I saw this interview with Seth Godin today and this bit stuck in my brain:

This is easy. There’s a picture that I just saw online two days ago. Monday I have this seminar I’m running for free for college students and I’m going to show them this picture before we start.

The thing about the picture that’s pathetic, beyond the notion that you need to spam the audience at graduation with a note saying you’re looking for a job, is that you went $150,000 in debt and spent four years of your life so someone else could pick you. That’s ridiculous. It really makes me sad to see that. The opportunity of a lifetime is to pick yourself. Quit waiting to get picked; quit waiting for someone to give you permission; quit waiting for someone to say you are officially qualified and pick yourself. It doesn’t mean you have to be an entrepreneur or a freelancer, but it does mean you stand up and say, “I have something to say. I know how to do something. I’m doing it. If you want me to do it with you, raise your hand.”

via The Great Discontent (TGD).

This really ties into what I am thinking I should be doing with my students in college. Give them the tools and desire to go create and make things happen. This idea was repeated by Neil LaBute when he visited campus back in 2005. When asked about advice for students getting into Theater and film he said they should essentially create their own opportunities and “make your own fun.”

Neil LaBute – Sage Advice (and Making your own Fun) from Owen Collins on Vimeo.

IN this day and age, memorization of knowledge is not as important as it used to be. But generating ideas and synthesizing knowledge is more important. And what is more important than thinking up ideas is making them happen. An idea isn’t the most important thing, making it happen is. That is what everyone graduating needs to learn.