Speaker 1: Thank you.
Speaker 2: Hey everyone, it's Robert and Joe here. Today we've got
Speaker 2: something a little bit different to share with you. It
Speaker 2: is a new edition of the Smart Talks podcast series,
Speaker 2: which is produced in partnership with IBM.
Speaker 1: This season of Smart Talks with IBM is all about
Speaker 1: new creators, the developers, data scientists, CTOs, and other visionaries
Speaker 1: creatively applying technology and business to drive change. They use
Speaker 1: their knowledge and creativity to develop better ways of working,
Speaker 1: no matter the industry.
Speaker 2: Join hosts from your favorite Pushkin Industries podcast as they
Speaker 2: use their expertise to deepen these conversations. Malcolm Gladwell will
Speaker 2: guide you through this season as your host to provide
Speaker 2: his thoughts and analysis along the way.
Speaker 1: Look out for new episodes of Smart Talks with IBM
Speaker 1: every month on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
Speaker 1: you get your podcasts. And learn more at IBM dot
Speaker 1: com slash smart Talks.
Speaker 3: Hello, Hello, Welcome to Smart Talks with IBM, a podcast
Speaker 3: from Pushkin Industries, iHeartRadio and IBM. I'm Malcolm Gladwell. This
Speaker 3: season we're talking to the new creators, the developers, data scientists, CTOs,
Speaker 3: and other visionaries who are creatively applying technology in business
Speaker 3: to drive change. Channeling their knowledge and expertise, they're developing
Speaker 3: more creative and effective solutions, no matter the industry. Our
Speaker 3: guest today is doctor Derek Warren, Associate Dean and Director
Speaker 3: of Graduate Programs at the Southern University College of Business.
Speaker 3: After a thirty two year career at IBM, Derek chose
Speaker 3: to become a professor, and as a professor in the
Speaker 3: business school of a historically black university, it's his job
Speaker 3: to make sure Southern University students acquire the skills they
Speaker 3: need to remain competitive in the modern job market. For Derek,
Speaker 3: that's where cyber security comes. In nearly half a million
Speaker 3: unfilled jobs in the US alone, the industry's demand for
Speaker 3: professionals with technical expertise is staggerant. In an effort to
Speaker 3: bridge the gap, in twenty twenty two, IBM announced a
Speaker 3: collaboration with twenty HBCUs to establish a Cybersecurity the Leadership
Speaker 3: Center at each of them. Through this partnership, hbcu' students
Speaker 3: have gained access to IBM training, software and credentials at
Speaker 3: no cost to them, with the aim of building the
Speaker 3: vibrant and diverse workforce cybersecurity urgently needs. In today's episode,
Speaker 3: you'll hear how Derek is using IBM skills build a
Speaker 3: suite of courses focusing on business and tech to arm
Speaker 3: his students with the knowledge necessary to stand out to employers,
Speaker 3: and his approach to inspiring creativity and himself and his students.
Speaker 3: Derek spoke with doctor Lori Santos, host of the Pushkin
Speaker 3: podcast The Happiness. Lablauri is a professor of psychology at
Speaker 3: Yale Universe In an expert on human cognition and mental
Speaker 3: well being. Okay, let's get to the interview.
Speaker 4: Derek, tell us a little bit about your role at
Speaker 4: Southern University System.
Speaker 5: I am the Associate Dean and Director of Graduate Programs
Speaker 5: for the Southern University College of Business. I'm also an
Speaker 5: Associate Professor of Management as well as the single point
Speaker 5: of contact our SPOCK as we like to call it,
Speaker 5: for our relationship with IBM Global University Programs.
Speaker 4: And so, then walk me through your role at IBM, Like,
Speaker 4: how does that connect to your role at SUS today.
