First week at the Unreasonable Institute~9 to go!
Monday, June 07, 2010
That darkest night of Denver, plane landing to a place I had never seen before … I had many fears packed with me along my luggage… first ever time with the longest trip outside Pakistan, with people I didn’t at all knew… the name of the Institute with the word “Unreasonable”… I couldn’t have been crazier.
Before applying I had perhaps never realized about the nagging questions like how would I embrace a new world when my part of the world was overwhelmingly different? But yeah… thinking or not…I was here, with my bags clutched tightly and feeling the sudden cold of Colorado, I was making my way out of the airport towards the “Mansion” where I would spend 10 weeks with worlds most inspiring, high impact entrepreneurs… I am crazy.
Sitting down on the sofa at the Mansion, having my first glass of water in Boulder, I had dreaded the first ever moment I came in… how would it all be like? How would I ever be able to cope with the differences and am I going to take back all what I aim to do so….?
But now, I am sitting on that very sofa, looking around myself as a bunch of fellows, mentors and unreasonable team sitting, talking, working around the huge room…I feel like nothing could have been more perfect. It is perfect when I look around and find the gaze of Jasmine and we smile to each other, it is perfect now as Teju and Jehan are hugging and laughing, it is just so perfect as Maria and Benjamin are deep in discussion about new strategies in their work…… I am at home.
Its been one week, first of the 10 week and 9 to go. These 7 days have just
been amazing… so much of learning! Overload of information. Overdose of excitement and like Guido says overdose of Awesomeness! The week was packed with mentor sessions, office hours, opening reception, and peer education in many” Unreasonable” ways.
Kerry Suddes was our first mentor, who had the greatest power to shift us from for-profit, non-profit to "for-impact" model of our ventures, where our core intuition is not to think what the organization is, but what it does to “impact lives”.
Before applying I had perhaps never realized about the nagging questions like how would I embrace a new world when my part of the world was overwhelmingly different? But yeah… thinking or not…I was here, with my bags clutched tightly and feeling the sudden cold of Colorado, I was making my way out of the airport towards the “Mansion” where I would spend 10 weeks with worlds most inspiring, high impact entrepreneurs… I am crazy.
Sitting down on the sofa at the Mansion, having my first glass of water in Boulder, I had dreaded the first ever moment I came in… how would it all be like? How would I ever be able to cope with the differences and am I going to take back all what I aim to do so….?
But now, I am sitting on that very sofa, looking around myself as a bunch of fellows, mentors and unreasonable team sitting, talking, working around the huge room…I feel like nothing could have been more perfect. It is perfect when I look around and find the gaze of Jasmine and we smile to each other, it is perfect now as Teju and Jehan are hugging and laughing, it is just so perfect as Maria and Benjamin are deep in discussion about new strategies in their work…… I am at home.
Its been one week, first of the 10 week and 9 to go. These 7 days have just
been amazing… so much of learning! Overload of information. Overdose of excitement and like Guido says overdose of Awesomeness! The week was packed with mentor sessions, office hours, opening reception, and peer education in many” Unreasonable” ways.Kerry Suddes was our first mentor, who had the greatest power to shift us from for-profit, non-profit to "for-impact" model of our ventures, where our core intuition is not to think what the organization is, but what it does to “impact lives”.
Bob Pattillo , who shifted my whole paradigm of typical investors, from those of critical to out-of-the box thinkers. His passion towards what we did was amazing which engaged us in great discussions with him and made us look forward for his arrival in the next coming weeks!
Scott Sherman, Focusing on Networking and solving conflicts, which to some of us are the main problems we face in our ventures. He has an amazing spirit and passion towards wha
t he does which set us up with great enthusiasm about our approaches as well.
Paul Polak, We had a great discussion on how profit to some problems became almost the only way to solve some issues around the world: 30 minutes with Paul Polak.
Ryan Fix: The deep discussion and talks with Ryan proved to us all about how he engages himself to look at the human part of entrepreneurship, which in certain conditions is forgotten. Ryan is kind of a person who can focus your mind to using creativity and innovation towards making a huge difference in this world.
t he does which set us up with great enthusiasm about our approaches as well.Paul Polak, We had a great discussion on how profit to some problems became almost the only way to solve some issues around the world: 30 minutes with Paul Polak.
Ryan Fix: The deep discussion and talks with Ryan proved to us all about how he engages himself to look at the human part of entrepreneurship, which in certain conditions is forgotten. Ryan is kind of a person who can focus your mind to using creativity and innovation towards making a huge difference in this world.
Ross Baird: An amazing two hours session on Village Capital investment in the Unreasonable Institute! We couldn’t have been more excited.
Joy Anderson: Joy didn’t expect so many hands to be raised when she asked if we wanted office hours to discuss legal structures of our ventures. The whole room had gone wild, and our office hours ran for-ever. Joy made it very clear about the structure we could develop and the legal advice from her was something that Sughar and others perhaps needed the most.
Pamela Hawley, She would smile at you the first minute to warm the room, as she did. We had wonderful discussions on the structure of Universal Giving and global philanthropy.
Yesterday it was Revi Sterling, the energetic, young women with spirit that really could move mountains. Amazingly even with the fully packed week previously all of us wanted extra time with her after the two hours mentor session!
These were the mentors, but the huge amount of learning and sharing that came in between is something hard to put in words, for me it’s been a great transformation of myself where I am visibly seeing myself growing each second of my time surrounded by powerful force for change.
Little things among all have been the tremendous importance to me and now when my feet feel sore, my back ache’s, my head swings with overload and my heart beats with excitement, I recall the volleyball, trampoline, vanilla ice cream, huge slides, creek festival, Celebrations, American food, water rafting, using silverware, walking that broke all my previous records, speaking English constantly, Pictionary, scramble, University of Colorado, the word “Unreasonable”, dogs with each walking person, swearing during volleyball and every other little thing with a big difference, I say good bye to the first week of the first ever Unreasonable Institute! I am not sure if I am sad to let the first 7 days to pass or excited that tomorrow I wake up with this amazing environment of Unreasonableness.
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