45 Surf Hero's Journey Entrepreneurship) — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 03:52:00 +0000

On Teaching Artistic Entrepreneurship & Technology

noreply@blogger.com (45 Surf Hero's Journey Entrepreneurship) — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 03:51:00 +0000

First off, a big thanks to the Kauffman Foundation--to Megan Storm, Desiree Vargas, and Judith Cone--on behalf of all the students and myself, for affording us the opportunity to render Artistic Entrepreneurship & Technology 101 a reality. It’s an idea whose time has come, and student demand will naturally foster research programs, teaching curriculums, and new degrees across multiple campuses. The digital media revolutions have collapsed the artificial barriers between law, business, technology, and art, and the rising students see the potential to become artist/musician/actor/director/writer/programmers--to make their living, render their dreams, and create wealth as artistic entrepreneurs. And thus they’re longing for a classical liberal arts education--the artistic entrepreneur’s greatest tool.

In contemplating art and businesses, the class naturally turns towards that which has endured--what element grants a work eternity? What element grants a brand superiority? What elements have made Warren Buffett the world’s greatest investor? In all these things, it has been Truth’s Beauty that has lead the way. Companies are great not because they make money, but because they create wealth, and think of the vast wealth Shakespeare has created, with all the performances and countless curriculums--think of all the times his words have inspired Justice in the Courtrooms, and given someone the courage to propose. Shakespeare is Hollywood’ all-time most successful screenwriter, an that’s not counting the hundreds of screenplays he’s inspired, form Clueless to Strange Brew. As Harold Bloom credits him with having invented modern literature, perhaps all of Hollywood belongs to the bard. At any rate, it would not hurt the studio heads and MBAs to read Hamlet now and then, and it’s great to witness the students gravitating towards this.

The secret to teaching entrepreneurship is the same as to teaching anything. Teach the greatest that has ever been spoken and written--that has been ventured, patented, and trademarked--that has been composed, created, and crafted--and then encourage the students to do as well, or better. Teach of the noble Hero’s Journeys that have come before--the creation of the Constitution, Vanguard, and the Mona Lisa, and the penning of Dante’s Inferno and Moby Dick--and invite students to find their own Hero’s Journey. Give the students the fundamental values and principles which can be applied in any field--let them know that Ideals are Real, encourage them to patent, trademark, and copyright their creations, and as a teacher, always do your best to lead by example. It is not enough to teach them about risk and reward, but you’ve got to show how your own risks have become your greatest rewards, and your plans for calling the bluff and raising the bar again, and again, and again.

Entrepreneurial, creative students have unbounded drive and passion that only needs to be tapped and encouraged as opposed to ignored and isolated, castigated and impugned. We no-longer live in a memorization-based society, as knowledge is just a few seconds away, as long as one knows the right questions to ask of the right people and google. Education has some catching up to do--it needs to catch up to the classics.

Part of AE&T’s mission is to get creative students in the same room to inspire one-another, as there is no better way to realize one can accomplish one’s dreams than to witness one’s peers accomplishing theirs. Students leave each class inspired to follow their vision with renewed vigor, taking it in slightly different directions and collaborating with others, committed as never before.

The famous physicist John A. Wheeler told my incoming freshman physics class at Princeton that the day to begin research was now, as the freshmen brought the most important element to the table--curiosity. Indeed, Einstein, one of Wheeler’s teachers, once said that imagination is more important than knowledge. And Wheeler added that the freshmen should take the questions to the graduate students before the professors, as grad students are on the cutting edge. It was a great display of humility from a famous physicist, and one of those inspirational moments that you keep, which gives you the freedom to take risks and chances to follow far-off ideals beyond the status quo. Simply put, Wheeler--the physicist who helped Bohr split the first atom and named the black hole--told the freshmen that students are the center and circumference of both teaching and research. So it is with artistic entrepreneurship.

