#sparkchamber 110121 — Alex Maxwell
In the most-watched commencement speech of all times — Steve Jobs at Stanford University in 2005 — the culture-and-technology innovator and global paradigm-shifter said, in part, “have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.” Which popped top-of-mind with today’s #sparkchamber visitor, matchmaker Alex Maxwell. “I zigzag a lot! Post-college, business degree in hand and a nascent e-commerce story to my name, I decided to take a 10-year detour into academia, and just recently finished my Ph.D. in Slavic Languages and Literatures.” Alex is now back in “business action” with Section4, an ed-tech startup, bridging the worlds of business and education with “sprints” — intensive, real-world, and immediately applicable online courses designed to level up in one’s career. Top professors from top schools teach topics that actually matter in today’s digital economy — product experimentation, platform frameworks, viral growth, data and analytics, innovation, brand value — with access to and emphasis on networking and community-building.
A self-directed path to the just-right place, a beautiful full-circle revolution of intuition animating intention inspiring attention, “… and I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
1.] Where do ideas come from?
I think ideas come from the space and time between experiences, and the more diverse and multi-faceted one's experiences are, the more unexpected their ideas.
2.] What is the itch you are scratching?
I really dislike the feeling of isolation and disconnectedness we’re all sometimes victim to, especially over the last couple of years, and what motivates me is working to slowly eradicate this feeling, one connection at a time :)
3.] Early bird or night owl? Tortoise or hare?
I’ve just recently begun thinking about these questions as ones that might have logical, manipulable answers — grad school really allowed me to fall into the listless ways of a forever-student! But I think I am more of a night owl, and definitely a tortoise 90% of the way, at which point I turn into the fastest hare imaginable.
4.] How do you know when you are done?
This a tough one — I work on my own up until a certain point, and then I think I need someone to take a look and tell me what’s going on, and assess the degree of done-ness :)