What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20: Tina Seelig's Great New Book

I just read the final version of Tina Seelig's new book,What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20.  My reaction, much like after reading an earlier draft, is "I am 55, and I still need this advice for the rest of my life."  Tina is a good friend of mine -- she is also a source of constant amazement and awe.  I can't believe how much she gets done and how well she does it.

Tina is Executive Director of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program -- in my biased view, one of the best entrepreneurship programs in the world.  The National Academy of Engineering seems to agree as they just gave STVP a huge award -- the top award for teaching that included a big pile of cash for Tina and Academic Director Tom Byers (They split $250,000 and another $250,000 goes to support STVP). Tina also finds time to teach classes on creativity, and has won our department's outstanding teaching award for doing so.  And on top of all that, she wrote this book in her " spare" time.  What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20 is a lovely and honest guide, the perfect graduation present for any high school or college student (Indeed, the book is dedicated to Tina's son Josh, who is just turning 20). 

The book sounds just like Tina talks, inspiring, smart, energized, and filled with fun and instructive stories.  To give you a taste, here are some chapter titles I just love:

The Upside-Down Circus

Bikini or Die

Turn Lemonade Into Helicopters

Paint the Target around the Arrow

Will This Be on the Exam?

The book will be on the shelves in a few days and Amazon should be shipping next week.  And (for Stanford locals) if you want to see Tina in person (believe me, you will not be sorry) and get her to sign your book, there will be a book launch party at Kepler's bookstore in Menlo Park, California (scroll down if you hit the link to get to Tina). The party is at 7:30 on Friday April 17th. I will be there and have the honor of introducing Tina.

Comments

[dblwyo]

Bob - recall your earlier endorsement. Would that we were all close to such !

If you want to take the next step Tina sounds like perfect candidate for TED.

Time to share the light :) !

[Andy Meyer]

Thanks. I bought a copy for my niece who's graduating this spring. I'll give it to her after I've finished it.

[Chris Yeh]

I'll be looking forward to this one! This is a question a lot of young people ask me as well.

[Tina Seelig]

Bob, thanks so much for this wonderful endorsement. I had great fun writing this book. The stories come from our classes at STVP and the Design School, Silicon Valley, and beyond. My goal is to encourage readers to tap into their entrepreneurial spirit by challenging assumptions, breaking the "rules", leveraging limited resources, and making amazing things happen. I'm so glad you enjoyed it!