What would you do in order to make as much money as possible if you were given five dollars and two hours?
This is an assignment which Tina Seelig–the Stanford Technology Ventures Program’s Executive Director–often gives to her students.
I came across a lecture on “The Art of Teaching Entrepreneurship and Innovation” given by Seelig at Stanford in May of this year, which is based on her book, What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20: A Crash Course on Making Your Place in the World
Below you’ll find some of the pearls of wisdom which Seelig shares in her talk.
Five Dollars and Two Hours
Seelig explains that when she’s teaching classes on entrepreneurship she often asks her students to form teams, and she gives each team an envelope which she tells them contains “seed funding”. There are five dollars in the envelope, but the students have no idea how much seed money is contained in the sealed envelope.
They’re given from Wednesday afternoon until Sunday evening, and are told that they can use as much of that time as they want to come up with a money-making plan. However, once they open the envelope, they have two hours to generate as much money as possible. The students are encouraged to do the following:
- Identify opportunities.
- Challenge assumptions.
- Leverage their limited resources (time and money).
- Be creative.
On Sunday evening each team has to send Seelig a slide telling her what they did. Then, on Monday, each team has three minutes to present their project to the class.
What are some of the ideas people typically come up with when presented with a challenge of this sort? They usually say they would use the seed money to purchase start up materials for a lemonade stand or a car wash. This is fine if you want to make just a few dollars in the two hours. But if you want to create as much value as possible in those two hours you have to seriously challenge traditional assumptions.
In fact, Seelig explains that the teams that make the most money don’t use the five dollars at all. They realize that focusing on the money frames the problem too tightly: asking “What can I do with five dollars?” is too limiting.
Instead, they ask: “What can I do to make money in two hours if all I have are my observation skills–the ability to observe problems others are having–and my talents?” The winning teams typically bring in over $600 after asking themselves this question.
For example, one team identified a problem that is quite common in college towns: the long lines at popular restaurants on Saturday night. The team booked reservations at several restaurants; then, as the times for their reservations approached, they sold the reservations for up to twenty dollars to people who were happy not to have to wait in line.
Another team set up a stand in front of the student union where they offered to measure bicycle tire pressure for free. If the tires needed filling they would add air for a dollar. When they realized how appreciative people were of this service they decided to stop charging a dollar and ask for donations instead. What they found is that most people donated more than a dollar. Experimenting along the way, and adjusting their strategy accordingly, paid off!
The team that made the most money looked at their resources from a completely different lens. These students concluded that their most precious resource were the three minutes they were going to be given on Monday to give their presentation to the class.
They sold the three minutes to a company that wanted to recruit the students in the class. The team created a three minute “commercial” for the company and showed it to the students during their presentation time.
Here’s a six-minute clip in which Seelig talks about this assignment:
Some of the lessons to be learned from this are the following:
- We often limit ourselves unnecessarily. What self-imposed limitations are holding you back?
- Question your assumptions.
- Opportunities lie in solving problems for others. Seelig often tells her students that the bigger the problem, the bigger the opportunity.
- Look at the world as opportunity rich.
- Be willing to go outside of your comfort zone. You have to be willing to take risks and do things you haven’t done before.
- Planning is important, but you have to get out there and test your theories. Take corrective action as needed.
What would you have done if you had been given this assignment?
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