Fabian Pfortmüller on How Ambition Enables Aspirations

In Chapter 10 of 19 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview, community builder and entrepreneur Fabian Pfortmüller shares what he has learned about the value of ambition and its role shaping aspirations.  Over time, Fabian learns to embrace ambition and its intended outcomes to better understand his own aspirational path to working with others to create positive change.  Pfortmüller is co-founder of Sandbox Network (www.sandbox-network.com).  He also co-founded an innovation think tank, Incubaker (www.incubaker.com), and is part of the group's first spin-off, Holstee (www.holstee.com), an apparel brand for people who would like to wear their passion.  Pfortmüller graduated from Columbia University and its School of General Studies. 

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen: How has your aspiration changed as you’ve gotten older?

Fabian Pfortmüller: I hope I know better who I am and what I want over time and one of the things that I realizes is what I do actually doesn’t matter that much as long as I can be in control of things and can kind of design my own life and at the same time also work with the people that I really love.

And that has changed because at the beginning I would say my aspiration over time has shaped my ambition and at the beginning I was very ambitious and very driven to do something but there wasn’t much beyond being ambitious and I didn’t know why to be ambitious and now I think I start to slowly recognize why it’s worthwhile to be ambitious, it’s worthwhile to be ambitious to be surrounded by beautiful people and work with them. It’s worthwhile to be ambitious to realize ideas and it’s worthwhile to create something because someone else is going to profit from that, you can actually create value in it. And so as I get older I hopefully start to better understand the why of things and why I do stuff.

Fabian Pfortmüller on How an Entrepreneur Creates Rules for Success

In Chapter 9 of 19 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview, community builder and entrepreneur Fabian Pfortmüller shares how he is learning to define success and failure. He finds failure is about delivering mediocre results or doing something irrelevant or mismatched to what someone wants. This frames his view of success, which is less about quantifiable success and more about surrounding yourself with those you love. Pfortmüller is co-founder of Sandbox Network (www.sandbox-network.com). He also co-founded an innovation think tank, Incubaker (www.incubaker.com), and is part of the group's first spin-off, Holstee (www.holstee.com), an apparel brand for people who would like to wear their passion. Pfortmüller graduated from Columbia University and its School of General Studies.

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen: How do you define and measure success in what you do?

Fabian Pfortmüller: I really believe that as I get older I start to better understand what success really means to me. Success used to be very easy quantifiable in terms of numbers, you know? And that was the first measurement of success but as I start to gain a little bit of experience step by step I would say I get a better grasp of what success means and success obviously has to do with motivation, what really motivates you in the end and for me, right now it is really about being my own boss, being able to shape my own environment.

Being able to say ‘Okay, I designed my life and how I run my life’ and then be surrounded and be with the people I really love that’s really what counts and if what you create actually is valuable and it’s being used and [laughs] and is in that way successful that is great, but right now that for me is even secondary.

Already having that environment and living like that is worthwhile in itself and I believe when it comes to success on a project level there’s two things which I can say what is failure for me, maybe that kind of as the contrast to success is delivering something that is mediocre and delivering something that people don’t want and don’t need. And as a consequence success is delivering something that people really need and want and not just doing a good product but doing really the coolest product and the best product out there, whatever it is, I believe that’s success.

Fabian Pfortmüller on How High School Teaches Future Entrepreneur Business

In Chapter 8 of 19 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview, community builder and entrepreneur Fabian Pfortmüller shares how high school student government experience in Switzerland taught him fundamentals he uses today as an entrepreneur. He learns critical thinking, project planning and the perils of volunteer accountability. These experiences all contribute to Fabian's actions as an entrepreneur. Pfortmüller is co-founder of Sandbox Network (www.sandbox-network.com). He also co-founded an innovation think tank, Incubaker (www.incubaker.com), and is part of the group's first spin-off, Holstee (www.holstee.com), an apparel brand for people who would like to wear their passion. Pfortmüller graduated from Columbia University and its School of General Studies.

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen: How has your student government experience benefited you as an entrepreneur?

