Featured: Tina Seelig
Dr. Tina Seelig is a Professor of the Practice in the Department of Management Science and Engineering (MS&E) at Stanford and a faculty director of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program. Along with these positions, Dr. Seelig teaches courses on creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship at MS&E and the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (d.school).
She teaches both undergraduate and graduate students along with running three fellowship programs. A teacher through and through, Seelig compares choosing a favorite course to picking a favorite ice cream flavor: “It changes regularly, depending on the day.” Even though she has taught some courses for many years, she explains that as the world changes there is always a different environmental context, which changes the content of the classes.
“Authenticity, honesty, [and] appreciation” are three qualities essential to the relationship between student and professor, according to Dr. Seelig. She enjoys many close relationships with her students and gives “real time feedback on their leadership skills, including how they are presenting themselves.”
Dr. Seelig has written 17 books and educational games. Her three most recent books include What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20, inGenius: A Crash Course on Creativity, and Insight Out: Get Ideas Out of Your Head and Into the World. Seelig explains that What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20 has received the most attention and critical acclaim, but those recognitions do not reflect where her pride lays. She is proud of each of these books, saying, “all are like my children; I love them all, but in different ways.” Each one stretched her in different directions, and presents a new way to understand creativity, entrepreneurship, and leadership.
Seelig says that one of her most important skills is her capacity to “craft a meaningful career.” She has “been willing to experiment” with new opportunities and has always been comfortable taking professional risks by doing things that she hasn’t done before. “I’ve gone from neuroscientist to teaching entrepreneurship.” One of her tips is to get a job that will provide you with “the keys to the building” and allow you to seek out areas to which you can contribute within the organization. Her favorite quote, “Never miss an opportunity to be fabulous,” clearly matches this piece of advice, and ties into her belief that if you miss such an opportunity, you are only hurting yourself.
Despite her many successes, Seelig wishes that she had been more confident as a young woman, stating she spent too much time worrying about what people thought and was too insecure. Seelig wishes she could go back and implore her younger self to not overthink failures and to instead learn from them and move on.
Dr. Seelig wants to be remembered as an individual and a professor who has taught young people how to tap into their creativity. She hopes to inspire and prepare them to utilize their creativity for to address the world’s most pressing problems.
Seelig is always reinventing herself by trying new things. Here is a link to her newest experiment, a podcast called Stanford Innovation Lab: http://ecorner.stanford.edu/podcasts/sil
Edited for length and clarity.