Speaker 5: Well, I am a thirty two year IBM alumnus. I
Speaker 5: started with IBM right out of college. I graduated from
Speaker 5: Southern University in computer science, and after getting those job
Speaker 5: ovels with IBM, I started in Tampa, Florida there and
Speaker 5: had a very vibrant, exciting and fulfilling career with IBM,
Speaker 5: and after returning to Southern after retiring, got a call
Speaker 5: from a colleague at IBM vice president said, you need
Speaker 5: to speak to someone in IBM Global University Programs because
Speaker 5: we have these spectacular programs and HBCUs don't seem to
Speaker 5: be taking advantage of them enough. So I said, hey,
Speaker 5: I'm happy to listen. We did that first conversation, I said,
Speaker 5: these would be fantastic for Southern University, primarily I'm At
Speaker 5: that time, I was director of Alumni for Southern University,
Speaker 5: and my thinking was these programs could help not only
Speaker 5: level the playing field, but further differentiate us and our
Speaker 5: students by providing access to these in demand technologies that
Speaker 5: were offered through IBM Global University Programs. So the technologies
Speaker 5: focused around artificial intelligence, blockchain, cloud computing, cybersecurity, data science,
Speaker 5: design thinking, the Internet of Things, and quantum computing. So
Speaker 5: providing that access was something that I definitely wanted Southern
Speaker 5: University faculty, staff and students to be involved in.
Speaker 4: So today's episode is all about the need for diversity
Speaker 4: in cybersecurity. So talk about the role that diversity should
Speaker 4: be playing in cybersecurity today.
Speaker 5: Diversity Internet itself offers the opportunity to introduce and to
Speaker 5: include broader perspectives, different trains of thought, and when you
Speaker 5: think about cybersecurity and the dangers of it and the
Speaker 5: number of bad actors that are at play there, you
Speaker 5: need as much diverse thinking to help solve these problems
Speaker 5: as possible. And cybersecurity is one of the hottest fields available.
Speaker 5: There are hundreds of thousands of jobs. I believe the
Speaker 5: forecast is somewhere around between three and five hundred thousand
Speaker 5: current cybersecurity job openings, and that is anticipated to grow
Speaker 5: certainly by the year twenty twenty five. So we're going
Speaker 5: to need a workforce that is inclusive, that has the
Speaker 5: opportunity for veried thoughts so that we can avoid blind
Speaker 5: spots and pitfalls, that allows all of us to work
Speaker 5: together to solve these problems. And the other thing about
Speaker 5: cybersecurity is that it is adaptive, so it is changing
Speaker 5: every day. As soon as we get a fix for
Speaker 5: one particular exposure area, the hackers figure out a way
Speaker 5: to introduce a new one around it. So it's going
Speaker 5: to take us constantly working together, the good actors working
Speaker 5: together to help combat the forces of evil that are
Speaker 5: out there in the world today.
Speaker 4: And I think this is where education can be so
Speaker 4: pivotal to make sure that we have that diverse work
Speaker 4: who has the right training. And so you've said before,
Speaker 4: the education is the great equalizer in a world that
Speaker 4: is not always fair. Tell me a little bit more
Speaker 4: what you mean by that statement.
Speaker 5: Oh wow, I live by that statement. I do feel
Speaker 5: that education can help one overcome poverty. Education can help
Speaker 5: expose individuals to new opportunities. As part of our college specifically,
Speaker 5: we have a goal of poverty elimination, and I firmly
Speaker 5: believe that using education will help individuals who may not
Speaker 5: have been afforded access to economic benefits growing up, Learning
Speaker 5: new items, new areas, especially in these hot demand areas,
Speaker 5: can certainly help one secure jobs. Education has also been
Speaker 5: proven to help with discipline problems. It's been proven to
Speaker 5: help to mitigate crime. It's been proven to help individuals
Speaker 5: think differently about and to appreciate the world that we
Speaker 5: live in. And that's why I believe education clearly is
Speaker 5: something that can help cure many of the eels that
Speaker 5: currently exist in the world today.
Speaker 4: I agree with you completely about this philosophy, but I'm
Speaker 4: curious how that philosophy applies to your work with IBM
Speaker 4: and Southern University System.
Speaker 5: Well, the IBM initiative clearly introduces just a whole array
Speaker 5: of technology assets to our university community. So I'm a
Speaker 5: firm believer. Another mantra that I have is that there
Speaker 5: is no business without technology and no technology without business.
