Youth Take Action

What’s a Dream Worth? In the past week, Caine’s...

Thu, 13 Dec 2012 13:42:33 -0500

What’s a Dream Worth?

In the past week, Caine’s Arcade has become an online sensation and reminds us of the power of the web and importance of making things.

2.5M views on Vimeo
2.1M views on YouTube
$163364.82 raised for Caine’s Scholarship Fund
A matching donation from the Goldhirsh Foundation to encourage more awesome kids!

Caine’s Arcade is what happens when your youth and dreams take over and inspires you to start making. Working with what you have and believing in it with all that you have. This is a classic reminder that it doesn’t matter what you have, but what you do with it.

It’s about dreaming and doing. Not fortune and fame.

It’s human, it’s simple, it’s beautiful.

It’s everything that we need our children to be doing.

Burn this into your brain. Find your Caine.

Designers in Demand

Thu, 13 Dec 2012 13:39:39 -0500

We discussed the importance of design and a number of designers so far on Youth Take Action. The...

The Minerva Project Takes Aim At Elite Colleges

Thu, 13 Dec 2012 13:36:46 -0500

Making the claim to become the first elite University founded in 100 years is grandiose, but is...

I don’t know when exactly I first came across the work of...

Thu, 13 Dec 2012 13:34:25 -0500

I don’t know when exactly I first came across the work of Aaron Draplin, but he has become one of my favorite people to follow and I have come to love his work and outlook on life. He is raw, honest, and speaks from the heart (and references crying a lot in his talks). Draplin started his career in the snowboarding industry, and moved on to work for a wide range of clients (including the U.S. Government) and created the best memo book available, Field Notes.

Recently, he did a Creative Mornings talk (a great series of talks taking place around the world started by the brilliant Tina Roth Eisenberg aka SwissMiss) entitled the “The DDC 50 Point Plan To Ruin Yer Career”. It’s recorded as a 50-minute video, and was one of the best lectures I’ve ever watched. If you don’t have the time to watch it, I jotted down his 50 point plan and transcribed it below (Warning: Lots of foul language below, deal with it). Many won’t make sense without watching the video, but there are certainly some great points in the list below.

The DDC 50 Point Plan To Ruin Yer Career

1. Enjoy the goddamned moment

2. Love where you are from

3. Move somewhere wild

4. Frequent eateries that use decimal points in their menus

5. Know Your Fucking Condiments

6. Get out there and get dirty

7. And then, share what you find

8. Work with yer friends

9. Know yer tools and be thankful they exist

10. Go wherever they’ll send you

11. Shed any goddamned sense of entitlement

12. Provide proof of bonafide graphic art existence using multimedia

13. Fight for the long dogs

14. Lose the crutch

15. Exhibit a little humility

16. Quit spending yer money on bullshit

17. Be wary of certain business professionals

18. Pay of those fucking school loans already

19. Laugh at stuff

20. Turn yer back on organized sports

21. Dreamp up a plan

22. Get cosmic

23. Take color theory seriously

24. Make room for some magic

25. Say what you mean

26. Get it on vinyl

27. Be ready for when they call you up to the big leagues

28. Learn an instrument

29. Be the client

30. Go by car

31. Know what really matters in the end

32. Buy things made in America

33. Question stuff constantly

34. Know who’s got the power

35. Collect cool shit

36. Grab yer social media by the throat

37. Savor the little stuff

38. Support yer local rock bands

39. Know all the shades of being “professional”

40. Don’t worry about awards

41. Quit saying the word, “dude”

42. Make big ass posters

43. Go pantless

44. Get free

45. Treat the UPS guy, mail lady and printing pressman like they are gold

46. Know what you love

47. And don’t forget about the things you hate

48. Learn to roll with the good, bad and the ugly.

49. Work hard and love this shit

50. Be thankful for everything

If you enjoyed this list and video, check out these other great videos “Why America is f*cked [graphically at least]”, Interview for YoBeat.com Part 1, Part 2, Insights 2012 Lecture.

Follow Draplin’s individually numbered Tweets and check out the rest of his work.