Fabian Pfortmüller: So I started in high school doing student government stuff and first of all, we didn’t achieve anything. We didn’t achieve anything what so ever at all. We talked a lot, we organized big things and there was no output out of it. Doesn’t matter. I think what we learned was… first of all I think we really developed a good feeling of how much we can rely on people, very, very important aspect that I’ve seen throughout my project is that, you know once we started out we were like, ‘Oh, could you help us do this? Oh, you said yes, that means he’s going to do it’. Of course he’s not going to do it and realizing that… I don’t want to say that that’s generally true that this person’s not going to do it but my experience has shown me it’s where I’ve had to be critical.

Rather putting good project management place to ensure that person really does it and put pressure on that person, recurring pressure on that person to actually do it, I think that was one of the learnings. Second, I would say had a lot to do with planning in the sense that I just met people who could plan and there were other peoples who could not plan and I was one of the second ones who could not plan [laughs] and being able to see other people who would do their stuff not in the last minute but had a project plan and would lay out their things and would reach out to you two months before, that was really good to see, that was very interesting to see what they could achieve and I believe one of the biggest things that I realized while I was doing student government was that voluntary work is very hard to work with, in my opinion. I think if you don’t pay someone and you don’t have a very clear contract or somewhat of a transaction with someone it’s very hard to really plan with that person and to get to the output that you had in mind.

Fabian Pfortmüller on What is the First Step to Living Your Dream

In Chapter 7 of 19 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview, community builder and entrepreneur Fabian Pfortmüller shares how he encourages others to take the first step to living their dream. The first step is that taking action on a dream means you cannot fail. He finds the fear of failure holds back people from acting on dreams and pursuing their respective passion. He lives his own dream by asking himself often what is success. Pfortmüller is co-founder of Sandbox Network (www.sandbox-network.com). He also co-founded an innovation think tank, Incubaker (www.incubaker.com), and is part of the group's first spin-off, Holstee (www.holstee.com), an apparel brand for people who would like to wear their passion. Pfortmüller graduated from Columbia University and its School of General Studies.

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen: When you advise others to live their dream what do you advise they do to take the first step?

Fabian Pfortmüller: So, I meet a lot of people and I always encourage them to live their dream and I think many people say ‘Yeah, you know I’d love to’ I mean who wouldn’t want to live their dream, right? And what I try to convince them of as a first step is that they can’t fail. I really believe so that – I think that especially applies to us being here in the US and in Europe and… the fortunate environments that we have that we have many people we have to do with and that might not apply to someone who is in India and has nothing to eat but most people I deal with in my daily life, they can’t fail, they have food, they have shelter, they have good education, usually they have enough money, there is no struggle for survival and seriously realizing that, incorporating that and acting upon that I think is one of the most important first steps, because I believe that’s what holds a lot of people back is kind of a very deep down sense of ‘I’m totally utterly going to fail and I’m going to end up on the streets’. If you tell them, ‘Look, you’re not going to be that successful in the first few years and so-‘ I think people can deal with that, people can deal with that but deep down they have to have the fear that they always dreamed of being an artist but perusing that is going to bring them out in the streets and I believe that’s wrong.

Erik Michielsen: How are you living your own dream?

Fabian Pfortmüller: Asking myself very often what I want and what really drives me, what is success? Having that question very close to me and asking it very, very regularly that helps me to live my dream. Because in order to live your dream you need to know what your dream is and one of the qualities of life, maybe in general but particularly in my life, is that it goes on very fast and things come up and they’re very noisy and they speak to you very loud voices that sometimes the important things get pushed backwards you know? And keep them very close to… the forward part of your brain so to speak I think that’s what helps me to live my dreams. In a practical sense it is by doing what I love kind of working on Holstee, working on Sandbox and being here in New York you know, that’s my dream right now.

Fabian Pfortmüller on How to Rethink Career and Find Fulfilling Work

In Chapter 6 of 19 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview, community builder and entrepreneur Fabian Pfortmüller shares why he challenges traditional career planning thinking.  He feels careers are built upon societal norms and ways of thinking.  He offers instead non-linear options built on modular experiences and a stronger embrace of uncertainty and the unknown.  Pfortmüller finds this approach more fulfilling and in line with his passions and interests.  Pfortmüller is co-founder of Sandbox Network (www.sandbox-network.com).  He also co-founded an innovation think tank, Incubaker (www.incubaker.com), and is part of the group's first spin-off, Holstee (www.holstee.com), an apparel brand for people who would like to wear their passion.  Pfortmüller graduated from Columbia University and its School of General Studies. 

