Start Me Up By Learning To Do

Andrew Hall graduated from Merrimack College with a degree in Communication Studies and minor in Business Administration. Starting a career in healthcare at Tufts Health Plan, he implemented programs to improve health and quality of care delivered to members through informative educational campaigns, literature and serial personal correspondence. Also having been an advocate for the local music scene by participating and managing a local band, he took these skills to do consultant work for service base music management company, Deer In Headlights Music Group. There he launched PR, online and email marketing campaigns. Now he is in the Technical Marketing track at the Startup Institute Boston

After two weeks of being fully immersed in the most intellectually stimulating environment I’ve ever been involved in, call me convinced. I’ve drank the Kool-Aid. I’ve soaked up everything thrown my way, absorbing all the information to be sorted out at some point. I don’t know when, but I know it’s there. It’s overwhelming and amazing at the same time, but this time I know it will be put to action and make an impact.

I came to the Startup Institute Boston from a large corporate environment where I felt like a cog in the wheel. My impact was not something I could see in my daily tasks. Stick to the blue print, use your amassed skills to do the job and get it done right.

Were there opportunities for me to advance through more learning? Sure. There always are. But when you don’t feel fulfilled in your job or what makes you wake up in the morning, it feels like you’re digging a hole deeper and deeper.  You don’t learn lessons when you’re too afraid to make a mistake and that’s when it begins to pile up.  You begin, “knowledge hoarding”; Amassing information and skills you think you might need on a rainy day as opposed to getting down to what you need and use in your life, through interaction and doing.

Beginning my mental spring-cleaning and tackle my unfulfilled feelings, a spark was triggered in me. I began my search to find what everyone is looking for, a purpose. I was trying to advance skills I wanted to learn and surround myself with like-minded and creative people, so I began searching for companies, specifically startups, because they’re laid back and wear jeans, right? Right. But that’s not all.

I’ve experienced in two weeks time here at SIB how this environment is constantly exposing you to new ideas, new applications, services, and websites.  I constantly hear the words “Have you heard of this?”

This is where I feel comfortable, this is where I feel challenged and this is where I feel I will impact the companies I’m working with, now that the filtering process has begun.

At SIB, I’m finally able to #LearnToDo.  This has been the biggest lesson for me. Being indecisive in what I wanted to do for a career had led me down the road of collecting as much information as possible. Now that I am in this environment, receiving even more information, what’s the difference? With resources available here, now I’m able to filter the skills I want to learn, leverage this learned knowledge, and DO.