As a parent, I've heard lots of other parents talk about the education their children receive either in the public school system, via charter schools, or in the private sector. Many people will chose where they live partially based upon the academic reputation of the school system where their children will be going to school. As a parent I understand. We absolutely want the very best for our children and a solid education is the foundation upon which they will build their future.
However, when it comes time for their children to take their first step toward independence, it amazes me how many parents, and students, stop focusing on the education their children receive and start to treat college as a commodity item. Perhaps because we have lost faith in our children and we just hope they get a degree since this is the golden ticket to gain admission to a lifetime of opportunity. Perhaps, because of the price of education, we start to make compromises designed to balance our need for continued growth and eventual retirement against the expense of devloping our children's potential. Perhaps we don't really believe that a difference in the quality of education our children receive will more than compensate for the expense of one educational option over another. Yes a quality education is expensive in America, but to perceive all options as equal alternatives based solely upon price or prestige is a disservice to our children and to their future success.
I was speaking with some fellow educators about their college experience over the weekend. One educator went to a large 4-year university. Yes it was less expensive because it was a state university but it came at a price. Her experiences her first two years were similar to mine, she was one of several hundred (up to 400 in some courses) who attended a single class. She turned in her assignments and passed her exams, but seldom actually attended classes. "It wasn't as if anyone cared about my attendance, truthfully, no one even noticed if I was there or not. The fact that I was taking courses that were little more than a rehashing of courses I had already passed in high school gave me no real motivation to attend or apply myself. This wasn't what I was going to school to study and I truly doubted I would ever use any of this information again." She received no individual attention, no personal instruction or critique, and no knew knowledge. Although she had a great social experience and did manage to pass her classes, academically speaking her first two years were a waste of time and money.
Her husband chose to go to community college where his classes were in the range of 30-50 students. His attendance was noted and noticed, and he received occasional feedback on his performance. He worked and matured and when he decided to move forward to earn his Bachelor's degree, he was better prepared for the challenges ahead. However, like his spouse, the majority of his time was spent on taking courses which he had already taken in high school. He was better able to master them this time around and he was able to fill in many of the gaps that were left after his high school experience. It is fairly safe to say that he actually received a better education than his spouse.
And then I started looking at my own educational experiences and how they differ from my own students. Where I teach, my students take one course at a time (1 course each month), the majority of their lower level courses are focused on the career path they are pursuing, they are held accountable for their attendance, they receive personal critique and instruction every day, and the class sizes range from 8 to 16 students. Even though many of them plan on eventually pursuing their Bachelor's degree, they often enter the workforce before completing their first two years, and have often moved up the ladder in the workforce at a pace much quicker than their peers who had different educational courses.
Tuesday, July 13, 2021
Monday, June 1, 2015
The rules for Becoming Elite
Ok. I have to admit it. I have gotten sucked in by the NFL draft this year and all the hoopla surrounding my Tampa Bay Bucs! Yep. I've turned into one of those people who reads the latest rumors and gossip every morning hoping to find a reason to believe in the improbable.
But as I read about Jameis Winston, the other highly rated draft picks, and those who have achieved a high degree of success at what they do, one thing started popping out: the term "elite". I've often talked about the little things that take us from being adequate, to good, to great and how with just a little more commitment and effort any of us can become great, or at least very good. But what does it mean to become elite?
Elite means we are the very best at what we do, excelling at what we do and living at the highest levels of performance and satisfaction. The more I've worked with students, observed people, and reflected upon my own life and decisions, the more I am convinced that becoming elite is possible for almost anyone who truly aspires to it and is willing to follow the lead of the very best that came before. You want a legendary life? You want to be successful in ways you have never dared to imagine? Well here are the rules.
2) Commitment,.not only do you have to want to become elite, you have to do be willing to do whatever it takes to become elite. This is where so many of us fail. We want it badly enough, but not badly enough to give up other things in order to get it. Are you willing to forego the parties and the picnics? Are you willing to give up the television drama, the social media, and the video games? Are you willing to give everything you have even the things that aren't fun? What do Tom Brady, Drew Breese, Payton Manning, and Jameis Winston have in common? They spend more time studying than anyone else in their profession. They are the first ones in to work every morning and the last one to leave in the evening. And when they do leave, guess what, they go home and study some more. You don't get to make the big bucks if all you do is show up. You earn the paycheck by doing the prep work and sharpening your skills every day.
