| Free Agent Journal Notes by Steve McCrea (Free Agent in Training) Bill Gates and others To participate in a debate over the future of education and how the US will respond to globalization, we need a common vocabulary. See the speeches below. What should they teach in schools? What should schools teach? What should students learn? |
| Comments by Bill Gates and others Your comments are welcomed... See the GATES speech Visit the FILM See JOBS speech Excerpts from books by Dan PINK Education (pinkschool) A Whole New Mind whatpinkmind Who is a Free Agent? (Profiles) whatfree |
| Profiles in Courage Profiles of Independence Profiles of Free Agents Choose your title. Some people don't know that they are free agents. they just think they are employees wiht some independence. Here's the check list: Can you how much notice do you need before you take off time? Can you decide to atten the graduation of your godchild? Can you commit now to a date 6 months from now? If your answers sound like a public school teacher, then you are not a free agent. If you sound like a small buisness person, as in "Gone Fishing", then you are a free agent! Independent contractor In business for yourself Able ot choose tyour hours freelancer choose your title. You are part of the freelancers who can choose when to work and you are the role models that our students need in classrooms...showing that you are in control of your time. This web page is linked to the Double Moon Shot because peopel who are in business for themselves and people who can choose when they work are the army of volunteers who are needed to implement the double moon shot that Thomas Friedman has identified. What is the common theme on this web site? Leverage. As a teacher, I had some leverage... but I was a "commodity," who could be traded away or substituted. Even as a video editor, I could not set a perfect price on my work because my competitors could compete with me. What could I do that would allow me to be different? USP Unique Selling Proposition. Marshall Thurber points out this important point in he Successful Strategies seminar... and its an obvious point in most business workshops: you can charge more if you have something special that the market wants. I'm still evolving my message but I have three projects: -- videos and audio CDs with motivational work -- traning for students who want a better SAT score and other web or CD learning -- visual book publishing, editing a book so that the highlihgts are a book in themselves. John Naisbeth in Megatrends got the idea to have one sentence per page in bold so a fast reader can skim the book and get the basic idea. |
| Profiles of Independent Contractors Since 1996, I've been a school teacher. When I was a teacher in a school that I owned with four partners, I worked 8:45 to 1 pm and sometimes got private lessons during afternoons. From February 2002 to June 2003, I was a substitute teacher, then (after 9/11/02) I served as a part-time teacher (7:30 to 2:30 pm) and I could get some time off if I gave at least a week's notice. I also worked at a night school (5 to 9 pm) some evenings... Then I tried teaching in a charter middle school from August 2004 to January 2005, and it was tough! I could get time off if I let my boss know at least 5 days in advance but there were only two personal days allowed. ================================ So I'm learning a new way. The Free Agent Way. Here's a typical day. 8 am, start typing a letter for my wife. prepare six mailings. 9 am place orders for my wife 10 am pick up flowers 11 am design a web page, reserve three web site names. www.MentorsOnVideo.com www.PhoneMentor.com 12 pm noon deliver flowers to a doctor who saved my wife's life 1 pm pick up chocolates 1:15 pm lunch with ill wife 2 pm deliver the chocolates at the ER where my wife almost died 3 pm pick up groceries 4 pm Read G.C.'s email and start this web page. 5 pm nap with wife (removing headache through shiatsu) Isn't that a great day? Actual work (for a client): editing a video from 9 pm to midnight. There are Free Agents Paid by Project and Free Agents On Contract. Examples of Free Agents GC works as an executive director of a non-profit industry group that protects marketing options for small buisnesses. She's on contract, she's not an employee. She decides how to use her time. If we works late at night, she can offset this time by uising time during the day for personal growth, personal time, errands, etc. She's a free agent because she can choose how she spends her time and pursues the goals of her organization. Here's our email exchange: Hey, Steve. Thanks for sending me all of these interesting articles. I found them so thought provoking that all I ahve done at the office this morning is read them. Does that make me a free agent? Seriously, thanks. I found them really, really interesting. G. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- Original Message ----- From: Steve To: 'G' ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Sent: Wednesday, October 05, 2005 11:05 AM Subject: RE: school is out dan pink In essence, since you basically created the position of MRMG and you have clients, you are the free agent. If you determine how and where you work, and guide the projects, you are “freeagenting” Steve ----------------------------------------------------------------------- G's REPLY Hooray! Self-actualization at last! ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Marshall Thurber www.PositiveDeviantNetwork.com Marshall creates seminars and then finds people to give the seminar. Money and You is is signature piece, where he asks students to experience their relationship with money. Powerful presentaiotn, Successful Strategies and the Postive Deviant Network are more of his creations. He's extremely busy but he chooses when he will be and where he will be on stage. That ability to choose when and where to work is a mark of an independent contractor. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Lee Brower www.EmpoweredWealth.com He flies to Chicago once every 60 days to lead a group of entrepreneurs in improving their lives. Finding ballance, building a network. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Pat Harris www.ResolveToHeal.com Pat selects one day a week, usually Wednesday, to spend time with her husband. He runs his own landscape design and maintenance business, so both are busy on Saturday wiht clients. By takingoff Wednesday together, they have special time for themselves. That's a richness that Free Agents can claim. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Maribel, Nurse. Thanks to the shortage of nurses, a well-trained nurse has leverage. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- |