In our first course, we walked through the Syllabus and Module system of AMGT 3013. We meet every Monday (except for two, Labor Day and Thanksgiving week) for live sessions. These classes are imperative to your success in the course. By Wednesday of each week, you can be assured that the corresponding week's module will comprise the entirety of what you need to study/review.

Assignments appear in the Module week they are assigned. These may not (and are usually not) when they are due. The due dates are clearly marked under the title of the assignments within the Module page, as well as within the assignment document.

The main takeaway is that you need to first know what you have (an idea, a company, a project, or a career aspiration) in order to know what to fund. You will be surprised to note how many individuals begin first with the premise that they do not have the money or resources. You may have heard many times the sentence: "If only I had XYZ, I would be set." If we're honest, we may have uttered these very sentiments ourselves.

The First Task

This week, I encourage you to think about your idea -- it could be a new discovery/passion or it could be that creative itch you've always wanted to explore. I want you to list for yourself the three things that need to be solved in order for this idea to be a success. Work backwards from an optimum place: The idea at the height of success. Sometimes this takes time and patience to really fight through. This is normal because we often stop thinking about the full success of the idea once we hit our first obstacle. So let's get those obstacles out of the way.

Our greatest potential is often thrown out at the first perceived obstacle. We obsess about what we don't have instead of what we would do if we had it. We stop thinking rigorously and creatively about the idea -- and start thinking impassively and negatively about the one perceived thing we need to get started. If you were to go the school today and try to enter the building and the door is locked, you would not stand there (or worse, walk away and abandon the idea of going to school). You would try the other door or walk around the building to find other possible entrances. Yet somehow, if we're honest, the majority of our great ideas languish because we don't feel it's worth exploring it further.

Common obstacles:

Money
A specific logistic.
The right people/talent

Bring these to class and let's see how we treat these with the right questions. It's incredible what can happen if we ask the right questions.

How this complete task might look:

An enumerated list as I had set out above of the first things that come to mind -- which represent often where we commonly stop thinking productively about what can be. You might choose to write specifics: The amount of money, the specific logistic and why it's vital, the difficulty in securing the right talent, etc.

The Second Task

Think about all the things you need to make this idea happen. If you were an ice cream shop, you would think about of course the procurement of ice cream (purchase or self-made?), equipment needed (scoops, ice cream making machines, freezers), advertising budget, cash register, etc. You will realize you need to think about how many of each consideration (that is, how many ice cream scoops for example) you will need as well.

Make a rough list of all the elements you will need -- items, people, salaries, etc. It will likely not be complete by next week, but we will take what you have and we will put on display how we approach these "obstacles" in an organized way.

Our next class will deal with how we flesh out each obstacle and consideration in a manageable way, and undergo a process which allows for insight.

How this complete task might look:

A bullet point list with all of the considerations in place. You might have something like:

- Freezer (3 - approximately $1,000 each)
- Display freezers (2 - approximately $1,200 each)
- Ice cream scoops (25 - $3 each)
- ...etc

WHY?

You will not be graded on this, but you will find having thought about the above very helpful in class next week. We are doing this because this is the first step to effective fundraising and development: Knowing what you are trying to enable and knowing how that enablement might look.