Speaker 5: So as such, these assets and the trend that is
Speaker 5: provided helps, especially here in the College of Business, which
Speaker 5: is where I sit. I am firmly of the belief
Speaker 5: that all of our business majors need technology as a foundation.
Speaker 5: So my business majors learn about artificial intelligence. They are
Speaker 5: learning about chat, GPT and the other GPTs that out
Speaker 5: there even as we speak. They need to understand cloud
Speaker 5: computing because everything that we do today touches the cloud
Speaker 5: in some way. They need to understand the role cybersecurity
Speaker 5: plays and why having a strong zero trust posture is
Speaker 5: important regardless of what industry that they're working in. Understanding
Speaker 5: data science and how to get insights out of data
Speaker 5: so that you can make better decisions and you can
Speaker 5: solve bigger problems is extremely important. Design think, which touch
Speaker 5: is on creative problem solving. Critical thinking, specifically from a
Speaker 5: customer perspective, is very important if you're going to help
Speaker 5: and my view, create a better customer experience for the
Speaker 5: clients that you serve out there. And again, everything we do,
Speaker 5: including our podcast today, is touching the Internet of things.
Speaker 5: And I won't even get into quantum computing. That's not
Speaker 5: I'm not expert in that space, but I will tell
Speaker 5: you a lot's happening there as well. So introducing our
Speaker 5: university family to these in demand technologies, to me, is
Speaker 5: a priority and it's part of my purpose being here.
Speaker 4: I mean, it's clear you're bringing the work that you
Speaker 4: did with IBM into your role as a professor and
Speaker 4: kind of training the students. But I'm curious how your
Speaker 4: work with IBM shaped your initial desire to go into
Speaker 4: academia in the first place.
Speaker 5: Well, that's an interesting question, Laurd. My parents were educators,
Speaker 5: so learning has always been at the forefront of my
Speaker 5: life when it comes down to it. I still remember
Speaker 5: my dad, who was a football coach in a small
Speaker 5: town in North Louisiana Colle Bastrip, Louisiana would take me
Speaker 5: to games or would have me sit in this class.
Speaker 5: Same with my mom, primarily taught at the elementary school
Speaker 5: level and still does a lot of work in our
Speaker 5: hometown in North Louisiana. They really, truth be told help
Speaker 5: shape my desire to always continually learn and the importance
Speaker 5: of education. In fact, I tell people to this day
Speaker 5: that I didn't realize I had a choice of going
Speaker 5: to college or not going to college. I always thought,
Speaker 5: you know, it was part of that progression that I
Speaker 5: didn't realize until after I graduated from college that really
Speaker 5: I could have chosen not to go to college. I'm
Speaker 5: glad that I did not make that choice, but I
Speaker 5: never realized I had a choice in about it. So
Speaker 5: that and then jumping into IBM. From the first day
Speaker 5: that I joined IBM in Tampa, Florida, with the IBM
Speaker 5: Information Network, at that time, we were immersed in education.
Speaker 5: We were always being encouraged to learn. Learning equals growth,
Speaker 5: Learning equals promotional opportunities. Learning equals just in a sense, happiness.
Speaker 5: So I get joyed when I'm learning, and that's helped
Speaker 5: with my desire to share what I've gained from my
Speaker 5: experiences with IBM, with my students, with my peers and colleagues,
Speaker 5: with my bosses here at Southern University and other HBC
Speaker 5: us as well.
Speaker 4: And so while we through an example of how this
Speaker 4: partnership really comes to life in.
Speaker 5: The classroom, well, I'll give you a pretty recent example.
Speaker 5: We recently sponsored here on the campus a symposium and
Speaker 5: we called that symposium cyber TIP, so cyberh TIP, and
Speaker 5: the TIP stands for Talent Initiative Program, and we used
Speaker 5: our partnership with IBM to introduce cybersecurity concepts to virtually
Speaker 5: every college on campus and every discipline, and we brought
Speaker 5: together students. We advertised it, brought students together and challenged
Speaker 5: them to come up with different cybersecurity topics in a
Speaker 5: variety of areas. So we had ad majors, we had
Speaker 5: nursing majors, we had engineers, our civil engineers, mechanical engineers,
Speaker 5: we had finance accounting. All disciplines basically were challenged to
Speaker 5: come up with a cyber security related topic that they
Speaker 5: could relate to and we awarded the top ten presentation.
