Ignite Portland

I'm just a guy who wants to have fun.

It is often said youth is wasted on the young, and I am making the most of it. In a society where a reasonably intelligent reasonably well educated person is generally capable of just about anything, why do we so often do so little with our potential?

As a case in point:

I'm a reasonably smart guy, variously capable of just about anything, and yet I have nearly perfected the art of doing far too good a job faking it in occupations I am uninterested in beyond simple intrigue and am in general overqualified for as well.

Just a few weeks ago I finished up my bachelors degree. After fourteen semesters in college well spread over the past thirteen years, I am finally finished. I changed my major well over a dozen times and I believe overall I am pretty well qualified for whatever unemployment may send my way.

I have worked nearly half my life in the construction industry, the last several of them as an owner. After I left construction I worked in some great restaurants, I thought being a consultant sounded like fun, but I'm still trying to find out what it is that a consultant does.

So, the question is, what do I want to do when I grow up? I want to change the world. How, that's a bit more complicated. And the focus of this presentation.