Life of the Stotans

Thu, 13 Dec 2012 13:28:54 -0500

Since 2004, the Fayetteville-Manlius cross country teams have been a dominate fixture on the...

Mobile is Massive: The Potential in Your Pocket

Thu, 13 Dec 2012 13:27:05 -0500

Last year marked a significant point for smartphones, for the first time ever global smartphone...

Athletes Tackling Environmental Issues

Thu, 13 Dec 2012 13:25:00 -0500

People involved in environmental conservation and the sustainability fields all come with various...

Beauty of the Process

Thu, 13 Dec 2012 13:21:00 -0500

The process of building something has changed dramatically over the past century. Transforming from...

Is A Traditional Resume Enough?

Thu, 13 Dec 2012 13:19:48 -0500

In order to stand out in a crowd of job applicants, being creative with your resume can be a great...

Are School's Stealing Our Dreams?

Thu, 13 Dec 2012 13:16:38 -0500

In Seth Godin’s latest manifesto, “Stop Stealing Dreams,”he argues that top-down...

YouthTrade Summit: Emerging Social Entrepreneurs

Thu, 13 Dec 2012 13:14:26 -0500

Following in the steps of the Fair Trade model, YouthTrade is a new product designation launched by...

Stop Waiting and Start Creating

Thu, 13 Dec 2012 13:12:14 -0500

What is stopping you from creating what you want? Who is telling you to wait? When I first heard...

2012: The Year of Lifestyle Tracking

Thu, 13 Dec 2012 13:09:37 -0500

There is a growing desire to track everything that you do in order to make your life more efficient....

Reaction to Kony 2012

Thu, 13 Dec 2012 13:03:50 -0500

You have either heard about, or seen, the “Kony 2012” video by Invisible Children that...

When working on a project, it is easy to just focus on the end...

Thu, 13 Dec 2012 13:00:39 -0500

When working on a project, it is easy to just focus on the end goal. It may be a business, a paper, a painting, a meal. The end result is often what you’re truly passionate about, but what about the journey to get there? Leadership is often thought of as making plans and leading a team to execute. However, when working to find a solution to a problem, often you may not know what the end result will be. Leadership must insert itself in the process of discovery, and the exploration of how to craft a solution to a problem. It is not always a declarative: lets make this. Instead it may be a question: Can we make this? or Can we make it better?

Yves Béhar is the mind behind the design of many of the innovative products available today. These include: Jawbone Jambox, Puma’s Shoe Bag, GE’s Electric Car Charging Station, and the XO Laptopfor One Laptop Per Child. Béhar believes in the power of design to produce innovative and sustainable products. This is similar to the role of Steve Jobs at Apple, who was immeresed in the design process from beginning to end. Creating both practical and beautiful products.

Leadership in the 21st century will need to focus on asking the right questions, and being in love with the process to find a solution. It means being authentic and emotional. Being able to see the big picture, and loving the journey to get there. You may have moments of uncertainty, but that must be embraced.

You cannot predict what will be successful in the future, but you are able to have a vision of what it may be.

About Yves Béhar

Yves Béhar is the founder of fuseproject, a San Francisco-based design agency committed to design and action, making a difference with game-changing for-profit and non-profit partners. Béhar brings a humanistic approach to his work with the goal of creating projects that are deeply in-tune with the needs of a sustainable future, connected with human emotions and which enable self-expression.

Business Books for the Connected Era

Thu, 13 Dec 2012 12:56:00 -0500

The need for entrepreneurship and innovative businesses to bolster our economy has never been...

5 Ways to Limit Your Plastic Waste

Thu, 13 Dec 2012 12:53:30 -0500

Many young people and parents are changing their habits because they want to lower their impact, not...

Profile: Area 6

Thu, 13 Dec 2012 12:49:10 -0500

In the constantly evolving music industry, we have seen the rise of independent musicians make use...

6 Reasons to Use Twitter

Thu, 13 Dec 2012 12:38:00 -0500

Twitter is still a conundrum to many people, young and old. Early on, it was known as a place where...

Collaboration Tools for Group Projects

Thu, 13 Dec 2012 12:29:08 -0500

Whether you are a student or in the working world, at some point you will need to work on a group...