Many professionals end up in a career
that might not represent their passion or the bigger purpose they
might want out of life.
So what do you do then?
To explore how to discover your purpose and find the ambition to go
from idea to reality, I’ve invited Sam Seidel and Olatunde
Sobomehin to share their thoughts with us.
Sam Seidel is the Director of Strategy and Research
at the
Stanford
d.school and author of
Hip Hop Genius: Remixing High School
Education, which introduces an iteration of hip-hop
education that goes far beyond studying music as classroom
content.
Olatunde Sobomehin is the CEO and Co-Founder
of
StreetCode Academy, a nonprofit
that helps bridge the digital divide, empowering communities of
color to achieve their full potential by teaching the mindset,
skills, and strategies they need to embrace tech and
innovation.
Earlier this year, Sam and Olatunde co-authored
Creative Hustle: Blaze Your Own
Path and Make Work That Matters.
We begin our conversation discussing their book, which began as a
course taught by Sam and Olatunde at the d.school. In the course,
they taught about ways to identify and navigate your creative path,
and how to make a living doing things that matter. It wasn’t until
co-workers approached them and presented the idea of turning the
course into a book that they realized the direction had greater
potential.
Sam and Olatunde explain how the words "Creative Hustle" are
perfect for their endeavor; a combination of imagination and
ambition. They want to share insights about finding new creative
paths that inspire, building diverse viewpoints, and creating
ventures that benefit yourself and your community, while bringing
enough entrepreneurial energy to move those ideas
forward.
In addition, we discuss the journey of co-authoring the book, which
is often a tumultuous road. Sam shares how the experience of having
a co-author is preferred to writing solo and how the experience
bought him so much closer to Olatunde.
Three Key Takeaways:
* When authoring a book, you should also be
considering the business models that can be used once it is
published to avoid chasing the hype.
* Working with a co-author allows you to push each other to
be better and make sure your ideas are concrete.
* During the process of writing a book, take some time to
enjoy the process.