Sarah Judd Welch

Over the past month, I’ve developed a year-long Learning Plan for Independent Study. The purpose of this learning plan is to refine my own big ideas and hone a specific skill set. This is not a reading list. This is an interdisciplinary exploration of specific areas of entrepreneurial interest. The lessons learned through this experience will be immediately practiced in my work and ideally will help me to determine where to focus my entrepreneurial efforts going forward. 

I’ve divided my learning “syllabus” into four sections. The first section is an introduction to the following three sections and also covers what is immediately relevant to my role at TaskRabbit. The second section concentrates on what I call professional fulfillment, a space that is of great interest to me. The third and fourth sections are deep dives into two different sides of business development: people and business. 

Here is the outline of the first section, which I’m already actioning:

Part I: TaskRabbit/Overview of Sections II-IV (2 months) 
- What’s Mine is Yours: The Rise of Collaborative Consumption, Rachael Botsman
- 4-Hour Work Week, Tim Ferriss
- Drive, Daniel Pink
- Never Eat Alone, Keith Ferrazzi
- Blogs: The Minimalists
- Movie: Fight Club
- Interview: Charlie O’Donnell, Craig Shapiro

You can check out my full learning plan here. It’s also worthwhile to note that while this is an independent study, I’m not doing this alone. My community is my greatest resource and support system as I take on this learning process.

You might wonder how I will manage studying with my new gig as the Founding City Manager of NYC for TaskRabbit - a huge role, to say the least. My learning plan is complimentary to my role since (1) the learnings directly benefit my job, and (2) my title might as well be “Entrepreneur-in-Training.” As Founding City Manager, I’m entrepreneur-ing in my market with the support of our team in SF, an existing (and very strong) product and funding. I’m incubating as an entrepreneur at TaskRabbit, so my learning plan directly alignes with both my personal goals and TaskRabbit’s goals.

Regardless, I anticipate that this experience will be an interesting challenge for me. As someone who is very results-oriented, I feel a bit uncomfortable taking on a time-consuming project that does not have a concrete end-result. I am not yet quite sure what my metrics of success are. However, because I feel so compelled to do this, I am certain that something concrete will emerge. At best, I come out of this with a startup idea and a roadmap to implement (ambitious and unlikely). At worst, I document an entrepreneurial learning process from which others can learn. Oh yea, I plan to record my progress through a series of blog posts - so keep an eye out for that!

So, how can you help? Let me know if you have recommendations, feedback or would like to join me, even if it’s just for a single section or resource. Already, a friend is donating an e-reader and several people have lent me books and advice. If there is another way that you feel you can contribute, feel free to reach out.