The Ivy Early Entrepreneur program was a wonderful experience for a business enthusiast like me. Learning from professionals in their respective fields, hearing their insights, and learning from their journey were some of the key components that make this program perfect for someone who wants to learn more about the hows and whats of entrepreneurship. During the program, we learnt the process from actually having an idea to it finally culminating into our very own business project. At every step of the way: ideation, brainstorming, prototyping, business modeling, branding, etc you get to hear the valuable opinions from experts, and using that allows you to bring your own project into perspective. We had the opportunity to interact with all of the mentors and it was truly a dream come true and such experiences can’t be replicated and are key to progressing your business idea. The mentors explained the concept to us through extremely elaborate documents breaking down all of it and making it very easy for us to comprehend.
The process was interesting and thrilling and helped us make our business idea tangible. I spent months wondering how these things might work, but these 7 days have unlocked a plethora of ideas and different ways to work with them. I think one of the most important things I learned from this program is that age is just a number after all. Your entrepreneurship journey starts when you want it to.
Executing a business includes a number of components that require different levels of creativity, practicality, and brainstorming and during the program, we went through all of these explicitly. I extremely enjoyed the sessions on market research and how to find your target market as well as the one on business modeling and marketing. It was fascinating to understand how to conduct surveys, look at the requirements of your audience, understand how to create a brand, how to keep your customers satisfied etc.
The great part about these 7 days was that we really got to get into all of the important topics, taking time to absorb all of them and simultaneously implementing them which really helped improve my understanding of it. There were various hands-on tasks, especially during the prototyping stage and it was interesting to explore all of these different avenues of entrepreneurship. The program also played a key role in inspiring and motivating us as we heard so many stories about different start ups and how they progressed and eventually achieved immense success in their fields. Not only that, but the Ivy program also is an opportunity for us to collaborate with other kids around the country and build a brand with them. It was wonderful getting to know everyone and having the chance to work with such an amazing team.
The experience really gave me a heads-up as to what entrepreneurship entails and helped me contemplate my ideas, organize them and make them into a concrete plan. If you’re someone
wondering how entrepreneurship works and how to work towards your business idea, then this program is your calling.
Lastly, I would like to thank the mentors and everyone who helped make this program so memorable.
Creative blocks are frustrating. You feel desperate to ideate, design, build something; and yet, the muse continuously eludes you. Sometimes, you can see the entire plan in your mind but your hands just won’t move in the correct ways. Trying to create anything while stuck in the mires of a creative block always feels like repeatedly banging your head against a wall but making no headway whatsoever. The entire creative process then becomes an exercise in futility, and almost always feels like a waste of precious resources of time and energy. For students and industry professionals alike, it is hence crucial to understand why they are unable to access their creativity, and what they can do to remove those obstructions.
Scrambled Eggs: A Study in Creative Thinking
It’s an oft-repeated story: The melody to Paul McCartney’s classic song, “Yesterday” came to him in a dream. He woke up, harried, unsure of where—and if—he had ever heard this tune before but certain that he needed to write this down. Grabbing a pen and paper, he jotted down the notes from his dreams, and as placeholders for the now-iconic lyrics of “Yesterday” he wrote: “Scrambled eggs, Oh you’ve got such lovely legs, Scrambled eggs. Oh, my baby, how I love your legs.”
The creative development of “Yesterday’s” lyrics from “Scrambled eggs, Oh you’ve got such lovely legs” to “Yesterday, All my troubles seemed so far away” is a study in the human efforts and tenacity necessary in any creative endeavor. McCartney, unable to come up with the suitable and perfect lyrics to his melody could have sat stuck in his bedroom, neither jotting down any lyrics nor this beautiful melody. He, however, acted differently. He chose to build with the resources he had at hand, at that moment and put a pin in the part of the process he was incapable of tackling then.
Why Do Creative Blocks Occur?
The root cause of almost every kind of creative block out there is a lack of patience and enough time. Creativity needs time to breathe and bloom. If you are trying to create something while you are stressed about personal issues, anxious about criticism, or already feeling overwhelmed and burnt out, you will inevitably fail. You will try to tackle multiple elements at once; unable to concentrate and give any of them adequate time and space. Creative projects need space and time to evolve and develop in your mind — remember: it is not the rule but the exception when you are able to deliver a finished creative project, top to bottom furnished, in one single go. Those kinds of sprints are miraculous; and more often than not a lofty standard.
While creating, it is important to center yourself and know that you are capable of ideating and executing your designs. It can feel frustrating to be unable to come up with the perfect idea in the exact moment; but you need to remind yourself that just because you are not able to think of the perfect idea in that moment does not mean that you are not able to think of any ideas. Scrambled eggs: placeholders are your best friends. Use them. You can always come back to your design later — carve out time from your daily schedule to sit down with yourself, and recuperate. Take a walk, watch a film, have a hot cup of tea — do something that makes you feel more in touch with yourself.