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen: Why do you encourage others to investigate nontraditional careers?

Fabian Pfortmüller: I really believe in nontraditional careers because I don’t believe in careers. And already saying ‘Do a nontraditional career’ means do not the thing that you should be doing or the normal thing and I believe that’s totally wrong. You know the career that is laid out for you and has the several modules where you start at school and you go to university and you have a job and you have a better job and you go from there… I’m not sure if that’s what life’s about.

I encourage myself to really think hard, is that something that I actually want because career the way we know it and I think that’s very prominent here in the US is not defined by yourself, it’s defined by society. And I’m not sure if I want to have my life for the next thirty, forty years laid out by society values, I’d rather have them laid out by my own values. And I can see – I can give you an example that I believe being at Columbia I’m surrounded by lots of really smart kids who – they have the talents the skills to do anything in the world.

So, my question is why should they do exactly that, why should they go and go into classical ibanking, and consulting careers and legal and medical if they have the skills for everything? And I believe it has a lot to do with stability. Career has to do with stability, it’s kind of a widely accepted way of leading your life and I just, I’m willing to take the instability of not knowing exactly what’s coming next and looking at it in modular ways of ‘Well you do first this and then maybe this and then this and then maybe something else afterwards’ and it might not be linear of just going up, it might be up and down and sideways and so on, I think that’s more fulfilling for me personally.

Fabian Pfortmüller on How to Avoid Information Overload and Find Inspiration Online

In Chapter 5 of 19 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview, community builder and entrepreneur Fabian Pfortmüller talks about how he finds inspiration by pursuing information beyond the obvious.  He finds it easy to quickly get overloaded with general information - too many tabs - and too little knowledge gained.  As a result, he pushes himself to go beyond general news and information consumption and find more challenging content and story.  Pfortmüller is co-founder of Sandbox Network (www.sandbox-network.com).  He also co-founded an innovation think tank, Incubaker (www.incubaker.com), and is part of the group's first spin-off, Holstee (www.holstee.com), an apparel brand for people who would like to wear their passion.  Pfortmüller graduated from Columbia University and its School of General Studies. 

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen: What do you mean when you say that your interests lie at anything beyond the obvious?

Fabian Pfortmüller:  I believe we live in a world full of information and you know when I open my computer in the morning and I make up a browser, I suddenly have opened twenty tabs, I’m sure you know what that feeling is and I think the interesting information today, at least for me, are the ones where I learn something, where I kind of get inspired and where it goes a little deeper, it goes beyond the obvious information where you read it and it’s kind of ‘Oh, okay I consumed that information’, but I haven’t taken anything out of it.

And I think the obvious takes the information that far but I feel that the good – the gold nuggets can be found in… especially people who are willing to take some risk when they write stories and are willing to really go deeper and kind of push it a little bit the ball further and that’s what I really love.

Fabian Pfortmüller on What to Consider When Choosing a College Major

In Chapter 4 of 19 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview, community builder and entrepreneur Fabian Pfortmüller shares his approach to choosing a college major.  He advises others to consider non-practical approaches, focusing less on choosing based on career path and more on learning from a diverse array of subjects.  Over time, typically two years, the diverse experiences allow for a more personalized and fitting choice.  Pfortmüller is co-founder of Sandbox Network (www.sandbox-network.com).  He also co-founded an innovation think tank, Incubaker (www.incubaker.com), and is part of the group's first spin-off, Holstee (www.holstee.com), an apparel brand for people who would like to wear their passion.  Pfortmüller graduated from Columbia University and its School of General Studies. 

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen: What should college students consider when choosing a major?

Fabian Pfortmüller: I personally believe that they should not go for practical output for practical reasons such as ‘This is going to allow me to do X, Y and Z in my career’. I think having the courage and the guts to disconnect your studies and especially undergrad but I personally believe even grad studies, from a practical, applicable knowledge for your career is a great thing.

