I help entrepreneurs leapfrog over the typical potholes that derail most small businesses with inspiration, motivation, education, and support across a wide range of business topics drawn from over a decade of running my own business, teaching entrepreneurship for the City of New York, and coaching and consulting privately with dozens of women and minority small business owners. Honestly, why go it alone when help is an email away?
Live and Learn
Last week, I confessed that I don’t read business books anymore, preferring to watch a workshop or presentation instead. (If you missed it, check out Is Reading Fundamental?)
So, I thought I’d share some info about a course I’m auditing for free online entitled ‘Wealth and Poverty.’
The course is taught by University of California at Berkeley professor Robert Reich, the former Secretary of Labor under US President Clinton, who is also a noted economist and mainstay media figure.
Reich is a pretty interesting guy.
After a long career in economic policy serving under several administrations, he eventually became a professor of economics at Harvard and then UC Berkeley.
In 2015 he founded the nonprofit Inequality Media, whose mission is “to inform and engage the public about inequality and imbalance of power.”
As a result, you can often find Reich on various social media platforms explaining complex economic concepts, policies, and strategies in easy to understand ways as well as providing opinion and commentary on a host of related topics.
He's outspoken and there is no doubt that his politics skew left and more progressive.
That said, his course isn't about red and blue, perse, but about the alarming economic divide that we're all experiencing and the various reasons we find ourselves where we do.
I'm sharing this class with you because I truly believe that we all would be better served, regardless of our individual views, by being better educated when it comes to the intersection of government policy, politics, and our economy, especially these days.
The fact of the matter is that we’re all just trying to ensure financial security for ourselves and our families and this course may help you better understand all those unseen forces that make it so darn hard to achieve.
Normally, you would need to be enrolled at UC Berkeley to take Reich’s wildly popular course. But since this is the last time Reich will be teaching it, he’s decided to post his lectures online for anyone to access at no cost.
Each week, a new seminar is posted with some links to additional reading. Follow along week-by-week or go at your own pace.
You’ll find his weekly lessons on his Substack feed.
Note: You do not need to subscribe or pay anything for access.
Not really interested in diving into the wealth gap? I get it. It's not for everyone.
So, consider this your friendly reminder that platforms like Coursera, edX, and the like make it easy to audit and take world class courses for free. Some even offer certificates, if you're into that sort of thing.
And, if you need even more incentive, lifelong learning has been shown to be good for our ongoing health—especially our brains.
If you decide to join me for Reich's course, please let me know. Maybe we can set up a discussion group!
Until next week, here's to learning something new!
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Easily Said & Done
I help entrepreneurs leapfrog over the typical potholes that derail most small businesses with inspiration, motivation, education, and support across a wide range of business topics drawn from over a decade of running my own business, teaching entrepreneurship for the City of New York, and coaching and consulting privately with dozens of women and minority small business owners. Honestly, why go it alone when help is an email away?
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