Speaker 5: So there were fifty presentations. The top ten received additional recognition,
Speaker 5: and believe it or not, Laurie, I was blown away.
Speaker 5: A student that I mentored with, a freshman female, received
Speaker 5: the top price and she did the cyber security and
Speaker 5: supply chain and she was a business major. So you
Speaker 5: would almost think cybersecurity, that's going to be somebody in
Speaker 5: sciences and engineering and so on and on. But a
Speaker 5: freshman student did a topic on cybersecurity and supply chain
Speaker 5: her minor in supply chain management, and she actually was
Speaker 5: awarded the top presentation, So I was extremely excited. Another
Speaker 5: one that got high ratings was cybersecurity in the fashion industry.
Speaker 5: And then you had cybersecurity with regard to plant sciences
Speaker 5: and agriculture.
Speaker 2: And then to.
Speaker 5: See the creativity with the students and how they research
Speaker 5: the topics and their skill in presenting their skill and
Speaker 5: responding to questions their skill and saying, hey, here's the problem,
Speaker 5: here are some recommended solutions. Just to see that growth
Speaker 5: made me extremely happy.
Speaker 4: I love hearing about the breath with which they're using
Speaker 4: cybersecurity in the classroom, that you can apply it in
Speaker 4: egg or in fashion, in all these domains. It also
Speaker 4: means that students who leave who maybe not going into
Speaker 4: cybersecurity themselves understand the problems that come up in whatever
Speaker 4: industry they're in exactly. But you've also been using IBM
Speaker 4: Skills Build for coursework and certification. Can you tell us
Speaker 4: a little more about what skills Build is and how
Speaker 4: you've leveraged all these resources.
Speaker 5: We use skills Bills specifically to augment our existing courses.
Speaker 5: For example, I taught a business analytics course this past semester.
Speaker 5: That business analytics course uses IBM skills Build Data Science
Speaker 5: course as its course content. I use all of the modules.
Speaker 5: There are eight to nine modules that touch on landscape,
Speaker 5: data science, case studies, the future trends, touches on all
Speaker 5: of those things. I use it as both an eight
Speaker 5: week course and a sixteen week course, depending on the
Speaker 5: modality that is delivered. When they exit that course, they
Speaker 5: not only exit with three credit hours. If they exit
Speaker 5: the course successfully completing the course content, I should say
Speaker 5: they not only exit with three credit hours in data
Speaker 5: science data analytics, they also receive a stackable credential and
Speaker 5: data analytics which they can of course take with them.
Speaker 5: They can share it on LinkedIn, they can share it
Speaker 5: on Facebook or Twitter. Basically use it to showcase the
Speaker 5: skills that they've required in that space, and the same
Speaker 5: occurs with cybersecurity, with cloud and with the other Skills
Speaker 5: Build offerings. Skills Build also touches in other areas such
Speaker 5: as mindfulness. Skills Bill has courses on entrepreneurship, which is
Speaker 5: extremely important to our College of Business as we try
Speaker 5: to push and promote an entrepreneurial mindset, as we try
Speaker 5: to push and promote financial literacy, as we work to
Speaker 5: encourage digital literacy, and we actually use Skills Build as
Speaker 5: part of many of our community initiatives. So our surrounding
Speaker 5: community and the world, we've introduced Skills Build to them also,
Speaker 5: And now that I think about it, Laurie, we've actually
Speaker 5: we did a trip to Ghana last June. We'll be
Speaker 5: going back this June. The most popular session of the
Speaker 5: trip was when I introduce our Ghanian colleagues to Skills Bill.
Speaker 5: Because it is international, I introduced them the Skills Build.
Speaker 5: They allowed me to teach one of the classes. This
Speaker 5: is an extremely large university. It's Kai nus Kwama and
Speaker 5: Kruma University of Science and Technology. I introduced it to
Speaker 5: a class and within a week, within a week, we
Speaker 5: had over three hundred students that had taken the Design
Speaker 5: Thinking Course, which is a two hour self paced course
Speaker 5: of fourteen lessons. Over three hundred students had taken the course.