3) Love. You have to love what you do. You can want to be the best at something and you may be willing to do what it takes to get there, but to get to the top of your field. you have to love what it is you are doing. How many people settle for good enough and secretly hate their life or feel it has no meaning? If you'd rather be doing anything else, then it will reflect in your attitude and your performance. If you don't love something, how can you ever willingly give it everything you've got? If you aren't doing what you love, and you wish to become elite during this lifetime, then change directions. Your love or lack thereof is your glass ceiling.
4) Failure. I think the quote says that if you want to do it well, you have to do it poorly until you learn to do it well. Hank Aaron had more strikeouts than home runs. Michael Jordon missed many more shots than he ever made. Jameis Winston threw 18 interceptions last year but led his team to numerous second-half comebacks. No one ever did everything perfectly the first time. They tried, they failed, they learned, then they tried again...and again...and again. If you are afraid to fail, you can never grow. If you wait til you get everything perfect, you never get anything done. You have to take those chances, fall flat on your face, then commit to being better the next time.
5) Coachabilty. You aren't perfect. You never were and never will be. There are others who know things that you haven't learned yet and may never discover on your own. You have to let those who know certain things better than you, show you how to do it, critique your performance, offer suggestions, and challenge you to try new things. I often tell students there is truly nothing that I teach that they cannot learn on their own; however, if they will trust me and take my advice for one year, I can cut 10-15 years off their learning curve. Life on this earth is a finite amount of time. Coaches help us get more out of life and get more accomplished in life than we could ever hope to get on our own.
6) Inquisitiveness. I think it was Einstien who said "the quality of our lives is a direct result of the quality of the questions we ask." How many of us fall short, stumble, give up because we don't know what to or how to do something. I wrote a business plan for iTunes in 1997 but gave up when I couldn't find the funding to bring it to fruition. It happens. But the more questions we ask, the more answers we'll get and if we ask enough quality questions we are bound to eventually get the answers we need. In design I tell students that the foundation for all great design begins with research. Research begins with asking questions. It is the same with everything we do in life. Question everything and never quit asking.
I think we are taught early to hedge our bets, to always have a plan B, a safety net, because we might not succeed with our plan A. Besides the underlying "you aren't good enough" message that we hear from those closest to us, we are encouraged to dilute our efforts, to forever be adequate at many things instead of being amazing at the one thing we most love. You must go all-in with every bit of who you are, holding nothing back, to do become what you were destined to become. Not just good, but elite, the very best there is or ever was.
You can be awesome. You can be amazing. You can be the stuff of which legends are made. If you are willing to embrace it.
But as I read about Jameis Winston, the other highly rated draft picks, and those who have achieved a high degree of success at what they do, one thing started popping out: the term "elite". I've often talked about the little things that take us from being adequate, to good, to great and how with just a little more commitment and effort any of us can become great, or at least very good. But what does it mean to become elite?
Elite means we are the very best at what we do, excelling at what we do and living at the highest levels of performance and satisfaction. The more I've worked with students, observed people, and reflected upon my own life and decisions, the more I am convinced that becoming elite is possible for almost anyone who truly aspires to it and is willing to follow the lead of the very best that came before. You want a legendary life? You want to be successful in ways you have never dared to imagine? Well here are the rules.
Rules for becoming elite.
1) Passion, a burning desire for becoming the best. How badly do you want it? What else are you giving up to pursue your deepest dreams? In order to move beyond good enough to being great, you have to want to become great. You have to want to be the best that ever was. You have to be willing to move beyond the shackles of mediocrity and embrace your own destiny. I won't be given to you, and most around you will give up long before they ever get started, but you, you have to want it so badly nothing will hold you back or stand in your way. Sounds easy? It isn't. Striving to be elite is filled with hazards, and doubts, and setbacks. You are the only person who can stay with it even when your body and brain wants to quit. But in the end, it is your life and you alone are accountable for how you choose to live it.2) Commitment,.not only do you have to want to become elite, you have to do be willing to do whatever it takes to become elite. This is where so many of us fail. We want it badly enough, but not badly enough to give up other things in order to get it. Are you willing to forego the parties and the picnics? Are you willing to give up the television drama, the social media, and the video games? Are you willing to give everything you have even the things that aren't fun? What do Tom Brady, Drew Breese, Payton Manning, and Jameis Winston have in common? They spend more time studying than anyone else in their profession. They are the first ones in to work every morning and the last one to leave in the evening. And when they do leave, guess what, they go home and study some more. You don't get to make the big bucks if all you do is show up. You earn the paycheck by doing the prep work and sharpening your skills every day.
