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!

Is there money in spotting forest fires?

Today I was playing toys with Josh and Halle.  Josh and I had helicopters that went to work everyday fighting forest fires.  Halle, had a doll who would cook us dinner (her idea, not mine).  Eventually she had to join in the fun because she said "My doll is going to work too".

"Where is she going to work?" I asked.

"She's going to work at BlogFrog - so she can spot all the forest fires!"

So in case this whole social networking thing doesn't work out, we can alway spot forest fires...  ;)

Do something that scares you...

this picture is not me - we were to cheap to pay for the photo package (picture by lightningman)

My business partner Holly says that every once in awhile you need to do something that scares you - just to keep the creative juices flowing.  When I recently turned thirty, my wife gave me a present, SKYDIVING.  When she gave it to me, I was a little skeptical that it would really happen.  Never underestimate someone who has three kids, nothing scares them!

I posted two videos of us preparing on my posterous.  Half the fun was actually the plane ride.  The plane was an old beat up cessna, with half the plane completely open so you could easily jump out.  It was a beautiful boulder day as the plane made circles up to 15,000 feet.  By the time you get to the top you are looking down on Longs Peak, the dominant 14,000 ft peak in the area.

 again, not us, but the plane looked exactly like this only older and more dilapidated!

Tara went first, and by far the craziest part was watching her fall out of the plane first.  The way it works in a tandem dive is you are strapped to your instructor, and they "hang you out the door", then you both flip out.

not me, but maybe it could pass for me and that is Boulder below (photo by robstemn)

The free-fall was much smoother and louder than I anticipated.  There is none of that roller coaster feeling because the acceleration is actually pretty constant.  The view was AMAZING!!!!!

After they pull the chute, they separate you about a foot from the instructor which was probably the scariest part.  I was surprised at how fast we could maneuver in the chute and how fast we could descend if we wanted to.  Our landing was a perfect, we landed on our feet while Tara and her instructor landed on their rear (which I guess is how you are supposed to do it).  

What an amazing experience and great way to start my 30's.  I highly recommend everyone add it to their bucket list!  

How to use a smartphone to keep in touch while traveling

In college I had always dreamed of the handheld computer – where I could travel and share video and photo's instantly with just a tiny handheld device.  This weekend, I experienced the future.  I was able to completely broadcast, connect, and share my trip to New York instantly – with just my Smart Phone.

I was one of the very first owners of a Palm Pilot.  Back in the late 90’s the Palm Pilot cost $400.  For this cost you might think it could cure cancer, but basically all it could do was keep track of your calendar and contacts.  It had a one color screen, and that color was green. 

In college, I upgraded to a Dell Axim handheld computer, which was called a Windows Pocket PC.  This one had a low resolution color screen and in addition to calendar and contacts it promised web surfing and media consuming.  Oh the dissapointment.  Rarely did the wireless work correctly, the browser was horrible, and it took a jackhammer to load any sort of video or movies to the device.  Sigh...

Now fast forward to this weekend where I went to New York City for BlogFrog and the BlogHer conference.  My wife could not come with me, so I was determined to make her part of the trip, I enlisted my shiny new iPhone 4 to make it happen and this is what I did:   

•          I started by taking photos then sending them instantly to her via email (or you could use your Smart Phones voice recorder to record and sounds )
•          For even more instant fun, I upped the game to Multi-media text messages
•          But my favorite, by far, was to take short video clips, then send them via Email to post@posterous.com   Posterous is a site that lets you blog anything by attaching it to an email, thus every email I sent them they organized into a nice little blog at rustin.posterous.com .  My wife and kids could check this for frequent little video updates.  And it took just 20 seconds after taking the video to send the email to Posterous!
•          The ultimate was the FaceTime video chat – if it would have worked right.  We connected and I instantly saw my wife and the kids in the background – it really was magical.  But we got about 30 seconds in before the video was cutting out and never came back.  It was a good start!

We’ve come a long way since the Palm Pilot.  How do you use technology to stay in touch with loved ones while you are away?