The "Million Dollar" Challenge

In my new book, What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20, I quote my friend and colleague Carlos Vignolo from the University of Chile who says, "If you go somewhere and don’t meet someone new, you have certainly missed out on making a friend as well as on the possibility of making a million dollars." He tells his students that every time they walk onto a city bus, a million dollars is waiting there for them — they just have to find it. In this case “a million dollars” is a metaphor for learning something new, making a friend, or, indeed, making a million dollars.

So, here is my challenge to you... The next time you go somewhere - the grocery store, an airport, your neighborhood restaurant, or when you ride a city bus - make a point of meeting someone new and figuring out how you can extract something valuable from that encounter. I'm confident that if you make a habit of doing this, you will find that incredible opportunities present themselves every day.

Feel free to post a comment with your experiences. It will be fascinating to see the range of responses... Perhaps someone will find a million dollars, or something worth just as much.

You are Invited!

As part of Stanford Entrepreneurship Week, there will be an Innovation Tournament and you are invited to participate. At the beginning of the week, on Friday, Feb 22, an object will be revealed. Teams will be challenged to create as much "value" as possible in five days. Value can be measured in any way they want... All submissions will be in the form of videos of three minutes or less.

Check out the video invitation to participate:

Entrepreneurship Week at Stanford

In just three weeks, Stanford will host Entrepreneurship Week. One of the highlights is the world premiere of Imagine It!, a movie that was filmed during last year’s international Innovation Challenge. Essentially, each student team was given one pack of 3x3 Post-Its and asked to create as much value as possible in five days. Value could be measured in any way they wanted. There were 90 teams at Stanford and hundreds of teams around the world. The film captures the spirit of creativity and entrepreneurship as the students come up with ideas and really make things happen. Below is the movie trailer. I understand that soon the entire film will be available for free to on the web. Stay tuned for details.