Teaching entrepreneurship is about inspiring people to have the courage to follow their dreams rooted in higher ideals--to follow them beyond the MBAs, MFAs, JDs, and DJ’s--beyond the contemporary cornucopia of certifications and conventions. Bureaucracy is about holding a finger to the wind, following the person right in front of you, and repeating what you heard, and a lot of education is modeled in this manner. But the higher ideals are like the fixed stars--independent of bureaucracy and free for all to discern--and by them entrepreneurs navigate new ventures. Entrepreneurship is not so much about following the person in front of you, as it is looking up to the skies to dream of a better way.

Entrepreneurs may seem to be risk takers, but they’re actually playing it safe by following ideals the bureaucracy consistently tries to trump. To an entrepreneur, the far greater risk is in bureaucracy. With but one life to live, and time the rarest of all commodities, entrepreneurs oft seem like outlaws, but only because they’re following higher laws. The entrepreneur knows that we all become gamblers the second we’re born into a world filled with chance, and to minimize risk, the entrepreneur looks to the fixed ideals--the ideals that become the patents, trademarks, and copyrights of tomorrow’s useful inventions, innovations, and creations. The innovator knows that true wealth lies in being loyal to the abstract imagination, which always marks them as different from the crowd.

Bureaucracy is the cloud wherein petty politics and Orwellian doublespeak obscure ideals, where freedom is traded for a false sense of security, where dreams and visions perish while pension funds mysteriously disappear. Bureaucrats have a massive handbook for separating the creator from their creation, for exposing the investor to the risk and themselves to the rewards as Warren Buffet and John Bogle have noted, for propagating the myths that it’s one type of person suited to creating and another type of person suited to owning, for separating Steven Jobs from Apple, for obscuring the Constitution which so simply and eloquently states that authors and inventors have the right to their own inventions and creations.

But the rising generation knows better. They want to take a chance on saying what they want and owning what they do--they know it’s a rare chance in the history of the world, and they want to rock out. ‘Cause they know deep down it’s how everything gets built. They know it’s why America is the world’s leading exporter of software and culture--of art and music. From Hollywood, to rock’n’roll, to the internet, to the iPod and iTunes--some lone artistic entrepreneur is braving it on their hero’s journey--alone for the moment, but in good company in eternity’s context.

It’s no coincidence that the world’s greatest "value" investor is also the world’s greatest investor--Warren Buffet. And it’s no coincidence that Mr. Buffett stated that his favorite time for holding a stock is eternity--the very same eternity Dante, Shakespeare, and Ayn Rand wrote for. For in both art and business, value derives from fundamental values--those fixed ideals which are sometimes difficult to discern, but which are well-worth navigating by. Even if you’re a freshman.

Artistic entrepreneurship is about putting the art and ideals back into the entrepreneurship--it’s about reminding students that great documents such as the Constitution and Benjamin Franklin’s auto-biography were written for them. They don’t need MBAs and JDs to own what they do--they just need to think a bit, read a couple classics, and follow their passions and dreams en route to creating entities worth owning.

Across the board, more and more money is being spent on marketing--in mutual funds, in Hollywood, in publishing, in academia. And thus mutual funds, Hollywood, publishing, and academia are in a state of decline.

And that’s where the artistic entrepreneurs come in.

Decline is not a ‘cause for pessimism. It’s a call to duty.

Vast opportunities exist for entrepreneurial students to head out to Hollywood, to Wall Street, to NY publishing houses. Or to launch value-based ventures in their dorm rooms, immediately achieving global distribution for their superior books, music, and movies, thanks to the digital renaissance in production and distribution. Somone’s going to build a rights-centric, creator-centric software application, social network with DRM, and web applications that allow authors and artists to upload their content, define their rights, and not only publish throughout the universe, but profit from their works.

Digital Rights Management will be solved in the same way the Founding Fathers solved property rights management--they gave everyone the right to bear arms. Neither lawyers nor corporations nor academics will solve DRM for artists--artist will solve DRM for artists--all they need is a software application that provides them with a turnkey path to all the cutting-edge DRM options. Central planning will work as well here as it did in the Soviet Union and East Germany. Give every artist a 45 Revolver, and let them define and designate their own digital rights management. It’s how the West was won.

