I don't have many role models, or people I look up too, or think are fantastic and I strive to have the kind of observation, consciousness, understanding I perceive them to have. Brenda Laurel is one of them. Now, don't think I'm gonna put her on a pedestal - I won't. We're all humans. For me, she has inspired - and continues to inspire me.
Last night, I pulled her book, Utopian Entrepreneur off the shelf. A decade later, I still get so much from this book. The older I get, the more experience I have starting things, creating the world I want to live in, the more this book resonates with me.
I remember the first time I heard of her. It was probably 2000, and Jakob Nielson had left Sun to start his own consulting company with Don Norman. It was one of their first events. It was at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco. At this event I first heard the term "futurist" by Bruce Tognazzini. I knew then and there, that's what I wanted to do. But I had no idea how to do it. Then Brenda Laurel took the stage and I was blown away.
Wow, was she smart, was she sassy, did she learn things and try things and, I was just so impressed. I read all her essays, inspired, but not really knowing what to do with it. I was still early in my career, I didn't know what I wanted to do. I only knew I was working at all these startups because I knew I would start one. I was learning how these organizations behaved from the inside (and from relatively low-level positions). I was getting the Silicon Valley Startup MBA by fire and failure.
Years later, about the time I moved to Los Angeles, I reread her book Utopian Entrepreneur. I pull it out and read it time to time. It sits between Hakim Bey and Marshal mcLuhan. It's relevant to me more now than ever.
"Cultural innovation can only proceed hand in hand with technological and economic innovation." - Brenda Laurel, Utopian Entrepreneur.
And this morning, I read this quote. And it makes perfect sense why I study the future of money when what I really want is conscious human evolution.
Thank you Brenda Laurel for inspiring me for more than a decade.
Comments