Motivation

Yesterday in my management class, you know, the one that's my major, we watched a video from the 70s or 80s. Usually, I fall asleep, skip, and am utterly unprepared for class. I just can't care, and I'm smart, and being smart and apathetic is a very dangerous combination.

However, this video reminded my why I'm in school for entrepreneurship/business. It was Russell Ackoff talking about Bell Laboratories. Back in the '50s he was visiting a friend who was a section leader for Bell. The friend tried to call him to tell him not to come down for the day, but Ackoff ended up going to the office and following his friend to a huge meeting that revolutionized the way Bell Laboratories did business, and ALSO revolutionized the telephone.

The VP of the company decided to do an idealized re-design. Basically, he told everyone that the telephone system of the United States had been destroyed, and in the next year they would redesign it with only two restraints: it must be technically feasible and operationally viable.

And this guy, who didn't even work at Bell Labs helped develop the telephone as we know it in 1951. They developed push buttons, caller ID, hold functions, speaker phone, cell phones, everything. Everything we've seen in a phone and things we have yet to see in a phone, all developed in 1951.

This is something I can get excited about. Not telephones exactly, but helping do something that is so vital to everyone's life. Think about the creative aspects involved. The possibilities, the fun that business could be.

And the bragging rights.

I need some motivation to get through the next two terms. And I just found it.