Observations while on vacation in Michigan
This week I have been spending some family time in Traverse City, Michigan. This is the second time we have been here in the last eight months and this time I have been paying a lot more attention to the local media, tv, news, etc.
You need a drug, surgery, or better—a place to put your retired parents
What I can’t believe is the amount of talk and advertisements about health treatment, post-treatment stuff, and drugs. Every second commercial is trying to sell you a treatment… it’s nuts. I could be just looking for it but honestly US folks, I don’t get how you can be against the government doing something about the big business that is doing everything it can that you are all requiring treatment all the time.
Driving across the border: “Do you have a pocket knife?”
Honestly, how theatrical is all of US border security now (its not just for planes)? They are asking about things like pocket knives when someone could buy a 50 caliber sniper rifle at a gun shop down the road. Knives? Well there are plenty of those for $10 as well. I am not sure if the questions bug me or the aggression and fear that comes across when crossing the border. It makes no sense to me that these folks at the border are a ‘first line’ of defense—there is no way you catch the real criminals by puffing up at the border, the ones smuggling large amounts of stuff aren’t just driving across… are they?
I took the above photo at a Gander Mountain outfitters. It was in the middle of a sea of guns… even pink hand guns. I am not a big supporter of gun control (I think you do need to require training, register, and don’t sell guns to criminals) but why in the world would anyone need a 50 caliber sniper rifle? Just in case the deer goes behind a tree and you want to fast track the venison sausage making process?
Prices in Canada are close to prices in Michigan
This is probably my biggest surprise and something I didn’t notice last time i was here. Baby formula is $19 a tub, the same formula is $20 in Waterloo. Diapers are no contest, half the price here but a decent steak is $13-14 a pound—pretty close to the Bauer butcher in Waterloo. Besides cars, trucks, entertainment, gas, and clothes the prices of a lot of goods are similar.
It has been a good trip but I will rethink when we will come back. It is still easier to get here than Northern Ontario (thank you 400) and I can still fish, snowboard, etc. The infrastructure is better geared towards tourists, hotels are nicer and far less expensive, with condos that have kitchens that save loads of $$ on meals for kids.
Next week it is back to work time, but now I will enjoy the rest of the week 
Can higher education produce better/faster startups?
Given where I work it I do spend a lot of time thinking about how I can do more to help build a culture at the University of Waterloo where trying your hand at a startup is easier, has a higher likelihood of success, and it won’t cost you your education. There are a lot of things the University does to make that goal harder to achieve:
- We have a strong co-operative education system that trains students to strive for a good job in a larger company
- With co-op you have to sort out your next term 3 months ahead of time in the midst of exams, assignments, etc.
- Engineering is very inflexible with programming, you want to take an extra term and work on a startup? You can’t, you take a year off and fall off track with your friends.
These are a few big things that make it hard for entrepreneurs also make it great for the most number of students. U of Waterloo has a lot of other things to make things easier for entrepreneurs (ecoop, Impact, etc) as well with VeloCity being the latest and (in my opinion) greatest idea to build a culture that can offer many things but most importantly support for students from their peers. I think it important that higher education does everything it can to foster entrepreneurship with students just as it does later in an academic career for faculty, why? Some interesting posts came to my twitter stream this week:
Every time an engineer joins Google, a startup dies
Students want the job, the money, the partner, and the security now. I have experienced it as a student and have those conversations with students now. This quote comes from a US perspective but if this is a true statement of the US it is likely very true in Canada as well:
“As much as we like to think of our culture as being entrepreneurial, the reality is 99% of our top talent doesn’t seriously contemplate starting companies. Colleges crank out tons of extremely smart and well-educated kids every year. The vast majority go into “administrative” careers that don’t really produce anything – law, banking and consulting. Most of the rest join big companies.” – Chris Dixon
More needs to be done to support undergrad and graduate students. The problem is that it may compete or complicate the support that already exists for the Profs that grind the undergrads and grads. I think we need to find a way to make supporting undergrads a win win for the phds.
For jobs, look to university spin-offs
So does the traditional support of commercializing research work? According to an article in CNN this week it does:
“Here’s where higher education already has made a real difference. University-launched startups are particularly good powerhouses for value creation; Brent Goldfarb and Magnus Henreksen found in 2003 that at least 8 percent of university spin-offs in the United States become public companies, more than 100 times the average of new companies.” – from CNN
Again this is the US but I would bet a similar ratio exists or could exist in Canada. If you could get a similar ratio from companies started by students with the skills that aren’t research focused? Maybe not public companies but profitable employers that train the future CEOs of public companies.
Accelerating the process of innovation. Changing the future of learning: Startl
Is innovation required outside of the walls of academia because there is a better way?
“Accelerator is a three month residency and immersion into design methods and business practices for early stage learning enterprises.” – Startl
As best I can tell that isn’t happening in an higher education environment. Why not? I am part of something similar here with our Bootcamp program where we are trying out mixing higher education experience with the local early stage entrepreneurs. So far I think VeloCity has seen a little success with at least three companies at a stage where they are launching products and hiring co-op students working out of offices in Waterloo and Toronto. With two of them they have faced the strain of balancing their academic carrier with their startup. Until we can alleviate that strain in some way I don’t think VeloCity will be a great success. One thing that is happening is that we are learning and adapting quickly…
I am not sure I support the idea that Y Combinator (and programs like it) is the new Graduate School. In order to train entrepreneurs you need successful entrepreneurs to train them but the million dollar question in my mind: are academic institutions capable of allowing non-academics to play a role? I think they are. The important bit is that Higher Education offers some credibility to the lessons learned that is transferable outside a particular sphere of influence. I think that is important for the student.
Building a bridge
I am optimistic that we can build a model here at U of Waterloo that could be duplicated in other schools. I believe that higher education must do more to foster entrepreneurs as well as focus on the normal process of fostering academic growth and development. That bridge between academic study and real experience is something Waterloo built a long time ago with Co-op, the difference is with entrepreneurship is that your work experience is a lot more self directed and requires more flexibility.
Children hold your calendar hostage during cold and flu season
This past week I have had my calendar and task list hijacked by a cold virus that hasn’t even found its way to make me ill but it has decided to drive up the internal temperatures of the two little things in the house. The upside to this is that I have an excuse to hang out with them during the week, the downside is that this unplanned vacation is anything but and I am sinking into declaring inbox and task list bankruptcy.
How do you balance kids with work?
Honestly, how do you? You don’t, kids win every time. However, how do you deal with coworkers that find your unplanned absence annoying? The situation for my wife and I is extra fun as she just recently returned to work from maternity leave and they are already down one staff member in their group, I am working on a startup when I am not working my more than full time job at VeloCity, and I still have responsibilities as Past President of the UW Staff Association. Thankfully we both have understanding coworkers but not everyone does.
I don’t have an answer for those that don’t have a supportive work environment but here is my two point strategy for not letting the big things slip (and it may help contribute to having understanding coworkers):
- Work with your partner—even though you both won’t be sleeping and probably have short fuses
- Prioritize the big things and find an hour in the day to triage (see it as being forced to focus on value, not volume – that might help)
Then repeat the following every time you think you are about to drive yourself crazy with thinking about the things you should be doing:
Nobody on his deathbed ever said, “I wish I had spent more time at the office.” – Paul Tsongas
When you are busy second guessing your decisions about going to the doctor or not going given temperature, time, colour of the boogers/poo, should they go to daycare, or damn daycare for the bug sharing, etc you find work is a pleasant distraction but don’t let it guide your decisions. Once in a while I find myself heading that way and I have to keep coming back to what is most important and it isn’t work.