BrainFoodToGo.com

The Bourse

At some, usually undocumented, point during our college years, we begin to realize that sooner rather than later we are going to have to begin applying the knowledge we’ve accumulated. We commence to take sober notice of challenging words like “livelihood,” “career,” and “opportunity.”

For many, it’s an understandably traumatic transition point, one where a melding of lecture-derived knowledge and experienced-based know-how must begin in earnest. After all, the real world places a premium on seasoned brainpower, the kind of savvy that emerges as a consequence of combining book smarts and street smarts. But the latter is difficult to acquire on campus. Most professors aren’t afforded continuing opportunities to participate in the day-to-day affairs of business enterprises. They do the best they can to bring the business world to campus through the use of experienced guest lecturers, case studies, simulations, and insights they gain through their professional internships, consulting assignments, and sabbaticals.

But, due to the constraints of time and resources, experience-forged know-how is neither easily found nor accessed. Moreover, much of students’ exposure to this kind of learning is curtailed as soon as they enter the world of work on a real-time basis. When one takes into account the importance of common sense and real-world readiness, too many youths are far from prepared to do what’s necessary to achieve a reasonable measure of success in a competitive, unforgiving, and extremely practical world.

The Bourse^TM was formed as a professional society to facilitate the aggregation and exchange of helpful ideas, information, and insights among established business leaders and aspiring venturers. Membership is open to dedicated, hard-working, entrepreneurial achievers but is extended by invitation only. Members enjoy free access to know-how accumulated by folks who have “been there; done that” through an Internet based “exchange,” the anglicized term for “bourse.” This electronic “trading post” employs a wide range of print, audio, and video media to make possible convenient transfers of experience and know-how among those who really want to learn and those who are willing to share. The premise of The Bourse is: “Experience is the best teacher; shared experienced is the best education.”

The exchange of such down-to-earth wisdom is facilitated principally through the use of lists, a time-honored tool that’s been used to convey advice and counsel since Moses received his list of ten “shall nots.” Lists ensure succinct, to-the-point transfers of fact and expert opinion. Plus, they’re entertaining and stimulating! You can find out all about the power and payoffs that can be conveyed by lists at www.BrainFoodToGo.com/Tips

The simple techniques employed by The Bourse allows relevant knowledge to be culled, prepped, packaged and delivered so as to accommodate the special time, place and procedural requirements of all of today’s busy, preoccupied and impatient generations. It offers: 1) relevant, appropriately formatted content; 2) convenient, global access; and, 3) ready, easy interaction.

Importantly, there is no cost associated with participation in The Bourse by invited faculty members, students, and business leaders.

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Join the action as a Scholar or a Fellow

You can make your individual tips and comprehensive tip lists available to the Bourse at www.BrainFoodToGo.com/Tips. Contributions are invited from both Fellows and Scholars.

A Fellow of The Bourse is personally experienced in a particular field of business endeavor. Fellows include accomplished business leaders as well as teachers, authors, consultants, professionals, bloggers, and SCORE volunteers who are willing to share what they've learned…. and are learning. Fellows get great satisfaction from sharing their insights and knowing that their hard-earned contributions become part of a valuable, timeless archive which that will be put to productive use by future leaders as well as by their present-day peers.

A Scholar of The Bourse solicits insights from other recognized authorities. These BrainFood “harvesters” include students, journalists, bloggers, publishers, and researchers. They obtain their input from personal interviews, books, speeches, blogs, web sites, and other, often-overlooked caches of knowledge. These “hunter-gatherers” not only learn a lot in the process but also make valuable personal contacts, get prominent exposure in the business world, gain professional recognition, and become eligible for High Five Awards.

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Pick a method of participating that works for you

Scholars and Fellows can contribute worthwhile know-how – The Bourse terms it BrainFood – in any format from a simple one-item entry on a monthly e-mailed BrassTacks Tip List_™to a lengthier and more detailed written or recorded list submission. Written offerings can range from 10 to 1000 words. Recorded audio and video presentations of lists are also encouraged and average from two to five minutes in length.

Among the most popular formats among The Bourse “tip traders” are simple BrassTacks TipLists, especially the High Five List_™ which consists of only five of the most relevant tips relating to a specific topic. Suggestions for creating BrassTacks TipLists and BrainFood of all kinds can be found at www.BrainFoodToGo.com/Tips. At the BrainFood site you can also add items to the Wiki-Lists already displayed there. Samples of other kinds of lists can be viewed there, too. The most helpful lists offer compilations of peoples’ experiences, advice, admonitions, and guidelines. They’re bare-bones, to-the-point itemizations that are important, useful, and easy-to-grasp.

Perhaps the simplest way to benefit from The Bourse involves a round-robin tip list that is emailed every month to volunteer Scholars and Fellows. The email consists of a partially completed list of BrassTacksTips that's focused on a topic of critical interest to business leaders. Recipients simply tap into their personal experience or do a little research to add one or more items to the list, and bounce it back to The Bourse. There, all submissions are combined, edited, and embellished, and rolled into one BigMagillahTipList_™ that’s re-mailed to each contributor. Completed lists are also distributed world-wide as printouts and podcasts via the BrainFoodToGo.com web portal. Once a list is added to the on-line BrainFood menus, it can be expanded even further by others with new tips to offer.

