Month: August 2013

Chile: The Expat’s Guide Released!

I’m excited to announce that my newest book, Chile: The Expat’s Guide is now out and available for purchase on Amazon! The book gives you the inside scoop about living, working and traveling in Chile from my perspective as a foreigner who has been living in Chile for the better part of the last three years. Whether you’re traveling to Chile for pleasure, coming for business, studying abroad or relocating, reading the book will arm with the knowledge you need to make the best of your stay.

chile expat guide

I cover everything from Chilean culture, history and food to practical tips on where to live, where to go out, dating, travel and much more. Rate five stars on Amazon, the book is 216 pages chock full of the useful information you’ll need to enjoy your time in Chile.

The book comes with a companion website that includes my most updated restaurant guide, service providers that will be useful while you’re in Chile and tips and tricks to survive in the Chilean jungle. For more information, check out the Chile Expat’s Guide website for a full table of contents, the introduction and much more.

Special Offer! If you purchased my first book about Startup Chile, I’m offering 50% off the electronic version. Shoot me an email with a picture of you reading the book and I’ll send you a discount code!

buy startup chile 101 amazon

2013 Forward Technology Festival Starts Tomorrow!

forward techThe 4th annual Forward Technology Festival starts tomorrow in Madison, Wisconsin and runs until August 24th. This year’s version of the Festival has a record 19 events over 10 days and it’s likely that over 5000 people will attend. Although the August 21st’ Forward Technology Conference sold out today, there are still a multitude of ways you can participate in the festival.

The Festival’s  goal is to bring Madison’s technology community together to put on events for a statewide and regional audience and gives people from the community a chance to learn about Wisconsin’s tech community and connect with people from around the state.  There are events for entrepreneurs, investors, technologists, programmers, scientists, makers and anyone who’s interested in the world of tech in Wisconsin. Whether you’re already in the industry or are interested in learning more, I’m confident you’ll enjoy many of the events.

The Festival kicks off tomorrow with the Capital Entrepreneurs Open Social, a chance to hang out with some of Madison’s top entrepreneurs, and the High Tech Happy Hour Pecha Kucha presentations about lessons learned through entrepreneurship. I’ll be speaking about my startup story at the hthh event.

Thursday brings the Badger Startup Summit, an event that invites Wisconsin native and UW alumni entrepreneurs to come back to Madison to connect and share experiences. I’ll also be sharing my experiences about doing business in Madison and Chile, along with a stellar group of Badgers.

I’m also especially excited about the Wisconsin Startup Showcase, Rep. Ron Kind’s panel on Entrepreneurship, the Sector67 Mixer and High Tech Happy Hour. It’s amazing to see how far the Forward Technology Festival has grown since year one in 2010 and I can’t wait for it to kick off tomorrow! Be sure to check out the Forward Tech Festival website to find some events you’re interested in.

Special thanks to Matt Younkle, Bryan Chan , Marc Brakken and Rachel Whitmore for doing the lion’s share of the organizational work!

How To Deal With A Smart, Disruptive School Kid

Or how to deal with a kid like me.

Growing up, I was a teacher’s worst nightmare. I was really smart. I got high standardized test scores. I read books. I went to a top public high school, so I had all of the advantages. But I “never realized my potential” in school.

sleeping in class

I got bad grades. I disrupted class. I challenged teachers’ authority. I slept through class. See preferred technique above. I got the right answers but refused to show my work. I got my first detention in 1st grade music class for tripping a friend, but skipped it to play in the intramural soccer championships. In second grade, I refused to learn cursive because “we’ll never need to use it.” In fourth grade, I refused to write in my assignment notebook because I would finish my homework in class.

In fifth grade I made a teacher’s life miserable because she called people living in Africa in the 1500s “African American” and I never let her live it down. In sixth grade, I flunked art class. In seventh, I got kicked out of an english class for the final two months of the year because I made the teacher cry. In 8th grade, I was written up seemingly 100 times.

In high school, one teacher threatened to flunk me even though I had an A average on my tests because I “wasn’t a good class citizen and didn’t participate in class.” Another teacher referred my case to the guidance counsellor because he thought I had a disease because I slept in his class so much. I even got a death threat from another student because I got a higher grade on my term paper and he couldn’t fathom that I was smart because I didn’t add anything in class. And that’s just scratching the surface.

Why? Because I was a smart boy. I was bored out of my mind. I hated the rules. I didn’t care about the process, just the end product. I was messy. I didn’t have good penmanship. I didn’t like to sit still. I thought I was smarter than the teachers, and in some cases I was.

I was also struggling find my place with my peers, so I took on the role of the class clown. And I was good at it. I challenged authority. I pointed out when teachers were wrong. I did the bare minimum. I made their lives miserable because they were boring me to death.

By the end of high school, I wanted to go to a college that as I liked to put it “treated me like a number, not a name,” where I could do my own thing. I went to Wisconsin, found things I was interested in and have been successful since then.

For some smart kids, school is terrible. It tries to beat the creativity out of you. It tries to make you conform. To write and draw between the lines. Luckily, school never had a chance with me. Many of my smart friends had similar problems. And I’ve met kids and parents who have this same problem today.

So how should schools and parents deal with smart kids who are like me? Here’s a list of ten things parents can do to help their smart kids survive school.

1. Find teachers who are willing to work with you

My parents were at wits end, but they constantly demanded that teachers find challenging work for me, or give me alternative assignments. For example, in fifth grade I read 400 page biography of Jackie Robinson and wrote a book report instead of reading a 75 page book that was assigned. Or in 8th grade when a teacher agreed to let me do my own research papers on topics that I wanted. Thanks Ms. Marco, Ms. Keane, Mr. Lauasser, Mr. Gilbert and more.

2. Demand that your kid learns on his own

My parents didn’t really care what my grades were, but if I wasn’t reading and writing on my own outside of school, I was in trouble. Make a deal with your kid that you’ll relax a bit on grades if they continue to learn outside of school.

3. Tell your kids it’s not acceptable to disrupt other kids’ learning

Although I didn’t always follow this rule, I knew I would get in trouble at home if I was disrupting class for others. That led directly to my sleeping in class kick.

4. Teach Life Lessons

My parents explained that while I may be smarter than some of my teachers and that I was bored, life isn’t fair and that I’d have bosses or businesses dealings with people who were unfair, not as smart as me and where I didn’t get to set the rules.

5. Find a non academic outlet outside of school

My parents pushed me to take up reffing soccer at age 12. It gave me power, responsibility and someone to scream at me when I screwed up. It kept me in line. Check out programs like Exosphe.re, Sector67100state and others in your area.

6. Find what interests your kid and let them work on it

I wrote stories about hockey and soccer. I learned math from baseball stats. I loved learning about foreign countries. I put most of my effort into learning through things I liked. Play to their strengths.

7. Let them fail

Your kid is likely arrogant. Let him fail. I refused to write in my assignment notebook and I forgot my work a few times. My parents didn’t make excuses for me and made me take lower grades.

8. Force him to accept the consequences of his actions

Don’t let him blame other people when he fails and things go wrong.

9. Help him learn from his mistakes

Don’t “I told you so” him. It won’t work. Say “maybe it would have been better if you did X next time” and leave it at that. Your kid is smart. He gets it. He just doesn’t want to admit it.

10. Plan for the long run

My parents always told me that they would be furious if I got bad grades that didn’t let me get into a decent college. They tolerated lots of bullshit as long as I kept decent grades. Set your long term expectations clearly and demand that they follow them.

Did you ever have these problems? How did your parents and teachers deal with you?