Speaker 5: By the time I returned to the US a couple
Speaker 5: of weeks later, over eight hundred students had taken the course.
Speaker 5: So the impact of Skills Build and the exposure to
Speaker 5: these technologies and these stack credentials, to me has not
Speaker 5: just a US impact, but it has a global impact.
Speaker 3: I love how excited Derek Getz when he talks about teaching.
Speaker 3: He's a genuine passion for exposing others to new knowledge
Speaker 3: they otherwise wouldn't encounter. Remarkable that he's using IBM Skills
Speaker 3: Build to do that work internationally, be it the cybersecurity
Speaker 3: of fashion in Louisiana or design Thinking in Ghana. As
Speaker 3: Derek will explain to Laurie in a moment, that exposure,
Speaker 3: those first time experiences can spark a newfound creativity in
Speaker 3: a person. Let's listen on as Derek gets into the
Speaker 3: creative aspect of his work as an educator.
Speaker 4: So this season of Smart Talks with IBM is focused
Speaker 4: on the new creators, these visionaries who are creatively applying
Speaker 4: technology and business to drive change. Do you see your
Speaker 4: work as creative?
Speaker 5: Oh, without a doubt, without And I'm not trying. I'm
Speaker 5: not bragging when I say that I will about a
Speaker 5: sound like I'm bragging. But I really do believe that
Speaker 5: this has allowed me to level up, to say the least,
Speaker 5: So I think I am a creator of innovative and
Speaker 5: enhanced educational experiences for our students, for my peer faculty,
Speaker 5: for our deans and provosts, and even our university president,
Speaker 5: chancellor and the other chancellors on our other four campuses.
Speaker 4: And so when you speak to your students, how does
Speaker 4: diversity help cultivate creativity within this field of cybersecurity in particular.
Speaker 5: Well, it cultivates creativity clearly because it helps us understand
Speaker 5: each other. I believe one of my greatest experiences, and
Speaker 5: this occurred when I was with IBM. iBIM afforded me
Speaker 5: the opportunity of living abroad for over seven years. I
Speaker 5: lived in Tokyo for over a year. I lived in
Speaker 5: Shanghai for two plus years. I lived in Johannesburg, South
Speaker 5: Africa for a little of a year, helping a large
Speaker 5: multinational corporation prepare for the World Cup, and then I
Speaker 5: returned to the US and did additional two years working
Speaker 5: with various clients of IBMS, and then went back to Shinjin, China,
Speaker 5: and so that exposure to different cultures, to diverse cultures,
Speaker 5: to individuals. Because some people think of diversity as black
Speaker 5: and white, it's not. Diversity includes thinking ways of thinking.
Speaker 5: Diversity is much more than just skin color and human beings.
Speaker 5: Diversity is in learning, it's in education. It's like you
Speaker 5: said just now, it's in cyber security because right now
Speaker 5: the things that we are being hit with from a
Speaker 5: cyber standpoint, I was just reading that chat GBT got
Speaker 5: hit with a cyber attag it it was hacked that
Speaker 5: they had to be taken down for a minute. So
Speaker 5: it's going to really us continuously being creative in order
Speaker 5: to proactively address problems of the day as well as
Speaker 5: reactively address those that we can't anticipate that are certainly
Speaker 5: going to happen as we move forward. As educators.
Speaker 4: We've been talking so much about how you've used creativity
Speaker 4: in the classroom, but you know, as a colleague professor myself,
Speaker 4: I know that one of the perks of being in
Speaker 4: academia is that your students go off and they do
Speaker 4: all these amazing things in the real world. And so
Speaker 4: I'm curious if you've ever interacted with students after graduation.
Speaker 4: Have they taken this principle of creativity and apply it
Speaker 4: in their own work life? And if so, can you
Speaker 4: share some stories?