In addition, summary publications and CDs are compiled from aggregated feedback and distributed as compilations of BrassTacksTips to libraries, business schools, venture incubators, professional associations like SCORE, and small business development centers.

While Wikipedia provides definitive knowledge, The Bourse builds a central fount of experience that features easy-to-access, immediately-actionable business savvy.

Since The Bourse is accessed worldwide, it affords unique recognition to the Scholars and Fellows who participate. Where possible, a posted contribution is accompanied by the name of the provider and his or her e-mail address or designated URL. Copyright notice is also displayed when appropriate.

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Many can benefit from the BrainFood^TM Bourse

Students

Students can be recommended to The Bourse as participating Scholars by faculty members, established members of the business community, and Fellows. Once invited and enrolled, Scholars enjoy convenient access to a huge assortment of learning resources compiled by experts in the (real) world of business. Lists can be a big help in writing a term paper or completing a research assignment.

In addition, self-initiated projects and class assignments that involve list creation provide student Scholars with a reason to arrange one-on-one interviews with Fellows of the Bourse and other “mighty moguls” to get their feedback on list topics. In the process, students can learn real-world lessons and make important contacts in the job market.

Within the six month period prior to college graduation, a Scholar can apply to become a Fellow of the Bourse. For admission to fellowship, Scholars must delineate their prior contributions to The Bourse and the ways in which they have used the resources it offers. If accepted as Fellows, they will have continuing access to a global network of like-minded peers and to continuous helpings of BrainFood. In essence, they gain a “lifetime warranty” on their sheepskins. Importantly, students who become Fellows of The Bourse can also post their resumes on BrainFoodToGo.com web portal and can insert links in their resumes to their list creations and BrainFood contributions that are posted on the web. While students can plaster their faces in “FaceBook,” lists can help them show off their brains where it really counts! Status as a distinguished Fellow of The Bourse will provide a lifetime of benefits, not the least of which is important, accomplished contacts throughout the world.

Student organizations

Scholars of The Bourse can enlist the professional organizations and fraternities to which they belong in the task of compiling books, monographs, and podcasts of BrassTacksTipLists and related BrainFood. These compilations can include their work product as well as contributions from alumni and other business leaders whose inputs they recruit. These books and recordings can be branded and marketed to alumni and the general business community. It is a great way of generating “town and gown” interaction and revenues to support campus activities.

Faculty members

Professors can recommend promising students as Scholars and work with them in crafting challenging assignments that that will contribute to all members of The Bourse and, in the process, gain important recognition for their class and institution. It has been shown that assignments like list-making provide a platform for all-important collaborative learning among groups of students.

For example, lists compiled by students who abstract helpful tips from books, periodicals, blogs, and web postings can be of great benefit to current and future students ….. and provide a great alternative to the dreaded book report.

There is no limit to the number of Scholars that a faculty member can recommend. These Scholars can provide class leadership in projects through which all students can learn to search, select, and synthesize facts, and convert disparate information into worthwhile knowledge.

Teachers can use the materials available through The Bourseas instructional components for classroom presentations and distance learning courses. In addition, list-making can generate valuable content for made-to-order – inexpensive – textbooks or student reference materials. Faculty members can the use BrainFoodToGo.com portal to conveniently and quickly publish their articles and research papers, too.

Educational institutions

List-making provides an exciting way to continually engage alumni and to establish all-important connections between them and members of the student body and faculty. For alumni, a stream of continually updated BrassTacksTipLists from The Bourse provides a unique form of continuing education. In addition, schools can supplement their libraries’ resources with contemporary archives of BrainFood – at no cost!

Small business owners, managers, and entrepreneurs

Of course, participating Fellows of the Bourse who are business practitioners can access gems of peer-to-peer operating advice that's flavored by the experiences, challenges, successes, and failures encountered by other seasoned movers and shakers. The BrainFoodToGo.com portal features ever-changing menus of hot, current topics as well as extensive archives. If a particular, narrow topic isn’t already covered, a new list-making initiative can be quickly launched to collect the input sought. The easily-accessed BrainFood menus consist of highly-personalized lore, lists, legends, legacies, and life-learning that can’t be obtained anywhere else.

Ambitious employees can also benefit by initiating bottom-up requests for assistance in list-making from other team members in their companies. Such a list-motivated project can provide aspiring workers with opportunities to meet more seasoned leaders in higher echelons of the company. It’s a great way to connect with a mentor! In turn, company leaders get opportunities to meet with and evaluate talent within the business.

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Apply for membership; recommend a student for membership

Students can be recommended to The Bourse as participating Scholars by faculty members, established members of the business community, enrolled Scholars, and Fellows. Fellows are recommended by faculty members and other already enrolled Fellows. Interested and qualified parties can also apply directly to The Bourse for membership.

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