Remember kids, you too can follow your dreams! All you need is drive, determination, and $250,000 in seed capital!!! (h/t Thax)

It all started with a high school assembly on the first day back from winter break. The guest speaker was the founder of an Austin-based company with a positive message about following your dreams. But what was supposed to be a motivational speech turned into a war of words between high school students and staff and Kash Shaikh, the founder of #BeSomebody, that played out on blogs and social media.

On January 5, Shaikh spoke to students at Austin High School, at the school’s invitation. According to his Twitter, his talk at the high school was similar to his talk at a recent TEDxUWMilwaukee event, which was produced independently of the famous TED Conferences.

In his speech, Shaikh said he’s tired of people being all talk.

“I called myself out 19 months ago and walked away from everything I once thought was important: money, title, lifestyle, things, a career that started at Proctor and Gamble, the largest consumer products company in the world, and started to blossom at GoPro, the fastest growing camera company in the world,” Shaikh said. “I called myself out to go all in on my passion.”

Okay….. It seems a bit…..interesting to talk about walking away from “money,” “a career,” and other such things to a group of people who haven’t even started their adult lives yet, but let’s see where he goes with this. Continue reading →