You Never Know What You Can Do Until You Improvise

Improvisation is too good to be left to chance.

--Paul Simon

Improvisation is essential because it keeps you focused on trying to accomplish something rather than being distracted by hurdles and challenges. Let me explain more.

My childhood experiences made me confident that I could find opportunities where others saw none. And that confidence has always been rewarded. It's no wonder I'm an optimist!

Here's an example: Wanting to get married right after college, I felt like it wasn't right to ask my parents to help pay for graduate school. I believe a married couple should be able to handle their own expenses.

But Harvard Law School wouldn't provide any financial aid unless my parents provided financial statements as though they would be contributing. As a matter of principle, I didn't want to ask mom and dad to do even that.

So I applied to law school with the prospect of a working wife and big bills ahead. Fortunately, the publisher of the university's alumni magazine was looking for a part-time person to manage the magazine's circulation and advertising activities.

I had been working as the flunky in the circulation department while I was in college and was asked to fill the job. I figured out to the penny how much money I needed to get married and go to graduate school. I also knew how much time I could spare for work from my legal studies.

I offered 10 hours of my time per week during the school year at what would be in today's terms over $200 an hour, plus a large bonus tied to circulation increases. The editor later told me he almost fainted when I made that offer, assuming the publisher would never agree.

The publisher quickly accepted. He knew it was a good deal. I would easily save the magazine what I cost through expanded circulation revenues. During that year, the magazine's readership grew by more than it had in the prior 40 years combined, and our cash balance expanded to its highest level ever. I also helped the editor shift the magazine's production to a new printer who provided much better quality and service at no increased cost.

If I could do something like that for the well-educated leaders of Harvard University, imagine what else might be possible!

A better opportunity soon came along. I had learned a lot about printing and financial analysis from my magazine work. Having heard about my success with Harvard Magazine, the editor of Harvard's law school alumni publication came to ask for my help.

I told her I would be glad to do the same things for her on a part-time basis. I negotiated with the university magazine's publisher to skip lunches over the summer (when I worked full time) so I could work from 4 to 6 p.m. on Monday through Friday at the law school.

Soon, the law school was also making great progress in cutting costs and adding revenue. After that success, the law school's dean asked to meet with me to see if I would look into the rest of the school's publications and its messy arrangements for printing study materials and copying professors' work.

His face showed shock when I asked him if he knew that I was one of the school's law students for he thought that I was a full-time publishing professional with many years of experience. I ended up being hired to work at a vast multiple of the rate paid to the top-ranked students in the school for legal research. But I had to promise to keep my income secret.

My dean became the first of four Harvard Law School deans I served in a professional capacity. On a mostly self-taught basis, I ended up helping design or redesigning almost all of the school's computer systems and administrative processes, overhauling the fundraising efforts, and improving many areas of operations including the dining hall. Eventually, I began to provide strategic advice about how to gain advantages over other law schools.

From this experience, I realized that those who are at the top often have no more idea than those at the bottom that they have great opportunities. The main difference is that those at the top are more likely to be looking for better ways. I could be of help.

I found one of my most influential mentors at that time, Ernie Frawley, the legendary publisher of the Harvard Business Review. He had done an amazing job of building a highly profitable nonprofit business based on subscriptions to non-alumni and sales of article reprints for what had once been a traditional academic publication of interest mostly to professors.

Before I made any of my more controversial proposals at Harvard, I would check the ideas out with Ernie. He was always supportive. In fact, he encouraged me to think even bigger. Everyone needs such a fine mentor.

Are you ready to improvise?

Do you have a wise mentor you can check out your improvisations with?

If not, you need to get started!

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Comments

Thu, 2 Apr 2009 at 8:31 AM, by Miriam
Could you help me. Youth would be an ideal state if it came a little later in life.
I am from Latvia and also now teach English, give please true I wrote the following sentence: "The airline directly before purchasing a ticket for."

With respect :-(, Miriam.

Thu, 2 Apr 2009 at 7:29 PM, by Don Mitchell
Dear Miriam,

I'm not quite sure what you are trying to say. One possibility is "Before purchasing a ticket from the airline, . . . ."

This might be completed as "Before purchasing a ticket from the airline, be sure they have a flight schedule that fits your needs."

I hope this helps.

With best regards,

Don

Sun, 7 Jun 2009 at 7:04 AM, by Pascale
Excuse me. A mind troubled by doubt cannot focus on the course to victory.
I am from Ethiopia and too poorly know English, give please true I wrote the following sentence: "How to buy anti allergic cat price? In bedding.Cheapest drugstore to buy anti allergic and asthma drugs."

With best wishes :P, Xylona.

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