Open Innovation. Pascal Latouche
not born with a philosophy of life. It’s being constructed. I wanted to know how G2J was constructed and of course, if it passes through the family home, it also passes through social relationships. For a child, school is a melting pot of social relationships. From that point of view, it seems today that G2J has not had any luck…. But it has nothing to do with luck.
1.1.2. Difficult school years
G2J’s school years were not easy. It seems today that he was a very industrious child. “School was a pain for me!”. It took him six years to complete his studies from 9th grade (aged 14) to 11th grade (aged 16), taking each class twice. This gives you an idea of G2J’s ordeal as a child. As a child, you must want to be and be recognized. Your grades, teacher ratings are just a few of the many ways you can be proud of yourself. But for G2J, the journeys marked out were just an antithesis of his deepest sense of self.
School predestines us, based on grades, to allow ourselves to do things or not to do things, or at least to believe that we can or cannot do them. Imagine that from the 6th grade (aged 11), a whole educational system is there to tell you in substance that you won’t make it to the 9th grade (aged 14) and that if by chance you make it, receiving the BAC diploma, you shouldn’t dream. An ordeal that is likely to break a young spirit and ruin his life. G2J was telling me that someone he knew talked about school as “learned helplessness”. How to give a child the intimate conviction of being useful or useless, or even to comfort or panic him about his own future, and this on a completely simplistic basis: his grades.
This was G2J’s fate: “I had my bag on my back without knowing where to find it”. This picture is very beautiful. He had in a well-defined object (his backpack) the knowledge (his books). This knowledge he carried on his back as a burden that he could not access, because it was not in front of him. He couldn’t see it, but he knew it was there. He wanted it, and the young G2J was going to develop on his own in his corner the means to grasp this knowledge.
1.1.3. An asserted curiosity
He already went beyond that, with his hands, he dismantled and reassembled electronic tools. At the time, many radios could already be picked up in the islands. Listening to one of them meant that G2J could listen to all of them. So he tinkered and found a way to get radios from all over the world. While he didn’t like to read, the radios were there. He “ate” all kinds of information to the point where he didn’t sleep much. Thus, G2J became aware not only that he could create his own modus operandi to move forward in life but also that because his modus operandi was convincing, he too could have a certain self-esteem … despite the opinions of educators.
Maybe he didn’t understand what the teachers were saying. But he was able to invent his own method of learning and adapting to his environment. Discreetly, if he had good ideas, he would not talk about them because he thought they would not be taken seriously. How could having such poor grades add value to classroom exchanges? What’s the point of trying to answer questions from teachers for whom everything is conditioned in advance and who put you in a box…. G2J wasn’t trying to shine, but was looking within himself for the resources to act in this strange world far too marked out for his inventive and visionary spirit. Was G2J already a child entrepreneur? I can’t say. One thing is certain: he already possessed all the attributes, a bit like a spark that only asks to meet a situation that would ignite the flame.
1.2. The little voice inside
G2J is someone who doesn’t ask unnecessary questions and goes for the simplest, most concrete. He constantly analyzes what his losses may be and whether they are acceptable. From my understanding, several events seem to me to be structuring to explain that this prudent daredevil has come true and is still being realized every day.
1.2.1. The journey of awakening
His mother brought him to Côte d’Ivoire when he was 12 years old. Imagine (and I didn’t know it), there’s a whole Caribbean community in this country. Its particularity: it was a community of entrepreneurs who saw the big picture. This community conceived of existence only to undertake and constantly push back the boundaries of the impossible. G2J lived within this community and developed the taste, the desire to do, to see things in a big way. This was a very special moment in G2J’s journey from my point of view.
I can well imagine the paradox of the child and his questions. He was always told he wouldn’t make it. He had had to endure, as we can imagine, at least reproaches from his teachers, and at worst mockery from his classmates. The school world can be cruel to atypical children. Yet, with his curiosity and his capacity for work, he knew he could create. He met this community and there he discovered an environment that told him that anything was possible if he wanted to take the time. “I saw their pineapple field. I had never seen anything as vast as the sea…”. This sentence sums up perfectly the cue that I guessed to be G2J’s one.
The possible thus became what he could conceive of what he saw and he could now see as vast as the sea…. All that remains was to build! “Think outside of the box” we say today. It’s a nice marketing slogan, but let me tell you that people young and old, of all races, faiths, … had to think outside the box for our beloved humanity to move forward. G2J is one of those, I say it because I mean it.
1.2.2. Reconciliation
G2J did a BTS1 Marketing Action Co. Contrary to his arduous journey through junior school, it was during this stage of his student life that G2J discovered an obvious taste for business. A BTS is not only learning, it is above all very operational, case-based learning.
This period of his life proved to be a decisive and structuring period for learning how to build a project. In his BTS Marketing Action Co, he was no longer working on the abstract, but on the concrete: searching for information, cross-checking it, analyzing it, drawing conclusions and finally building a case. Perhaps this was not obvious, as I can imagine that the teaching methods always remained somewhat conditioned. But, uh…. Never mind, G2J was more mature. He then had a base of knowledge and experience that allowed him to begin to be appreciated by teachers. G2J also helped his classmates a lot. He was older than them and I think he was probably taking a “leadership” role. He told me that, in addition to his own case studies, he was also involved in those of many of his classmates.
You can summarize the kid’s ideas, his sound and even his big ideas with a little structuring, and it’s probably the alchemy that made him, not very confident in himself, that nothing predestined him to do that, turn out to be a serial entrepreneur. His self-confidence, he drew it from doing it.
1.2.3. Values
The main point is that G2J’s personality is the tidal wave that carries his action forward. G2J is not a complex man. He doesn’t care what other people think of him. It is what he builds with respect for others that is most important. He doesn’t envy others. The simplicity and spontaneity with which he told me about his journey is just extraordinary.
Once he knows something is possible, then nothing discourages him and he will act. His action is always marked by many of these values which we could say are from another time, but which we would all gain from preserving within us: honesty, listening, diversity, respect, etc. Everything that many parents and the education system teach children and that life experiences often destroy. In the case of G2J, I believe he has indeed preserved all these values. Why? It is not the system that forged G2J, it is its own experiences with the system!
He has forged himself into a formidable business man, one you enjoy listening to because they always have something to share with you. The following anecdotes will give you an idea.
1.3. The fool with the hands full
The title of this third section is not mine. It’s G2J’s own to define himself I admit I was very