Artistic Entrepreneurship ain’t easy, but it wasn’t easy for Steven Jobs when Apple got taken away from him. And it wasn’t easy for John Bogle when he got laid off from his Wall Street job in the seventies. But you know what happened? He was set free to launch Vanguard--a no-load mutual fund that was based on the youthful idealism of his senior thesis from the fifties--an idea that everyone on Wall Street had told him was silly for twenty years. But as is so often the case, our silly little dreams--our honest, youthful passions--are the seed of the world’s greatest ventures.

AE&T is about letting the students take the lead in performing classical ideals on the cutting edge. Letting them take ownership in the future of their culture, and letting them know that the greatest rewards have ever gone not to the risk takers, but to those who seem to be risk takers because they are following some higher code that is the mark of all innovators and leaders.

The following quote comes from the entrepreneur who launched Vanguard--the world’s largest mutual fund, but it can apply to any endeavor--movies, books, technology, literature, and art--any greater venture based on idealism and values:

My generation has left America with much to be set right; you have the opportunity of a lifetime to fix what has been broken. Hold high your idealism and your values. Remember always that even one person can make a difference. And do your part to begin the world anew.

–John C. Bogle, (founded the Vanguard Mutual Fund based on his senior thesis at Princeton), The Battle for The Soul of Capitalism

In contemplating art and businesses, the class naturally turns towards that which has endured--what element grants a work eternity? What element grants a brand superiority? What elements have made Warren Buffett the world’s greatest investor? In all these things, it has been Truth's Beauty that has lead the way. Companies are great not because they make money, but because they create wealth, and think of the vast wealth Shakespeare has created, with all the performances and countless curriculums--think of all the times his words have inspired Justice in the Courtrooms, and given someone the courage to propose. Shakespeare is Hollywood's all-time most successful screenwriter, an that’s not counting the hundreds of screenplays he's inspired, from Clueless to Strange Brew. As Harold Bloom credits him with having invented modern literature, perhaps all of Hollywood belongs to the bard. At any rate, it would not hurt the studio heads and MBAs to read Hamlet now and then, and it's great to witness the students gravitating towards the classics.

Teaching entrepreneurship is about inspiring people to have the courage to follow their dreams rooted in higher ideals--to follow them beyond the MBAs, MFAs, JDs, and DJ’s--beyond the contemporary corunucopia of certifications and conventions. Bureaucracy is about holding a finger to the wind, following the person right in front of you, and repeating what you heard, and a lot of education is modeled in this manner. But the higher ideals are like the fixed stars--independent of bureaucracy and free for all to discern--and by them entrepreneurs navigate new ventures. Entrepreneurship is not so much about following the person in front of you, as it is looking up to the skies to dream of a better way.

Entrepreneurs may seem to be risk takers, but they’re actually playing it safe by following ideals the bureaurcay consistently tries to trump. To an entrepreneur, the far greater risk is in bureaucracy. With but one life to live, and time the rarest of all commodities, entrepreneurs oft seem like outlaws, but only because they’re following higher laws. The entrepreneur knows that we all become gamblers the second we’re born into a world filled with chance, and to minimize risk, the entrepreneur looks to the fixed ideals--the ideals that become the patents, trademarks, and copyrights of tomorrow’s useful inventions, innovations, and creations. The innovator knows that true wealth lies in being loyal to the abstract imagination, which always marks them as different from the crowd.

And that’s where the artistic entrepreneurs come in.

Decline is not a ‘cause for pessimism. It’s a call to duty.

Digital Rights Management will be solved in the same way the Founding Fathers solved property rights management--they gave everyone the right to bear arms. Neither lawyers nor corporations nor academics will solve DRM for artists--artsist will solve DRM for artists--all they need is a software application that provides them with a turnkey path to all the cutting-edge DRM options. Central planning will work as well here as it did in the Soviet Union and East Germany. Give every artist a 45 Revolver, and let them define and designate their own digital rights management. It’s how the West was won.