Because in the end, you know look at how people recruit, yes they like to recruit – like if you want to go into business, yes they like to recruit business people but at the same time this is not what going to really matter afterwards in the job. And so I can only recommend for people to try and try out as many things as possible, most diverse as possible in first one, two years, don’t settle too easily for something, be critical to yourself, try totally random stuff and then go for what you really feel most passionate about.

In my case, I had a class on music in the Middle East and India and I realized that’s cool, that’s interesting but it was music. I had a class on philosophy, I had a class on social inequality in China and from all those things in the end you have to kind of also start understand what is a good professor? What is a nice department? I mean obviously the major and the topic itself matters but I think there are also departments and departments. And I am at the department which is called Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures and people are just very relaxed and people are very open and I believe that makes a big difference.

Fabian Pfortmüller on Why to Learn Arabic and Study Middle Eastern Languages

In Chapter 3 of 19 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview, community builder and entrepreneur Fabian Pfortmüller shares why he went with his gut feeling in choosing to major in Middle Eastern Language and Culture at Columbia University. After enjoying travels to the Middle East and experiencing the food and culture, Pfortmüller considers the short and long term benefits of learning Arabic language. Learning the language not only opens future doors to living and working abroad in the Middle East, but also provides short term benefit to understand Arabic language based current events and news. Pfortmüller is co-founder of Sandbox Network (www.sandbox-network.com). He also co-founded an innovation think tank, Incubaker (www.incubaker.com), and is part of the group's first spin-off, Holstee (www.holstee.com), an apparel brand for people who would like to wear their passion. Pfortmüller graduated from Columbia University and its School of General Studies.

Transcript:

Erik Michelsen: How has majoring in Middle Eastern languages built upon your fascination with global culture?

Fabian Pfortmüller: I traveled a few times in that area in the Middle East and you know as always I guess when I made a big decision in my life it was so random and it was more based on a gut feeling and a love for something than a rational process, same goes for me doing Middle Eastern languages and cultures. When I was traveling there I loved the people, I loved the food, food is a very important aspect of how I make decisions in my life, I loved the culture and I really felt that… cultures in general are very interesting but I won’t be able to understand them all, I have to start somewhere kind of digging deeper.

I can read the New York Times and the Economist and get kind of a general sense of what’s going on but going back to study is a great opportunity to dig deeper in one specific hole and hey, I had this passion for the Middle East, why not dig deeper there? Because that would also allow me, because now we’re studying Arabic, to actually live there at some point and while I can say now after my Arabic, which is very intense, I do two or three hours of homework everyday on just Arabic but – and it’s still on the level of, I don’t know, first grader I guess but it’s cool because I watch the news right now what’s going on the Middle East and we have all the protest in Egypt and so on and I understand kind of what’s going on and I can read little bit of the newspapers and I can watch Al Jazeera and kind of get the grasp of it and that’s really, that’s really cool.

Fabian Pfortmüller on How Columbia General Studies Educates a Nontraditional Student

In Chapter 2 of 19 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview, community builder and entrepreneur Fabian Pfortmüller shares how getting into Columbia University comes about after not getting into his first school. Applying only after taking several years to work after high school, he finds comfort at Columbia University's School of General Studies. The program is designed for nontraditional career paths, including incoming students coming from performing arts and the military. Pfortmüller is co-founder of Sandbox Network (www.sandbox-network.com). He also co-founded an innovation think tank, Incubaker (www.incubaker.com), and is part of the group's first spin-off, Holstee (www.holstee.com), an apparel brand for people who would like to wear their passion. Pfortmüller graduated from Columbia University and its School of General Studies.

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen: Why did you decide to attend Columbia University?

Fabian Pfortmüller: The honest answer is I originally wanted to study in the UK and no school accepted me, that’s the honest answer and I started applying in the US kind of as a consequence of that and suddenly schools started to accept me and really good schools started to accept me and I just realized that I was not an extraordinarily good student from my high school grades but I had something to show, not good grades but I had a lot of extracurricular activities.

And apparently that can be clearly seen with the process of my applications, this was valued much more here in the US than it was in the UK. But in the end it was very clear New York was the place to be, I’m a big city person, Columbia seemed like a really amazing place and Columbia has a special program which it calls the School of General Studies, which is a normal college degree you do but you have all kinds of, they call it atypical students. Students who have been entrepreneurs, students who have been in the army, who have been professional artists or have been in sports to have a college for those people to go back and make a degree and I couldn’t be happier than being there really, like it’s a fantastic place.

