nabil laoudji

poetry, prose, design thinking & entrepreneurship

  • HOME
  • PORTFOLIO
    • Audio
    • Video
    • Poetry
    • Prose
  • CONTACT

Profiles in Passion: Interviews Across America

December 31, 2010 by Nabil Leave a Comment

This summer, while driving from Pennsylvania to California, I spent some time searching for people who have taken a risk to turn a passion into a career. From an export merchant turned baker in Chicago, to an electrical engineer turned pastor in Tulsa, I found stories that changed my perspective on both the benefits – and challenges – of entrusting in a motto I’ve long held dear, “behind every passion lies a business model.”

In a recent survey conducted by Manpower International, five out of six Americans intend to seek a new job in the coming year. If you are among those who’d like your new job to be rooted in a deep passion of yours, I hope the candid perspectives captured in this mini documentary may help you to make a more informed – and inspired – choice.

For more info on my work around passion, I invite you to visit www.passioneconomy.net.

Filed Under: Video Tagged With: america, documentary, interview, passion, risk, roadtrip

On Missouri and Oklahoma

June 14, 2010 by Nabil Leave a Comment

As I reflect on my stay in Missouri and Oklahoma, four memories come to mind:
– Learning about intentional communities, and the impact of a passionate life on parenting, via my conversations with Tom and Sabrina in St Louis, Missouri.
– Eating well, sleeping better, and receiving great care and love from my extended family in Springfield, Missouri.
– Taking a first stab at wrapping my thoughts on passion into a lecture, and delivering it to a group of ten 7-9th graders at a community center in Springfield. (three of them fell asleep — clearly I’ve got some work to do)
– Spending several hours with Pastor Calvin Battle and members of his congregation as we did a deep-dive into Calvin’s foray into being pastor (after a successful career as an engineer).

As I enter the last third of my trip, I see New Mexico, Arizona, and California before me and three stories that need telling. Here we go-

@

Filed Under: Stream Tagged With: family, missouri, oklahoma, parenting, passion, religion

My MBA Internship as a Storyteller

April 19, 2010 by Nabil 4 Comments

This summer I’ll be heading to Los Angeles to practice storytelling. While not a traditional MBA internship, my friends and faculty at MIT Sloan have been super supportive, often connecting me with whoever they feel will be helpful on my journey.  There is, however, one question that always crops up: Why storytelling? And what does this have to do with getting an MBA?

The seed for my journey was planted in 2005 when Christopher Adkins, my former professor at William and Mary, invited me to speak to his undergrads about potential career paths. As I thought about what to say, I remembered a recent article that I had read about Shotei Ibata, a Japanese calligrapher. As a young man, Shotei was advised not to go into calligraphy because it was super competitive, and prospects for earning a living were slim. Shotei nevertheless followed his passion, and in the process invented a completely new type of large format calligraphy (i.e. giant circles drawn with a 6 foot brush) that brought him worldwide acclaim and a steady stream of clients. As I relayed Shotei-sensei’s story to the undergrads, there are two lessons that I highlighted: First, passion is a competitive advantage. Second, behind every passion lies a business model (even if your passion is to draw circles).

So what is my passion? To answer this question, I sat down at my desk last Fall and I created a matrix. I plotted Creative, Business-Esque, Technical, and Intuitive on opposite ends of the X and Y-axes, respectively. Next, I took a deep breath, told myself to suspend all judgment and awareness of my work experience (e.g. an MBA with a consulting background), and started jotting down activities that I enjoyed.  As I looked over my filled out sheet of paper, I felt a wave of joy: all of the opportunities looked exciting.  As I mulled over the matrix over the next few days, another realization became clear: the more that the opportunity maxed out on the creative and intuitive ends of the spectrum, the more excited I was about it. The idea with the highest score? Storytelling. And thus my summer plans.

So what does storytelling have to do with my MBA? In short: I’m not sure. And that’s okay. In a 2005 commencement address at Stanford, Steve Jobs shared his story about dropping out of college and “dropping in” to activities that piqued his interest. One such activity was a local art class, where Jobs learned how to make beautiful typography. At the time he had no idea how this class would serve him, but as he was designing the Mac — the first computer with beautiful fonts — it all made sense.  Jobs said, “It was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.” The essence of Jobs’ message is that there’s a lot of value in bringing together unlikely experiences, especially when they’re rooted in genuine interest. With this principle as my basis, I have faith that my storytelling internship will bring value to my MBA. In fact, some of the dots are already starting to connect.

So where do we go from here? Currently I’m working to raise funds to cover my expenses this summer, brainstorm potential storytelling frameworks, and build out my network in Los Angeles. If you suggestions on any of these, please drop me a line. Otherwise I will post updates on my new project website — www.mbastoryteller.com — as I continue my journey. Thank you to all of you who have supported me so far.

Filed Under: Stream Tagged With: career, internship, MBA, MIT, passion, storytelling

Welcome

Nabil Laoudji Twitter LinkedIn Instagram More Info

Recent Tweets

  • RT @NASAPersevere: The moment that my team dreamed of for years, now a reality. Dare mighty things. #CountdownToMars https://t.co/8SgV53S… about 2 weeks ago
  • RT @NASAPersevere: And another look behind me. Welcome to Jezero Crater. #CountdownToMars https://t.co/dbU3dhm6VZ about 2 weeks ago
  • RT @zeynep: Trump was incompetent at his brand of authoritarianism, and he lost. But this isn't a triumph: the Democrats lost almost everyt… about 3 months ago
@laoudji

Recent Snaps

This error message is only visible to WordPress admins

Error: API requests are being delayed. New posts will not be retrieved.

There may be an issue with the Instagram access token that you are using. Your server might also be unable to connect to Instagram at this time.

Error: API requests are being delayed for this account. New posts will not be retrieved.

There may be an issue with the Instagram access token that you are using. Your server might also be unable to connect to Instagram at this time.

Error: No posts found.

Make sure this account has posts available on instagram.com.

Click here to troubleshoot

Recent Comments

  • Don on How meditation helped me get a handle on compulsive thoughts
  • Shehab on Amazon & Wikileaks: Sorting Out the Controversy
  • Mike on On Purpose
  • Katherine Molina on On Purpose
  • Anne on On Purpose

Archives

Tags

AI arab spring boston buffalo business career comedy community democracy design thinking Entrepreneurship ethnography family film improv india interview landscape launch learnings lessons los angeles massmouth MBA meditation mental health MIT music NYC occupy oprah passion performance ethnography public speaking revolution risk rust belt sales standup storytelling story tips tunis tunisia ucb values

Thanks

Thanks for visiting!

Copyright © 2021 · Metro Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in