–John C. Bogle, (founded the Vanguard Mutual Fund based on his senior thesis at Princeton), The Battle for The Soul of Capitalism

Rocky Raccoon's High Tech Hollywood Hip Hop Hedge Fund Hoedown

noreply@blogger.com (45 Surf Hero's Journey Entrepreneurship) — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 03:50:00 +0000

ROCKY RACCOONS

Now somewhere in the black mountain hills of Dakota
There lived a young boy named Rocky Raccoon

"Rocky Raccoon" is a song off the Beatles' White Album, and it combines it all--the classic Hollywood western with blues, spoken word, bluegrass, rock, country, storytelling, irony, revenge, and religion. It's also a new rockin' festival that's celebrating the artists' newfound digital freedom to rock their dreams, to make their passion their profession, and produce, protect, and profit from their content.

Both Athens and Jerusalem may be found in the lyrics, and the music is a tribute to the African American inventions of jazz and the blues combined with the Sotch-Irish mountain music that blossomed throughout Appalaichia long ago. Think about the instruments in an Irish jig, add some blues notes and a new-fangled banjo on a mountain porch, and you've got bluegrass. As Snoop said, "Without the blues notes, you'll never go platinum."

And the Beatles went platinum alright. They're the best selling artists of all time. According to the RIAA, the Beatles have sold more than 106 million albums in the U.S. alone--more than any other artist ever.

And yet neither Rocky Raccoon, nor any of their albums, can be purcahsed on iTunes nor any other online music service, as Sir Paul McCartney does not feel comfortable selling his music on the net. It seems Rocky Raccoon needs a beter gun--the 45 Revolver. It's the rising generation's duty to figure out the tehnology for this--well, actually the technology is there, so it's up to you to figure out the art and business of tomorrow's distribution of digital media.

Rumor has it that, "This is a catchy Western story written by Paul. Apparently the character of the doctor is based on an experience of Paul's. He fell off his moped and the doctor that treated him was stinking of gin and made a bad job of his stitches that he needed on his lip."

The song contains both a hodedown and a showdown. It's four lads from Britain singing with a southwestern drawl. The song's "western saloon piano," performed by Lennon, salutes bluegrass which naturally salutes the marriage of the blues & mountain music--both of which were born in the South, and which are at the roots of all rock'n'roll, country, and hip hop. The beginning of the song is spoken more than sung, saluting poetry, hip hop, and rap.

The first showdown in all of known literature occured in Homer's Odyssey, which was composed around 800 BC.

When Odysseus returns home from serving his country overseas, his kingdom has been overtaken by partying poseurs who have plundered his homestead and are hitting on his wife Penelope, yet she remains faithful. Kinda reminds you of Hollywood & the music industry these days. Odysseus sneaks in as a beggar and is treated rudely and with great contempt, for they do not know who this original "man with no name" really is.

The Odyssey is at the center and circumference of every modern Western.

Anyone who has seen Clint Eastwood's Westerns will be well familiar with the "man with no name" theme. From a Fistfull of Dollars, to The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, to Hang 'em High, to Pale Rider, Eastwood performs the Odyssey. The man with no name rides into town, just to get a drink or two and be on his way, but is rudely treated by some of the villagers--by the proverbial dregs of humanity. They don't know that he's an outlaw gunslinger--they don't know that he's the ghost of the man they let be beat down in the streets, as they stood by and watched on, doing nothing to protect a fellow citizen from the occaisonal inhumanity of humanity. They don't like something about him--something's different--something noble, and it must be destroyed; as so often truth's beauty is a threat. But they can't beat him fairly--none of them can draw the sword from the stone--none of them can string the bow.

When it comes to stringing the bow, only Odysseus can do it. For he owns classical ideals within his heart.

And Ideals are Real.

Over the Supreme Court up in DC it is written Equal Justice For All. And whil America has now and then fallen short of her ideals, she yet acknowldgeds that those ideals are the property of every citizen. Our fundamental rights derive from Ideals, and along with the freedom to live by ideals comes the duty to defend them. Those who believe in Ideals--in value and values, are long term investors such as Warren Buffett and Herman Melville and J.R.R. Tolkien. Those who deny ideals are generally short-term investors, flacing the bottom line over the higher ideals, and favoring hype over substance, such as Enron and Eggers.