Tips & Tricks
Sometimes, however, a lack of patience cannot be cured by a simple—though undeniably delicious—hot cup of tea. Sometimes, the issue runs deeper, and requires more time and self analysis to be unknotted. Besides patience and placeholders, here are few more long-term tricks and tips you can try to get rid of your creative blocks:
1. Expand Your Imagination
You can often feel unable to access your creative energy because you are stuck in a rut. You meet the same kinds of people every day, engage with the same old ideas, and dance with the same rusted perspectives. In this case, you need adventure. You need a splash of imagination to break yourself out of the cycle of rut you are stuck in. Here, while creating then, you need to question your assumptions. Ask yourself, “What if…?” What if I tried to write this essay by opening with a song lyric instead of a quote? What if I tried to design this comic strip using only two colors instead of eight? What if…? Allow yourself the freedom to experiment, and see the magic happen. To efficiently use the ‘What if…?’ tool, you should also set yourself a time limit. A cool trick I learned during the Big Red Education’s Harvard Youth Lead The Change conference this summer was to give yourself a prompt, set your timer to thirty (30) seconds, and write down whatever ideas and designs that pop in your head. I have found that the constrained time limit alongside an absurd prompt really gets the adrenaline going; leading me to come up with many out-of-the-box ideas I was unable to even fathom while stuck in a creative rut.
2. Organization
The issue sometimes is not that you do not have any ideas; but that you have too many of them and zero knowledge of how to begin sorting through them all. This can overwhelm you. In this event, you need organizational tools to facilitate yourself and better understand and plan out your creative process. To do this, you can try many different tools like Pros/Cons list, Highlighting Notes, etc. My personal favorite is a matrix I was introduced to by Kriti Thakur, a mentor at Big Red Education’s Ivy Early Entrepreneur program this summer: the Now, Wow, How, Ciao matrix.
The Now, Wow, How, Ciao matrix offers a fun and effective way to organize your ideas. In the ‘Now’ column you put down the ideas which you have already used before and can implement again easily. In the ‘Wow’ column, jot down the ideas which are easily implementable but haven’t been tried before by you. In the ‘How’ column go the ideas which are really cool and innovative, but also require some research on your part to fully figure out how to execute. And in the ‘Ciao’ column sit the ideas which are quite basic and yet, very tedious and hard to implement; a waste of your resources.
The next time you feel stuck and overwhelmed with too many ideas, design options, etc. I would definitely recommend that you try out this matrix, and see how it goes!
3. Routine, Commitment, and Faulty Work Habits
Creative blocks can also be triggered by long-time fault lines like disorganized routines, low commitment, or faulty work habits which do not work for you. In all these cases, the problem runs much deeper than immediate stressors and requires a substantial amount of analysis to discern and rectify. Sometimes, the issue is too much work and a lack of adequate understanding about how to tackle it all. You can spend entire days trying to ideate and create; but all your efforts will inevitably fall through if you are unable to get rid of thoughts about all the other work that you are still left to do, and all the other tasks that are still sitting on your plate. This can cause overwhelming stress, leading to long stretches of time in which you find yourself with zero energy and commitment to work on anything at all.
What you need, here, is a change of pace. Upend your regular routine, and sit with yourself to figure out where the problem lies. Perhaps, you require not two but three days to finish one essay. Perhaps, you ideate better in the evenings and execute better in the mornings instead of what you originally were trying to do — ideation in the mornings and execution in the evenings. Perhaps, you unfailingly need to take a walk or meditate on days when you have to strategize about your projects’ ideas or write that important speech. The problem is not only that you are going about your process in the wrong way; the problem is primarily that you do not have any idea what you are doing wrong. Stop, take a deep breath, and look at your routine. Figure out what needs fixing; and you will definitely see the change reflected in your work.
Long-Term Effects of Creative Blocks
A creative block is a temporary setback but can unfailingly cause long-lasting feelings of self-doubt and worthlessness. Repeatedly passing it off as a one-time event and choosing to ignore its cause can be extremely detrimental to your professional development, and consequently, your mental, emotional and physical health. The negative feelings caused by creative blocks can fester and quickly turn toxic; encouraging its subjects to turn to harmful indulgences like smoking, alcohol, drugs, etc. to deal with them, on a day-to-day basis.
Whenever you find yourself stuck in a creative rut, do not ignore it. Make time for yourself and figure out why you are unable to access your creative energy; and go about the required steps to fix the fault. If you find yourself unable to fully understand why you are feeling this way, do not hesitate to approach a mental health professional and seek their help. For students and professionals alike, a creative block can drastically affect their work, resulting in repeatedly missed deadlines, low-quality outputs, etc.; all of which inevitably affects the subjects’ health detrimentally.
