Letters to My Teenagers - The classes I wish I had taken

This post is part of my "Letters To My Teenagers" series which is introduced in this post.


I'm constantly amazed at how experiences in early education have shaped the rest of my life.  In 8th grade I was accused of cheating by my teacher in my keyboarding class.  The typing program reported 75 words per minute, and she was sure I had figured out a way to cut and paste.  This was the first class I remember that never felt like school, I actually looked forward to it and enjoyed it.  Another class was "Introduction to Digital and Analog Circuits" in High School.  Plugging wires into circuits gave me a charge.

These great educational experiences made it easy to choose a major in college.  I just looked back at the classes that didn't feel like school, and the choice was obvious.  Having this early focus meant I never wasted any credits.  I got a Bachelors and Masters Degree in 5 years of school.

Looking back, I wish maybe I hadn't been quite as focused, and "wasted' a few credits here and there.  I'm wishing I had branched out a little more and experienced a wider variety of classes.  As CEO of a startup I'm constantly having to learn and practice other disciplines that I don't have any formal training in:  

• Writing - This is what I do all day.  Every email, sales pitch, and proposal is really a writing exercise.  And unfortunately I exploited a loophole to get out of High School English and tested out of all College English.  This is a big reason why I write this blog.
• Public Speaking - This is the second most important thing I do every day.  I've pitched our company to hundreds of investors, partners, and clients.  In High School I took one year of Debate (which I'm embarrassed to even write - why is that?) - I actually enjoyed it and I really think it helped my public speaking.  Unfortunately I learned debate was "not cool" so I quit.  Don't be afraid to do something that's "not cool" - you'll show them what cool is when they are working for you someday.
• Finance & Accounting - Every entrepreneur needs to know about cost accounting and how to read a balance sheet.    
• Psychology & Organizational Behavior - At the end of the day, business is just understanding people - both your customers and your employees.  The more you can learn about how people think, how to listen, and how to influence, the better off you will be.  When I was 19 I found a copy of "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People".  After reading it and applying its principles it was like a curtain had been lifted from my brain.     
• Design & Art - As the CEO of a Web startup, I am constantly dealing with how things look and feel.  Our whole product lives and dies by the look and feel.  This is definitely my biggest weakness.  To satisfy my creative arts requirement, Freshman year my friend and I enrolled in "Introduction to Interior Decorating".  There were 300 people in the class... and only four of them were guys ... and the other two guys weren't there for the girls.  What a great class!          

These classes can be summarized by the term "Soft Skills".  While a depth of knowledge in a certain subject is certainly the most important aspect of education, don't neglect the "soft skills", because you'll probably find yourself using them a lot more than you think!