Speaker 5: Oh, without a doubt, Without a doubt, And a couple
Speaker 5: of my students that I'm extremely proud of. This student
Speaker 5: was out of our loss and one of our loss
Speaker 5: students who took the in fact, they took cybersecurity, and
Speaker 5: I believe they took the data science courses. After taking
Speaker 5: those courses, she developed and has developed and it's now
Speaker 5: in its second year and a journal of IP law
Speaker 5: and technology. She created a journal. She created it as
Speaker 5: a student, was the first editor, of course, of the journal,
Speaker 5: and now that journal is going into his second or
Speaker 5: third year. To hear her say that our courses and
Speaker 5: this partnership with IBM inspired her to create that journal
Speaker 5: as a law student is probably one of my private accomplishments.
Speaker 5: The other accomplishment I'd like to mention is I get
Speaker 5: emails from students regularly that say, hey, I completed the
Speaker 5: IBM Skills Bill course and cyber are and data science
Speaker 5: r INAI added it to my LinkedIn profile, and hey,
Speaker 5: I'm getting calls from a variety of companies Google and
Speaker 5: Microsoft and Adobe and and Meta, all these different companies
Speaker 5: now because as you know, companies are using AI to
Speaker 5: kind of peruse through LinkedIn for keywords. But because they've
Speaker 5: taken these and completed these digital credentials, these stack of
Speaker 5: the credentials, they're getting job opportunities and one in particularly
Speaker 5: because of the digital credential that they added, they were
Speaker 5: able to get promotional opportunities. So I've had several that
Speaker 5: have ridden me, you know, to thank me and say, listen,
Speaker 5: thanks for bringing this to us because I just received
Speaker 5: a new promotion, I've gotten a new job. So hearing
Speaker 5: that from our graduates and seeing that they're using what
Speaker 5: they're gaining through this partnership for their growth and success
Speaker 5: has been extremely fulfilling for me.
Speaker 4: That's great. And so you've said before that if you're
Speaker 4: not uncomfortable, you're not learning. How do you apply this
Speaker 4: philosophy to your own life and how do you encoura others,
Speaker 4: especially your students, to go outside their comfort zone.
Speaker 5: Well, that quote actually was derived from a quote that
Speaker 5: I heard Jenny Amedi, who was Ibum's first female CEO,
Speaker 5: who I admnd greatly. She said, growth and comfort cannot coexist,
Speaker 5: and when you think about it, it can't. I mean
Speaker 5: you got to get uncomfortable, you know. I tell my
Speaker 5: students all the time, you're going to suffer pain. You
Speaker 5: can suffer the pain of discipline or the pain of regret.
Speaker 5: And I certainly would prefer to go through discipline then
Speaker 5: regretting something that I did. So I really well, I'll
Speaker 5: give you a story when I was first offered the
Speaker 5: assignment in Tokyo and my family and I were in Tokyo.
Speaker 5: We arrived in Tokyo. Of course, Tokyo is one of
Speaker 5: the largest, if not the largest city metropolitan area in
Speaker 5: the world, with thirty plus million people. We got there,
Speaker 5: it was intimidating, extremely intimidating. Well, during that week, while
Speaker 5: we were kind of huddled at our apartment, I remember
Speaker 5: hearing a presentation around the question when was the last
Speaker 5: time you did something for the first time? So I
Speaker 5: took that question and I created a challenge with my family.
Speaker 5: It was a family challenge, and that family challenge was listen,
Speaker 5: every week we're going to have first time experiences. We're
Speaker 5: here in Tokyo, it's a brand new place. We're going
Speaker 5: to have first time experiences, and then we're going to
Speaker 5: do report outs of playbacks at the end of the week,
Speaker 5: doing family meetings. So my daughter and I were the
Speaker 5: two that really took on the challenge. She's pretty competitive now,
Speaker 5: she's a PR EXECU in New York to this decade.
Speaker 5: But she and I she was fifth grade at the time,
Speaker 5: but she and I took the challenge and so we
Speaker 5: to meet new people. We used it to explore and
Speaker 5: go different places. We used it just to have new experiences,
Speaker 5: and it peaked our curiosity. It encouraged our competitive spirits.
Speaker 5: But most importantly, we just grew. We learned so much
Speaker 5: through that challenge. Through that I climbed Mount Fuji in Tokyo,
Speaker 5: I walked two hours on the Great Wall of China.