There is nothing Odyseuss would like better than a peaceful evening at home with his wife and son. But it is not to be.

And even though Odysseus strings the bow, Antinous yet calls him out and threatens to kill him. So Odyssues fires an arrow through Antinous's throat and then kills all of Antinous's deputies to reclaim his wife, his son, and his kingdom. They didn't have guns back in 800 BC, but they still had showdowns where a righteous man had to stand up and defend what was his.

http://www.uoregon.edu/~joelja/odyssey.html#b22

Every day we have showdowns of sorts--it's a powerful motif--we gotta stand up for some things and face down others. Especially as an Artistic Entrepreneur on the Hero's Journey trying to Rock Your Dreams--every day you've got some sort of a showdown or other. Here's a showdown some have you have seen, and some of you were in: http://artsentrepreneurship.com/r2r2000.mov In the video Vaughan's showdown is with herself--with those darker demons of depression that creep in and tell you that you're not good enough, that it can't be done, that you're incapable of rendering your dreams. But how silly is that? How can we not be good enough to render our dreams? We're good enough to dream them--aren't we? So Vaughan faces down the dark cowboy in her conscience, and wins not with a gun, but with flowers--with understanding and forgiveness.

And the classic showdown--in the court room in To Kill a Mockingbird, on the frontie in Tombstone, in Middle Earth, and long, long ago, in a galaxy far, far away--is a Hollywood staple. Neo vs.Agent Smith--the vast, all-encompassing bureaucracy. Luke vs.Darth Vader--the personification of a once good man overtaken by evil. Austin Powers vs. Dr. Evil--a varation on the theme. Frodo and himself--for as he nears Modor, more and more does he yearn to put the Ring on and receive absolute power. And just before he throws it into the flames below, he puts it on and battles Folum for it. And had not Golum bit Frodo's finger off and plummeted with the ring, Frodo probably would have never thrown it into the firey pit himself, and all would have been lost as Sauron tirumphed.

And we like those showdowns where Ideals win, as the Hollywood box office demonstrates, as Ideals are Real. So when you rock those dreams, marry them to Ideals. Find those Ideals deep within yourself. What do you most believe in? What will keep you going when you show up in Hollywood as "the man with no name," and everyone dismisses you as a no-namer? People will tell you that your dreams aren't real, but if you mary them to ideals--if you anchor them to the bedrock of the classics at night, while also rigging your soul's sails to the Truth's eternal wind, your dreams will triumph.

They will tell you you dreams aren't real, but you're the one looking at your cards, and you know that Truth is the ace of Spades--it trumps all. So you'll call their bluff and produce that film, or write that novel, or rock and rap that rhyme.

But poor Rocky Raccon gets shot by Dan. For vengeance isn't the best way to go about life--even when someone steals your girl whose "name was McGill, who called herself lil, but everyone knew her as Nancy." When someone tells them that your dreams aren't real, forgive them. For so often it is that when people don't believe in their own dreams, nor themselves, they'll confuse themselves with you. Forgive them if they try to steal your girl. If she's true like Odysseus's Penelope, they won't be able to steal her.

The Beatle's Rocky Raccoon also has a humorous irony to it--kinda a light-hearted version of a Showdown. We know they're Brits and that the drawls are fake. But all the same, when Rocky is shot, we find ourselves rooting for him.

And in the end, does Rocky live?

Now Rocky Raccoon he fell back in his room
Only to find Gideon's bible
Gideon checked out and he left it no doubt
To help with good Rocky's revival.

You'll hear Paul McCartney & John Lennon rooting for poor Rocky throughout the chorus: "C'mon Rocky Boy."

He's kinda the underdog.

And again, as in all greater art, the song tells a story. It has that Aristotilean beginning, middle, and end.