Always, the best trick to get rid of creative blocks is to just create. Scribble on your design board, jot down paragraphs of meandering, tangential ideas — but create. The primary reason we get stuck in creative blocks is not because we do not have any ideas, but because we keep seeking perfect ideas and in their pursuit, stop creating altogether.
Did you know that Tomas Lindahl, Nobel Prize Winner in Chemistry failed the subject in high school? Or that John Gurdon, Nobel Prize Winner in Medicine ranked dead last in Biology in his year?
And yet, both of them made it to prestigious universities and won the most eminent award in their fields!
Sir John B. Gurdon Winner of Nobel Prize for Medicine, 2012 image courtesy: www.nobelprize.org
Tomas Lindahl Winner of Nobel Prize for Chemistry, 2015 image courtesy: www.nobelprize.org
The truth is, while high school scores are important, they can only take you so far in your college applications to leading global universities. To stand out from the crowd, there is one thing that elevate your college application above all else – A high school passion project!
Unlike a class project, a passion project is an independent or group project created to achieve a specific goal or mission. This could range from helping an underprivileged community, to solving an entrepreneurial problem and more.
In fact, A recent study done by Acceptitas showed that over 75% of current Harvard students completed a passion project in high school and felt that it significantly impacted their application.
Case in point, 16-year-old Saikaran Apalla’s entrepreneurial project – SCOPE.
Started By Saikiran after attending the Ivy Early Entrepreneur program, SCOPE is a dynamic and personalized network that connects entrepreneurs with like-minded people, content and opportunities. It aims to build a collaborative community where users can share their experiences, learn from each other and ultimately be successful.
Saikiran’s focused and extensive project brought him global attention, and he has even completed a Junior CEO program certified by Brown University.
But for those of you that have a knack for social skills as opposed to entrepreneurial expertise, the options are endless as well!
Take for example, Sia Bishnoi and Taahira Bhalla’s Social Change Project – Project Drakht.
Started by Taahira Bhalla and Sia Bishnoi of The Shri Ram School, Moulsari – both from Harvard Youth Lead the Change 2016 – Project Drakht was set up to provide Ferozepur Meo, an underprivileged village in Haryana, with access to clean water.
They first pitched their idea during the conference, and after it received considerable attention and support, the duo implemented it. Project Drakht ultimately helped nearly 2,200 people from 300 families!
Their project impressed a lot of colleges, and Tahira and Sia ultimately landed spots in Babson College and Parsons School of Design respectively!
So, how do you make your own fleshed-out project?
That’s where we can help you!
Big Red Education offers multiple courses from Ivy League Professors that take you beyond classroom education and into the practicalities of life.
Our flagship programs, Harvard Youth Lead the Change and Ivy Early Entrepreneur teach you the ins and outs of leadership and entrepreneurship respectively, and offer you expert mentorship in creating full-fledged projects!
At Harvard Youth Lead the Change, you work in a group to understand a global issue and ultimately develop a social change project to address it, under guidance from Harvard University Mentors. After the program, you continue to receive a year of mentorship to implement your project in your local communities and beyond.
At Ivy Early Entrepreneur, you learn how to start your business and create a growth-oriented mindset from successful entrepreneurs who are alumni of Ivy League colleges. Picking up skills like market research and design thinking, you create a group project that envisions a start-up, and subsequently practice your learnings in a guaranteed internship with our partner firms!
You have definitely heard about the proverb – “Health is Wealth” but guess what? In the past few months, Move-to-Earn applications have built an environment where users can earn money by engaging in different kinds of physical activities.
New startups that are built on the move-to-earn model are creating a new category of organizations called “FitnessFi”, where the “Fi” stands for finance. Until now, fitness applications would reward users with in-app memorabilia (badges, trophies, etc) and reward points that they could use to get discounts at a variety of stores but Web3/Blockchain Based M2E (Move-to-Earn) startups are rewarding users with digital assets that you can trade for good ol’ cash!
Studies have shown that an application that rewards users for physical activity will greatly increase physical activity levels among people, which is a priority in the digital age that we live in. While the advent of smart wearables contributed to this, these new M2E applications have absolutely blown up and have grabbed the attention of everybody!
Yawn Rong, Co-Founder of StepN and a serial entrepreneur, says that his main goal with StepN was to incentivize people to change their behavior so that they participate in exercise and bring Web3 products to fitness enthusiasts, thus promoting blockchain and its use cases to more and more people.
