I signed up for “A course for freelancers who want to move
up” by Seth Godin, which is kind of odd because I’m not at all a freelancer . .
. at least right now I’m not. It cost me $27.00, so I’m taking it pretty
seriously.
Anyway, after the first four lectures I was given the task
to “Do these exercises online, in public. Blog them or put them on Facebook.
Speak up. Speak out.”
Well now, that kind of creeps me out because I’m honestly a
closet introvert, so sharing the answers to the six questions of this first
quiz to the countless thousands that read this blog (*cough, choke*) is a bit
intimidating.
Regardless, here goes!
What do you want to
do? (Not your job, but your work, now, tomorrow, and in the future?
This first question really threw me and, to make matters
worse, in an italicized asterisk-ed statement Godin said that “If you’re having trouble answering this,
you’re going to have trouble moving up, because you’ve abdicated your dream to
whoever walks in the door next.” OUCH!
Had he asked “What do you want to see done?” instead of
“What do you want to do?”, I would have said that I want to see the world in
general, and Christian private higher ed in particular, to quit running to the
government with hat in hand looking for yet another handout. I personally know
of only two accredited colleges that have completely rejected the US Department
of Education’s Title IV funding, and the myriad strings (or more accurately
ropes and chains) that go with it. I marvel at their conviction and commitment,
and the hard work it took to get them there.
But what can I, a singular CFO at a small private Christian
college do to see that happen at my school . . . or more importantly, across
all of Christian higher education?
Who do you want to
change, and how do you want to change them?
How can such a simple question make me sit here and think so
long? It isn’t “who” I want to change, but “what” I want to change . . . or see
changed. (I clearly haven’t accepted this as my personal responsibility yet.)
But then again, doesn’t “what” begin with “who”? I want to
see college presidents and trustees change the conventional wisdom that their
institutions must have those government grants and loans in order for their
students to pay for their education, or in other words, for their institutions
to survive.
How? Well, we know at least two colleges have already done
it. Why not just ask? (Which, by the way, I have already done.) Why couldn’t
every private Christian college do this, or better yet, why couldn’t a
consortium of private Christian colleges create a gigantic grant / loan
fund similar to (but more efficient
than) the government’s?
How much risk? (from
1 [a little] to 10 [bet everything]), how much are you willing to put at stake
to make the change you
seek?
I “preach” risk taking to my business and economics
students, but personally am a rather risk averse person. What I’m proposing is
a really big deal, and probably impossible when you consider all of the
personalities that would have to be on board.
I can’t think of anything off the top of my head on which
I’d “bet everything”, but on this project I might score myself a 5. For me,
that’s the equivalent of “bet everything”.
How much work are you
willing to do to get there? Be specific about the tradeoffs.
Well, what I do know is that ever since I visited Hillsdale
and Grove City, I’ve not been able to get it out of my head, and quite frankly
my heart. Passion about any idea transforms work into fun, but it’s still work
and takes a lot of time, this being no exception. My full time gig does position me well to
pursue this to a certain degree, and my recent appointment to the ABACC (Association of Business Administrators of
Christian Colleges) board provides yet another venue. I would use those connections
to begin the “preaching and evangelization” process.
Sitting here thinking about it for a few minutes, I realize
that the “preaching and evangelization” process has actually been going-on for
2 or 3 years now, and following a recent list-serve dialogue with peers across
the ABACC membership, Bruce Hoeker, the Chief of ABACC, has determined to set
up a webinar to dig more deeply into it. What does that say about willingness?
Does this project
matter enough for the risk and the effort you’re putting into it?
In the words of Tom Arington, a successful entrepreneur I
highly respect, “It matters”. The real question is, “Can I convince enough
other Presidents, CFOs, and financial backers into believing it matters?” That,
quite frankly, I honestly do not know.
Is it possible — has
anyone with your resources ever pulled off anything like this?
As I said earlier, it’s definitely been done, but not at the
scale I’m dreaming.
Thus ends the first assignment of this course, and I’ve
worked off and on all weekend to get it done. Geez, this is worse than my MBA
days!!