And furthermore, the song intertwines the classical heritage from Athens and Greece with the Judeo Christian heritage from Jerusalem, as the notion of revenge and justice and honor come largely from classical literature such as the Iliad and the Odyssey, and the notion of redemption, revival, and forgiveness come largely from the Judeo Christian heritage--the Bible. In the end--is it Rocky's soul or health that needs revival? Or both?

And the Beatles--especially John Lennon--were also very much into Eastern philosophies and religions.

Rocky Raccoon Lyrics:

Now somewhere in the black mountain hills of Dakota
There lived a young boy named Rocky Raccoon
And one day his woman ran off with another guy
Hit young Rocky in the eye Rocky didn't like that
He said I'm gonna get that boy
So one day he walked into town
Booked himself a room in the local saloon.

Rocky Raccoon checked into his room
Only to find Gideon's bible
Rocky had come equipped with a gun
To shoot off the legs of his rival
His rival it seems had broken his dreams
By stealing the girl of his fancy.
Her name was Magil and she called herself Lil
But everyone knew her as Nancy.
Now she and her man who called himself Dan
Were in the next room at the hoe down
Rocky burst in and grinning a grin
He said Danny boy this is a showdown
But Daniel was hot-he drew fast and shot
And Rocky collapsed in the corner.

Now the doctor came in stinking of gin
And proceeded to lie on the table
He said Rocky you met your match
And Rocky said, Doc it's only a scratch
And I'll be better I'll be better doc as soon as I am able.

Now Rocky Raccoon he fell back in his room
Only to find Gideon's bible
Gideon checked out and he left it no doubt
To help with good Rocky's revival.

And last, but not least, of contemporary significance is the fact that you won't find Rocky Raccoon for sale on iTunes nor any other online music service.

This is because the Beatles don't feel comfortable about selling music online.

This is because the available technology has not yet lived up to the Ideals of what it could be. http://22surf.org/zurich.html

So that means that the purpose of the Rocky Raccoon events are as follows:

"To build a trusted system for digital distribution that even the Beatles would use, and let everyone use it."

Artistic Entrepreneurship & Technology & Entrepreneurship @ Carolina

noreply@blogger.com (45 Surf Hero's Journey Entrepreneurship) — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 03:49:00 +0000

Students find dream jobs

In class, passions fuel business plans

By: Erin Wiltgen, Staff Writer, Daily Tar Heel

For many, childhood and adolescence pass in a blur of hobbies and passionate adventures, activities seeped in a deep-seated excitement and love inherent in a particular pastime.

In UNC professor Elliot McGucken's "Artistic Entrepreneurship and Technology" class, students and teachers work to "make your passion your profession," transforming students' dreams and interests into potential paths for the future.

The unique course allows students interested in fields such as photography, video games, painting, classical music and film production to explore commercial and social ventures in the arts.

They search for and create a plan based in entrepreneurship, which supports and nurtures their individual visions.

"A lot of times school tells you that your dreams aren't important," says McGucken, a physics professor. "But in reality dreams are the best thing you can have."

The class consists of an independent project that includes three presentations, guest lectures and small-group collaboration.

Sophomore Phil Gennett's project is a clothing line, and he is trying to find a manufacturer for his creations.

He also intends to set up a talent agency.

"I want to blow it up into a new sort of entertainment, like American Idol, but also as a social network for opportunities," Gennett says.

Sophomore Ryan Dean is working on multiple projects. He runs a graphic design company called Cellar Door Design. He also has joined with a photographer in the class to create CD booklet artwork for the second album by his band, The Anchor Comes Home.

"What's most helpful is meeting like-minded people," Dean says.

"The best thing about this class is establishing relationships with the other students and collaborating with each other."

Stefan Estrada, graduate student and teaching assistant for the class, shares a similar view.

"The people in this class have ambition and a vision of things they want to accomplish," Estrada says.

"This isn't a class where you get something done and forget about it. It continues to maybe become your career."

Continuing entrepreneurship in the real world is the goal of the new and expanding entrepreneurship program at UNC, says Buck Goldstein, the entrepreneur in residence at the Carolina Entrepreneurship Initiative.

"(The class) is a tiny piece of a much bigger picture," he says.

