Breakthrough Ideas for April 2012

▼Caine Monroy's Imagination & Leonardo da Vinci's CV▼

WHAT DID YOU ACHIEVE IN APRIL? HOW POSITIVE & INSPIRING WAS IT?

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At the time of writing, the official website setup to raise $250,000 for Caine's College Fund

is at $205,729. And the Goldhirsh Foundation which is matching dollar for dollar, donations

to Caine's Arcade Foundation, has pledged to “discover, foster, and fund creativity and entrepreneurship in more young kids like Caine”. If dedication makes careers, this East

L.A. kid reinforced lessons learned in this blog: that wherever you find yourself, you

are bigger than your circumstances. Walled, stagnant thinking says “because you're

here, you're stuck”. Passion is a form of obsession that builds, perfects, iterates

and in the process develops around both a vision and a mission. As Steve Jobs

said, “I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started

Apple in my parents’ garage when I was 20.” Despite Wozniack's technical

input, we know it was Job's entrepreneurial spirit that got Apple off to a

good start. Monroy had the foresight, professionalism and salesmanship

to factor in both security and a fun pass that completely blew Nirvan

Mullick's mind. And that brings us to the issue of luck and timing. As

the older Monroy said, the inside “joke” around his autoshop was

that Caine had no customers. And yet, time and again, luck and

timing are rated key success ingredients alongside Ambition,

Vision, Determination & Execution. Whether we realize

it or not, we're always preparing for a test. Opportunity

knocks, and finds us well- or ill-prepared for that test.

Think about it. What did you innovate in April 2012?

By April 20, 10 days after the above video went

viral, Paypal donations to Caine's College fund

had reached $180,000. His self-evident body

of work will be a great social currency for

rubbing shoulders with Silicon Valley and

other California billionaires looking to

fund the next big idea. And speaking

of funding, Sean Parker together

with other billionaires on Forbes

400, offer ample proof that he

needn't bother with college.

Little Caine's arcade was

propelled by irrational

optimism and his lack

of concern for imme

-diate financial re-

ward. Still, being

the consummate

professional, he

run his arcade

as a business.

With almost

$250,000 in

the bank,

Monroy

inspires

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On April 17, TheLadders CEO Marc Cenedella responded to my Tweet on Leonardo da Vinci's CV/Resumé by favoriting it. Leonardo da Vinci's opening is Peter Coughter's Art of the Pitch at work. And the prolific innovator known for The Mona Lisa and many other inventions including the helicopter, penned his CV to the Duke of Milan by offering solutions others weren't:

“Most Illustrious Lord, Having now sufficiently considered the specimens of all those who proclaim themselves skilled contrivers of instruments of war, and that the invention and operation of the said instruments are nothing different from those in common use: I shall endeavor, without prejudice to any one else, to explain myself to your Excellency, showing your Lordship my secret, and then offering them to your best pleasure and approbation...

1. I have a sort of extremely light and strong bridges, adapted to be most easily carried, and with them you may pursue, and at any time flee from the enemy; and others, secure and indestructible by fire and battle, easy and convenient to lift and place...

5. And if the fight should be at sea I have kinds of many machines most efficient for offense and defense; and vessels which will resist the attack of the largest guns and powder and fumes.

10. In times of peace I believe I can give perfect satisfaction and to the equal of any other in architecture and the composition of buildings public and private; and in guiding water from one place to another.

...And if any of the above-named things seem to anyone to be impossible or not feasible, I am most ready to make the experiment in your park, or in whatever place may please your Excellency — to whom I comment myself with the utmost humility, etc.” Entire translation here.

Cenedella writes: “He doesn’t recite past achievements...because those would be about his achievements, not the Duke’s needs. Instead, he sells his prospective employer on what Leonardo can do for him. Now imagine being the Duke of Milan and receiving this magnificent letter from the young prodigy of Florence...imagine the scenes that ran through the Duke’s head as he held this letter in his hands and read through Leonardo da Vinci’s bold statements of capabilities.”

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Breakthrough Ideas 2012
(Other Iterations) (Follow the Dove)