Erik Michielsen: Tell me more about the general studies program and how have your peers in that program inspired you?

Fabian Pfortmüller: You know I always felt little bit like a freak, especially when it comes to education but as a young entrepreneur I guess at large you’re a little bit like a freak, you decided not to go for that classical career and that’s a hard decision to take if everyone else goes straight to university becomes a banker or a consultant goes off he makes his career, does an MBA goes into middle management and then he has kids and family and that’s pretty much it and not doing that feels kind of cool but at the same time it also needs quite a lot of courage.

And I felt a freak until I came to Columbia and I saw that there’re lots of people like me and it feels really good to see that it’s absolutely normal to have an atypical education way and I would recommend it to anyone. And I think that gives me self confidence, that gives me self confidence with saying ‘I’m twenty-eight, I’m just graduating with my bachelors in May’ and it’s totally fine, it’s totally normal, you know? And I think that’s great.

Fabian Pfortmüller on Why to Work in Between High School and College

In Chapter 1 of 19 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview, community builder and entrepreneur Fabian Pfortmüller shares why he chose to work after high school and wait until turning 25 to enter college. Upon graduating high school, Pfortmüller pursues an entrepreneurial passion until he builds an intellectual curiosity in the college experience. Only then does he choose to attend Columbia University while continuing to build upon his passion for bringing startup ideas to life as an entrepreneur. Pfortmüller is co-founder of Sandbox Network (www.sandbox-network.com). He also co-founded an innovation think tank, Incubaker (www.incubaker.com), and is part of the group's first spin-off, Holstee (www.holstee.com), an apparel brand for people who would like to wear their passion. Pfortmüller graduated from Columbia University and its school of General Studies.

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen: How did holding off a couple years on attending college impact your professional development?

Fabian Pfortmüller: I think for me this has been one of the best thing ever, I tell you what was the source of my entrepreneurial desire: being bored at school, okay? Like the reason I become an entrepreneur was that I was so bored at school and that it drove literally into trying entrepreneurial things and I realize that when I was going out of high school that I was suddenly free and that I could do whatever I wanted that why should I go back to school at this point?

And I believe it was a great experience to use that energy and that curiosity then for doing work and trying out different things, especially coming out of high school you have nothing to lose, right? I mean what do you have to lose? You know I felt that working was a very fulfilling experience but it wasn’t the most intellectually challenging one. It took me to be twenty-five to feel that intellectual curiosity and I felt that it was a much better moment to go then back school.

And the same time also being at school having all that experience, having managed your own company, built complex projects and I don’t know managed teams, that helps you to deal with the hustle and bustle of school life and I’m sure I have no idea how I would have managed through school being twenty and I’ve very impressed with the others who do that, I would have just kind of collapsed probably.

How Learning to Say No Helps Small Business Grow - Michael Margolis

In Chapter 13 of 13 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with Erik Michielsen, storyteller and entrepreneur Michael Margolis shares how learning to say no is helping his storytelling small business grow. Margolis builds a platform of products and services growing his business and learns, as with story editing, there is immense value in editing initiatives and refining priorities. Margolis is the founder and president of Get Storied (http://www.getstoried.com), an education and publishing platform dedicated to teaching the world how to think in narrative. As a consultant, educator and writer he uses storytelling to create more effective branding, innovation and culture change. Margolis earned a B.A. in Cultural Anthropology from Tufts University.

How Curiosity and Momentum Enable Career Vision - Michael Margolis

In Chapter 12 of 13 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with Erik Michielsen, storyteller and entrepreneur Michael shares how momentum and building exit, or escape, velocity pair with lifelong learning and curiosity to help him define and measure his success as a storytelling evangelist. Margolis Margolis is the founder and president of Get Storied (http://www.getstoried.com), an education and publishing platform dedicated to teaching the world how to think in narrative. As a consultant, educator and writer he uses storytelling to create more effective branding, innovation and culture change. Margolis earned a B.A. in Cultural Anthropology from Tufts University.