Launched in December 2021, StepN is a Web3 M2E startup built on the blockchain where users earn money by engaging in three basic physical activities – walking, jogging and running! Users are paid out in the native token/cryptocurrency of StepN which is GST (which you can trade for INR/USD). The current trading price of GST is $0.5 a token.
The Web3 startup is already valued at a figure upwards of 1 billion dollars and is backed by well-known venture capital companies such as Sequoia Capital, Folius Ventures, and the mammoth cryptocurrency exchange – Binance. Within 10 months since its inception, StepN has gained massive amounts of traction and already boasts a 300000+ daily active user count! The crazy part is that it has still not reached its full potential yet as traditional fitness reward businesses have 100 million+ users on their platform!
How Does It Work?
Since the app is in an invite-only phase, users can ask for codes from existing users to sign up and get started. To start earning some crypto, users must purchase a Sneaker – NFT from the app’s built-in marketplace. Users start out with 2 energy (1 energy = 5 minutes of non-stop physical activity). Then they must walk, jog or run for a certain amount of time while staying within the speed limits of their particular sneakers to get rewarded! The reward given out to the user depends on a number of variables – sneaker rarity, the average speed during physical activity, internet connectivity, and GPS signal strength.
The virtual sneakers are non-fungible tokens that can be bought and sold among the users inside the StepN app itself. There are four types of sneakers one can buy (depending on the effort the user wishes to put into their exercise) and the rewards earned through it increase as we go down the list:
Walker – 1 to 6 km/hr
Jogger – 4 to 10 km/hr
Runner – 8 to 20 km/hr
Trainer – 1 to 20 km/hr
The Conclusion
The innovation that the team at StepN has brought coupled with the support from traditional sportswear industry giants could bring a huge impact centered around health and well-being. The company from Adelaide is looking to expand its team from 70 members that are spread across Australia, the U.S, U.K, as it strives to move on to the next phase of building the company. The blockchain – application is built on the Solana (SOL) network which is seen as an environmentally – friendly blockchain network when compared to other renowned networks like Bitcoin and Ethereum.
In today’s market where the bears are in control and fear is at its peak, StepN continues to be one of the few projects that have been continuously onboarding thousands of users every day because of the wonderful mission and the team behind it!
Summer break is finally here! With school work taking a backseat, it is the perfect time for you to explore your passions and up-skill! And what better way to do that than an internship?
Now some may ask, Internships in high school?! Won’t most organisations prefer college candidates?
Nope! that is just an age old myth! Interns today are hired by their passion and willingness to work. You just have to dig and find the right one for you!
Here is why you should be looking to do internships this summer-
Internships boost your college application as they showcase your work ethic and determination to get tasks done.
Internships not only help you identify what you want to do in your future career, but also what you DON’T want to do.
Internships let you meet and network with various professionals who can guide and assist you with your career.
And now for the big question – how do you land an internship? Turns out, there are more ways than one!
1. Family and Relatives
Your family is not only the people you love, but also the first level of networking you receive right when you are born! And chances are, someone from your family or relatives may already have connections with organizations looking for young and fresh perspectives. And if so, they may just be willing to have you on!
2. Cold Mailing
The tried and tested method! If you have organisations in your mind that you really want to be a part of, why not drop them a good (c)old email? For maximum success, you must follow proper email etiquette and convince them of your candidature in limited space. Attaching a detailed resume and portfolio can only improve your chances!
While wait times can be uncertain with this method, the advantage of cold mailing is that you get to aim for the organization as well as the position that you desire. Most organizations will already have a contact email provided on their website. But If you wish to be even more thorough, you can create a Linkedin account, and look for the profiles of the CEO or HR management of your preferred organization. Chances are, they would have provided their own email addresses for you to write to!
3. Summer Programs that offer Guaranteed Internships
While most Summer Programs usually train you in theoretical aspects, some programs take it a step further and offer you guaranteed internships to apply your learnings in a practical environment.
For example, Ivy Early Entrepreneur, taught by real-life successful entrepreneurs, trains high school students like you for a week in crucial aspects of entrepreneurship. This is followed by a guaranteed 2-3 month internship with leading firms, where you get invaluable experience as a budding entrepreneur.
Similarly, Business of Sports 101 – offered in partnership with Deakin University and Rajasthan Royals – teaches you the essentials of sports business and concludes with a chance to work on a live project with Rajasthan Royals!
4. Online Platforms
There are various websites on the internet that compile or offer internships and programmes for high school students. Websites like Internshala compile internship opportunities from a wide range of employees.
5. NGO Organisations
Several Non-Governmental Organizations across India offer internship and volunteer opportunities to high school students. While these options may not always be paid, they allow you to give back to the marginalized sections of society. A few NGOs where you can try your hand include Smile Foundation, Child Rights & You(CRY), HelpAge India and CARE India.