3) Love. You have to love what you do. You can want to be the best at something and you may be willing to do what it takes to get there, but to get to the top of your field. you have to love what it is you are doing. How many people settle for good enough and secretly hate their life or feel it has no meaning? If you'd rather be doing anything else, then it will reflect in your attitude and your performance. If you don't love something, how can you ever willingly give it everything you've got? If you aren't doing what you love, and you wish to become elite during this lifetime, then change directions. Your love or lack thereof is your glass ceiling.
4) Failure. I think the quote says that if you want to do it well, you have to do it poorly until you learn to do it well. Hank Aaron had more strikeouts than home runs. Michael Jordon missed many more shots than he ever made. Jameis Winston threw 18 interceptions last year but led his team to numerous second-half comebacks. No one ever did everything perfectly the first time. They tried, they failed, they learned, then they tried again...and again...and again. If you are afraid to fail, you can never grow. If you wait til you get everything perfect, you never get anything done. You have to take those chances, fall flat on your face, then commit to being better the next time.
5) Coachabilty. You aren't perfect. You never were and never will be. There are others who know things that you haven't learned yet and may never discover on your own. You have to let those who know certain things better than you, show you how to do it, critique your performance, offer suggestions, and challenge you to try new things. I often tell students there is truly nothing that I teach that they cannot learn on their own; however, if they will trust me and take my advice for one year, I can cut 10-15 years off their learning curve. Life on this earth is a finite amount of time. Coaches help us get more out of life and get more accomplished in life than we could ever hope to get on our own.
6) Inquisitiveness. I think it was Einstien who said "the quality of our lives is a direct result of the quality of the questions we ask." How many of us fall short, stumble, give up because we don't know what to or how to do something. I wrote a business plan for iTunes in 1997 but gave up when I couldn't find the funding to bring it to fruition. It happens. But the more questions we ask, the more answers we'll get and if we ask enough quality questions we are bound to eventually get the answers we need. In design I tell students that the foundation for all great design begins with research. Research begins with asking questions. It is the same with everything we do in life. Question everything and never quit asking.
I think we are taught early to hedge our bets, to always have a plan B, a safety net, because we might not succeed with our plan A. Besides the underlying "you aren't good enough" message that we hear from those closest to us, we are encouraged to dilute our efforts, to forever be adequate at many things instead of being amazing at the one thing we most love. You must go all-in with every bit of who you are, holding nothing back, to do become what you were destined to become. Not just good, but elite, the very best there is or ever was.
You can be awesome. You can be amazing. You can be the stuff of which legends are made. If you are willing to embrace it.
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
WEB ACCESSIBILITY
- http://www.w3.org/standards/webdesign/accessibility
- http://www.washington.edu/accessibility/web-resources/
- Section 508b
- http://www.washington.edu/doit/Resources/invisible.html
- http://www.lighthouse.org/accessibility/design/accessible-print-design/effective-color-contrast
- http://designhammer.com/blog/intersection-usability-accessibility-and-seo-part-iii
- http://colororacle.org/
- http://www.section508.va.gov/VA_Section_508_Best_Practices.asp
- http://webaim.org/articles/jaws/
- http://wac.osu.edu/tutorials/bestpractices/guidelines.htm
- http://www.w3.org/WAI/RD/2012/text-customization/r11
- http://www.bdadyslexia.org.uk/about-dyslexia/further-information/dyslexia-style-guide.html
Wednesday, October 2, 2013
Failure
As I have been asking my newest students what is their biggest fear, it amazes me, that so many, an overwhelming majority of them, list failure as their #1 fear. Fear of not succeeding, fear of not passing the course, fear of failing a test, fear of .... as if failure, of any kind, makes them somehow less.
As much as I want to shake them and scream, "life is failure, you'll actually grow from the experience," I do understand. There have been, and are things that kept me trapped where I was, things I never attempted, dreams that remained unfulfilled because of that fear. If I never try, I can at least pretend that someday I might do that. If I try and fail, I will then know that I never will, as if life only ever gives us one shot.
So what is it that is going to happen if we try, give everything we have, and fail? Will our parents disown us? Will our friends ridicule and abandon us? will our heart stop beating, will our dreams turn to dust, will we prove to our children that yes, we are indeed merely human?
Robert Kennedy once said "Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly!" Mr. Edison did not fail 1000 times in inventing the light bulb, he discovered 1000 things that simply did not work. Can you imagine if Columbus turned back because his crew thought they may sail off the edge of the world?
If you live your life in fear of failure, you will find that you never lived at all. You hid your dreams and potential in exchange for the illusion of safety. So do you think any animal caged behind the safety of bars, is happy, is feeling alive. So why do we keep locking ourselves behind our own imaginary bars?