How to Reinvent Yourself and Make a Successful Career Change - Michael Margolis

In Chapter 11 of 13 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with Erik Michielsen, storyteller and entrepreneur Michael notes what role reinvention plays in creating and executing a career change. He notes how reinvention and career change is about moving from an old story to a new story. The inherent challenge here is not finding the new story but creating a story about your transition others can believe and support. To do this, Margolis recommends using your past to legitimize the future. Margolis Margolis is the founder and president of Get Storied (http://www.getstoried.com), an education and publishing platform dedicated to teaching the world how to think in narrative. As a consultant, educator and writer he uses storytelling to create more effective branding, innovation and culture change. Margolis earned a B.A. in Cultural Anthropology from Tufts University.

Why Having a Story Worth Telling Trumps How You Tell It - Michael Margolis

In Chapter 10 of 13 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with Erik Michielsen, storyteller and entrepreneur Michael shares why having a story worth telling matters more than how you tell it. Margolis offers multiple perspectives, from those who take the initial step accepting storytelling as communication to leaders who develop mastery understanding what story to tell and why to tell it. He details how the storytelling process, and resulting emotional attraction, comes from giving and contribution. Margolis Margolis is the founder and president of Get Storied (http://www.getstoried.com), an education and publishing platform dedicated to teaching the world how to think in narrative. As a consultant, educator and writer he uses storytelling to create more effective branding, innovation and culture change. Margolis earned a B.A. in Cultural Anthropology from Tufts University.

Why to Tell Stories People Can Identify as Their Own - Michael Margolis

In Chapter 9 of 13 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with Erik Michielsen, storyteller and entrepreneur Michael Margolis shares why successful stories are sincere and worth telling.  Ultimately, it is about telling a story others can believe in and identify as their own.  Margolis is the founder and president of Get Storied (http://www.getstoried.com), an education and publishing platform dedicated to teaching the world how to think in narrative.  As a consultant, educator and writer he uses storytelling to create more effective branding, innovation and culture change.  Margolis earned a B.A. in Cultural Anthropology from Tufts University. 

How to Tell a Better Story - Michael Margolis

In Chapter 8 of 13 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with Erik Michielsen, storyteller and entrepreneur Michael Margolis shares how to tell a better story by focusing on three fundamental story elements. First, it is key to understand the protagonist, the hero, who is sympathetic and relatable. Second, tension is critical. For example, what is the friction or what is the character up against? Third, it is critical to have a clear inciting incident that grabs people's attention and engages an audience. This allows the story to take off. Margolis is the founder and president of Get Storied (http://www.getstoried.com), an education and publishing platform dedicated to teaching the world how to think in narrative. As a consultant, educator and writer he uses storytelling to create more effective branding, innovation and culture change. Margolis earned a B.A. in Cultural Anthropology from Tufts University.

Why to Think in Narrative - Michael Margolis

In Chapter 7 of 13 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with Erik Michielsen, storyteller and entrepreneur Michael Margolis shares what it means to think in narrative. He notes recent brain research that has identified a gene unique to humans that allows us to tell stories from person to person and generation to generation. Arts, business, and education are all rooted in storytelling. Margolis notes anthropology research that over 70% of what we learn is via story. Narrative thinking provides the storytelling vocabulary wich allows us to make sense and meaning of the world around us. Margolis is the founder and president of Get Storied (http://www.getstoried.com), an education and publishing platform dedicated to teaching the world how to think in narrative. As a consultant, educator and writer he uses storytelling to create more effective branding, innovation and culture change. Margolis earned a B.A. in Cultural Anthropology from Tufts University.

Why We Teach What We Need to Learn the Most - Michael Margolis

In Chapter 6 of 13 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with Erik Michielsen, storyteller and entrepreneur Michael Margolis learns to teach what we need to learn the most. He complements this with another aphorism, "We create the drama we seek." He notes how life circumstances, childhood experiences and studies are highly relevant to future choices. Margolis is the founder and president of Get Storied (http://www.getstoried.com), an education and publishing platform dedicated to teaching the world how to think in narrative. As a consultant, educator and writer he uses storytelling to create more effective branding, innovation and culture change. Margolis earned a B.A. in Cultural Anthropology from Tufts University.