Speaker 5: I was having so many first time experiences. I started
Speaker 5: losing count because they were occurring just on the hour,
Speaker 5: especially when I lived abroad. And when I think about
Speaker 5: it now, that's how I encourage my students to to
Speaker 5: get creative and stay creative by just seeking out those
Speaker 5: first time experiences, by using their curiosity to grow and
Speaker 5: to learn, and most importantly to have fun.
Speaker 4: And so it's clear even from this short conversation that
Speaker 4: you have found your purpose and kind of you know,
Speaker 4: teaching everybody these amazing skills. And I know that one
Speaker 4: of your mantras is find your purpose. But I'm curious
Speaker 4: how you encourage your own students to find their purpose.
Speaker 5: Well, one exercise that I have students go through is
Speaker 5: I ask them a question. And normally they're puzzled by
Speaker 5: this question, and that question, Laurie is what's your genius?
Speaker 5: So when they say I don't know what I want
Speaker 5: to do, I don't know what I want to major,
Speaker 5: and I don't know what I want to do in life,
Speaker 5: say well, tell me this, what's your genius? And I
Speaker 5: say genius? What do you mean genius? You mean my IQ?
Speaker 1: Did?
Speaker 5: I say? No, what's your genius? And your genius is
Speaker 5: the intersection of what you love and what you're good at.
Speaker 5: So I ask them, tell me what you love. Tell
Speaker 5: me some things that you love. And they may say, oh,
Speaker 5: I love video games, or I love watching television, I
Speaker 5: love traveling, I love math. Then I asked them, I say,
Speaker 5: what what are you good at? And then they step
Speaker 5: back and say, well, I'm good at helping people, I'm
Speaker 5: good at communicating, I'm good at this. And I say, well,
Speaker 5: your genius is the intersection of that, because you may
Speaker 5: love basketball but might not be good at it, so
Speaker 5: I wouldn't encourage you to. I would basically say, that's
Speaker 5: probably not your genius. But if you can find that
Speaker 5: intersection of what you love and what you're good at,
Speaker 5: that can lead you to your purpose. And that's what
Speaker 5: led me to mind. I enjoy being with people. I
Speaker 5: enjoy helping people learn. I enjoy the environment of colleges,
Speaker 5: high schools, and beyond. I enjoy seeing the sparkle in
Speaker 5: the student's eyes when they have an aha moment of
Speaker 5: when they've been able to accomplish a credential or learn something.
Speaker 5: It's nothing like it and it really excites me a lot.
Speaker 4: Derek, this was a fantastic conversation. Thank you so much
Speaker 4: for all the amazing work that you're doing, you know,
Speaker 4: at HBCUs and beyond.
Speaker 5: It was my pleasure. And I'm a big fan, Laurie
Speaker 5: of your podcast. Now I'm a subscriber.
Speaker 4: Well, now we're gonna have to get you on to
Speaker 4: talk about purpose on the Happiness Labs as stay tuned
Speaker 4: all right.
Speaker 3: Derek left us just now with a piece of wisdom
Speaker 3: I'd like to reflect on that genius is the intersection
Speaker 3: of what you love and what you're good at. For
Speaker 3: students and young people still finding themselves, sometimes it takes
Speaker 3: a little help to discover where their talents and passions lie.
Speaker 3: By introducing his students to cybersecurity, Derek is trying to
Speaker 3: show that a person's genius intersection might exist somewhere they've
Speaker 3: never been before, which is why Derek's philosophy about first
Speaker 3: experiences is so relevant. It's only when we branch out
Speaker 3: into the unfamiliar that we gain a deeper understanding of ourselves.
Speaker 3: That kind of self discovery leads to the diversity of thought, culture,
Speaker 3: and perspective that workplaces are hungry for, be it in
Speaker 3: cybersecurity or beyond. What's important is that we challenge ourselves
Speaker 3: to continue exploring the unknown and find that genius that
Speaker 3: is unique to each of us. Smart Talks with IBM
Speaker 3: is produced by Matt Romano, David jaw nische Venkat and
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