You want to have fun? Try something amazing, no holding back, and risk failure. Once we accept that failure helps us grow, and that it doesn't make us any weaker, stranger, etc..., we can discover a freedom and zest for life that we had been too scared to even imagine.
If you live your life in fear of failure, you will find that you never lived at all. You hid your dreams and potential in exchange for the illusion of safety. So do you think any animal caged behind the safety of bars, is happy, is feeling alive. So why do we keep locking ourselves behind our own imaginary bars?
You want to have fun? Try something amazing, no holding back, and risk failure. Once we accept that failure helps us grow, and that it doesn't make us any weaker, stranger, etc..., we can discover a freedom and zest for life that we had been too scared to even imagine.
Friday, November 2, 2012
Who are we?
Are we a group of individuals each looking out for our own self-interest, or are we a country of human beings who care for one another and understand that what effects one of us, effects us all? Are we about greed or about cooperation and compassion? Are we more interested in talking about "Christian Values" or practicing them? Should we be divided by the labels we apply to one another, or be united by the love of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? Should justice be fair, equitable, and protected by law, or should we pass laws that limit the rights and freedoms of those who are different than us? Should the Internet be censored and controlled by Businesses? Are corporations human? Is protecting the environment an obligation we have to future generations? Should those who ship our jobs to China be exempt from paying US taxes? Should we build alliances and cooperation or try force our point of view through bullying and intimidation both
domestically and internationally? It is easy to say this election is about a conservative versus a moderate or liberal or about a Democrat versus a Republican. In reality it is about much more than that. It is about who we are as a nation, what we value, and what we want to become in the future.
I believe in loving one another. I believe in compassion for our fellow man. I believe the human spirit is more valuable than the corporate commodity. I believe we are the stewards of the world and the nation we were given, to protect it and to enhance it, not to rape, pillage, and plunder it. I believe God is watching and I believe that god does care. That is why I voted for Barack Obama and pray that every American does the same.
I believe in loving one another. I believe in compassion for our fellow man. I believe the human spirit is more valuable than the corporate commodity. I believe we are the stewards of the world and the nation we were given, to protect it and to enhance it, not to rape, pillage, and plunder it. I believe God is watching and I believe that god does care. That is why I voted for Barack Obama and pray that every American does the same.
Sunday, July 31, 2011
The Best DAM Poster Contest
Keiser University Design and Multimedia students are competing for over $500.00 in prizes in The Best D.A.M. Poster contest. Please vote (like) and leave your feedback for these aspiring designers.
You must "like" Keiser University before you can vote on the individual entries.
Thank you for caring enough to help out our students.
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Friday, February 25, 2011
Motivation is in Full Throttle
So yesterday I was chatting with a former student who was pursuing another degree because she did not feel confident in her design skills. She had an opportunity to do some layout work for a local business but was about to let the opportunity pass because she was "afraid of looking stupid".
Here ia a transcript of the text string that transpired 18 hours later:
Here ia a transcript of the text string that transpired 18 hours later:
"Just fyi... I gave him the first draft last night and he loves it. Said its the best anyone has ever done on the first draft and I haven’t even worked with him before. He has people that have been doing stuff for him for a while that don’t give him a first draft that is laid out so well. Made me excited.
"YES I AGREE!
I found my love for InDesign again. He is paying me $20/hr. Woohoo"
"Awesome!!!""YES I AGREE!
This was the test job... he said if I did a good job that he would continue sending me all his print work for me to setup. He sends me the text and pictures and I lay everything out in InDesign
Easy Money!"
"And I thought you gave up on design"
"Heck no. Just very self conscious. I am my worst critic."
"And I thought you gave up on design"
"Heck no. Just very self conscious. I am my worst critic."
"Aren't we all?"
"But he gave me a crud load of compliments and he said he really likes that I adapted to the style he asked me to. He asked me to use the cover he made for it and incorporate it somehow throughout the brochure and still give it a newish style but he loved it! YAY!
"So happy for you. Now will you enter the Festival of Design and finish this month's course?"
"Yes sir.
"But he gave me a crud load of compliments and he said he really likes that I adapted to the style he asked me to. He asked me to use the cover he made for it and incorporate it somehow throughout the brochure and still give it a newish style but he loved it! YAY!
I AM SOOOOO EXCITED that I can work from home doing design work.
He was most excited that I beat the deadline ... he wanted something by this morning and I got him his first proof last night.""So happy for you. Now will you enter the Festival of Design and finish this month's course?"
"Yes sir.
I am excited
Motivation is back in full throttle."
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