Goldstein is a key player in the development of the entrepreneurship minor.

"It's making entrepreneurship part of the fabric of the University, and is a groundbreaking first effort in understanding the needs of the artistic community."

Goldstein points out that the word "entrepreneurship" comes from a French word meaning "to take action." He says entrepreneurship is about transforming the ideas into reality and a way of thinking about opportunity - be it in the social, artistic or scientific realm.

"The popular view is that (entrepreneurship) is about business," Goldstein says.

"But our view is that it's about opportunity and how to transform that opportunity into reality."

The new entrepreneurship minor comprises four courses, with specialized classes in each perspective.

In addition to McGucken's class, social entrepreneur Jim Johnson is working toward the social aspect of the entrepreneurship program.

Meanwhile, Holden Thorp, chairman of the chemistry department, is planning a scientific entrepreneurship track.

Although the project has yet to be approved by the administrative board, Thorp says he has high expectations for the class. He plans to cover material such as intellectual property, law and venture finance.

"A lot of our students end up working in small companies," Thorp says. "The better we can prepare them for that environment and for the challenges, the better off they'll be."

Goldstein says classes that focus on the different aspects of entrepreneurship are "another initiative for entrepreneurship and opportunity."

"We give students some tools that will enable them to compete in an increasingly entrepreneurial world."

McGucken also says that entrepreneurship classes give students a broader knowledge base.

"It's an irony that the University requires you to specialize when people typically end up switching jobs five or six times and need to know about a lot of different things," McGucken says.

At 5 p.m. Tuesday, the class will host a show at Local 506 on Franklin Street.

The show, called "Rocky Raccoon's High Tech Hollywood Hip Hop Hedge Fund Hoedown and Fashion/Art/Photography/Video Games Showdown" will feature musical and spoken-word performances, fashion shows, film and video screenings and displays of visual art and photography.

The show is designed as a networking event and as a benefit for the Music Maker Relief Foundation and three web sites - OSCommerce.com, Joomla.org and Gallery.menalto.com.

The Music Maker foundation works to help pioneers of Southern musical traditions gain recognition and meet their financial needs.

One goal of the show, and the class itself, is "to build new cultural centers," McGucken says.

"The University has been separated artificially," he says.

"This class has naturally collapsed all the barriers between business and art and law, putting all the power in the hands of the creator."

Artistic Entrepreneurship & Technology

Artistic Entrepreneurship at Entrepreneur Magazine Blog

noreply@blogger.com (45 Surf Hero's Journey Entrepreneurship) — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 03:48:00 +0000

http://www.entrepreneur.com/blog/0,6834,,00.html#1
Entrepreneur Magazine's Blog
Mixing Art With Entrepreneurship
Teresea Ciulla of Entrepreneur Magazine writes, "Can you actually make your passion your profession? According to Dr. Elliot McGucken, a professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, who's teaching the university's first "Artistic Entrepreneurship & Technology 101" class, the answer just may be yes. McGucken's class, which is comprised of a group of 45 students majoring in law, business, art, computer science, journalism and music, focuses on teaching students about creating value over just making money, about letting their higher ideals guide the bottom line. After all, as McGucken says, "Successful companies aren't successful because they make money--they're successful because they create value." Class projects range from a classical music video to a hip hop curriculum and textbook to an online art gallery to a freshman's record label that's signed more than ten bands to a social network being programmed by three computer science majors. Students are seeing that to the degree they succeed in creating useful art and ventures, they'll be able to support their passions with a profitable business. And isn't that what we're all really striving for? To find an excitement in our work in order to beat back the dullness of the typical 9-to-5 routine? Looks like McGucken's found a way to inspire a new generation of artistically minded entrepreneurs to follow their passions--and make a living.

Check out: Mixing Art With Entrepreneurship
http://www.entrepreneur.com/blog/0,6834,,00.html#1

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Students find dream jobs

In class, passions fuel business plans

By: Erin Wiltgen, Staff Writer, Daily Tar Heel

Artistic Entrepreneurship at Entrepreneur Magazine Blog