About Mike Robson
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After stumbling around for the first couple years out of high school, I finally found something I love. When I first went to Carleton University in 1999 for Industrial Design, I had it all figured out: I was going to go to school, get a great job designing basketball shoes for Reebok, raise a family, and call it a life. So much for that. After that first fateful year at Carleton (I actually got good grades, but I wasn't 'in love' with the program), I did some real soul searching. I was going to ship off the China and become an English teacher, but without a degree, the money was appalling. |
So I started scanning the Kwantlen calendar for my future. I considered everything. I concluded that if I had a 9-5 job, I would eventually go insane. I didn't want a job; I wanted a lifestyle. Moreover I wanted to be a part of something great. I thought about politics, but just couldn't convince myself that politicians had ever moved me. I just didn't see much progress in the world of politics--just bickering and mudslinging.
After awhile, I had it down to law and business. Basically, I had no idea. I didn't want anything to do with law, but I thought it was very practical. And business was very versatile as well. (Considering I had no idea what I wanted to do, versatility was crucial!)
I got into the habit of finding out more and more about the people I looked up to. Of course, I look up to my parents and some of my very good teachers, but I wanted to know about the people in the news. How did they do it?
So I started watching the Biography channel, almost fanatically.
Everyone was the same: Some kid starts off and falls into something (like acting, or playing music) usually by improvisation. Then they get their big break and entertain the idea of making it their life. Things snowball from there, media picks up, fans start to swarm, and just as things look like they couldn't get any better, something terrible happens (a war breaks out, someone dies etc.). That's when they go into their little dip in popularity. Next comes the comeback, and from then on it's denouement in Barbados or Southern France.
I began to read more about my favorite actors and rock bands and take some comfort in their humble beginnings.
Then one day, I saw a bio on Richard Branson. If you don't know who he is, think Virgin Megastore. His story (high school dropout, starts his own magazine with a friend at 17 years old, then his own record company, then airline) taught me a very important lesson: You don't need to be a jerk to be successful in business. Up until this point, I was very cynical about business, but that one episode really made me take a second look.
Then I started reading. The first was Branson's bio, then Tim Sanders, then Tom Peters' book. Every now and then, I'd throw in something by the Dalai Lama or Aldous Huxley for fun.
By this point, I had already started Studentvalue and was thinking about business at work and at school.
It all came down to one thing: I strongly feel that Business, not politics, not legislature, not even war, is the engine of change. Businesses can sustain themselves through their revenues, while they go out and do what woke up in the morning to do and that is (to borrow a line from Philips) to make things better.
Mike Robson
