Jon Kolko is the author of Creative Clarity, Partner at Modernist Studio, and the Founder of Austin Center for Design. Previously the Vice President of Design at Blackboard, he has worked extensively with both startups and Fortune 500 companies. He has been a Professor of Interaction and Industrial Design at the Savannah College of Art and Design, and has taught at the University of Texas at Austin, the Center for Design Studies of Monterrey, Mexico, and Malmö University, Sweden.
Entrepreneurial Role Models:
Elon Musk
When business started difficulties overcame:
“The challenge has actually been cultural and fear driven less than craft or talent or business driven. The challenge has always been the people and I can explain that from a variety of standpoints. I started a school about 8 years ago and at that point I was younger and had less fear and so when someone says who starts a school I said well I will and then I went and did it”…[Listen for More]
Favourite Books:
Dan Pink BooksFavourite Quote:
“The simplicity that lies on the other side of complexity”
Recommended Online Resources:
Meta Filter is a community weblog that anyone can contribute a link or comment to
Best Advice to Other Entrepreneurs:
“Make things, I think it’s very easy to gravitate towards a place where you’re just managing, you’re just fleeting, you’re talking, you’re fundraising, and you’re sort of in the clouds. Really rolling up your sleeves and making things, it keeps you credible, it keeps you valuable and it makes you able to speak at a level of detail that I think fundamentally is what’s most successful for new products and services”…[Listen for More]
More About Jon Kolko:
Neil’s Quote at the Beginning:
“Regardless of what path we take through space and through life, it’s important to remember that we don’t need all the answers; we just need to keep questioning… questioning everything, from the ground beneath our carpet, the carpet beneath our feet, the sky above our head, and space above the sky.” Kayla Severson
Other Quotes From the Chat with Jon Kolko:
- “I think many of us who have achieved any level of success have gotten to the point in some respects where we feel we don’t deserve that success”
- “You can do things and if you can’t you do it again it’s not the end of the world”
- “Spending 3 and 4 and 5 hours watching people do their jobs, experience life, and then mapping that, coming up with those insights, those rich provocations and building a story of a future before writing any code, before building any products, it’s like a sprint before the sprint”
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