Posted by: curiousinsights | February 8, 2008

Introduction

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Introduction

Hi, I’m James Norris and I love talking about purpose. What’s yours? If you want to answer, my email address is jsnorris |at| gmail |dot| com.

My story is a bit unorthodox. I’m a slave to my two primary drives–curiosity and altruism–so I’m constantly learning or creating value for others. I’ve been an entrepreneur since first grade and I don’t see my entrepreneurial itch being scratched out anytime soon. I’ve also been a change agent in training for over a decade. Ultimately, I want to be a strategic philanthropist and scale social enterprises.

I’ve been fortunate enough to do some fun things in life so far: I’ve helped with the development of a now-defunct Austin startup company, established 15 organizations since high school, learned from 17 jobs and internships (I began working at 14), experimented with 6 microbusinesses (my first was when I was 6), and graduated college with 3 majors and 4 minors. It’s been an interesting ride… And if you’re curious, each of the aforementioned numbers has a story behind it that I’m happy to share.

I consider myself a budding change agent, social entrepreneur, social psychologist, philosopher, ethicist, scientist, and strategist. I definitely have the polymath virus, which means I immerse myself in both breadth and depth. I also can’t help but think through four primary lenses: from the holistic big picture to the nitty-gritty detail and from what’s already happened to what can happen. If you want to know more, please feel free to email me. And if your enterprise is looking for a young person like me, please let me know.

My social networking profiles, from most to least frequently used.

Here are the groups I’m currently (co)leading or still actively advise. If they’re a fit for you, please join!

  • American Red Cross of Central Texas Youth Council: the informal Youth Council serves as the backbone for all youth activities in our region. Youth Council coordinates and mentors the high school and college clubs, plans and executes the Annual Leadership Development Retreat, and handles all other youth-related initiatives.
  • Austin Adventuring Group: my informal group of friends that has interesting outdoor and city-based adventures roughly once a month. Our hit list to date: cliff jumping, camping, backpacking, hiking, caving, paintball, swimming, tubing, meteor hunting, ice cream bonanzas, amusement parks, festivals (including our self-made TEDfests), and a few unique Austin sites. We’re always looking for more “interesting” people to come out with us, as well as new ideas for adventures.
  • Austin Personal Development Group: a group for those deeply interested in personal development/self-improvement. This group serves as a consistent and focused forum for explicitly working on all areas of personal development (e.g., health, productivity, happiness, fulfillment, creativity).
  • Austin Social Innovation Hub: an incubating platform for individuals and enterprises creating innovative solutions to social problems.
  • Kerr High School Alumni Association: a group that coordinates several initiatives at Kerr that connect alumni together, as well as engage them with current students.
  • Mastermind Groups: I have a group in Houston and one in Austin, both with about seven people. We meet regularly to explicitly work on our life goals.
  • Project Polymath: an ongoing effort to create a new type of interdisciplinary university dedicated to the universal pursuit of knowledge and the development of students’ full potential as thinkers, doers, and leaders.

My resource kits. Each kit generally has only highly turnkey (i.e., ready to use immediately) content, with a special focus on templates. “Useful files” usually means budgets, forms, policies, databases, flyers, slide shows, salient articles, digestible research, etc.

Please email me if you have questions, comments, suggestions, revisions, and/or additions. I’d like to know how many people use these.

  • Alternative Spring Break Resource Kit: 50 useful files for creating and managing an “Alternative Break” service-learning program. Request kit by emailing me.
  • American Red Cross Club Resource Kit: 450+ useful files for creating and managing a high school or college club. Latest version added: 8/13/08.
  • American Red Cross Mass CPR Training Resource Kit: 100+ useful files for creating and executing a Mass CPR Training. Includes an itemized task list for every sub-team (there are ~250 individual tasks required to execute a Mass CPR Training). Request kit by emailing me.
  • American Red Cross Leadership Development Conference Resource Kit: 50+ useful files for creating and executing an LDC. Request kit by emailing me.
  • Incoming UT Austin Student Resource Kit: 50 useful files for incoming (and existing) undergraduate students at the University of Texas at Austin. Some material is dated, but much is still useful. Latest version added: 6/4/05.
  • Student Organization Resource Kit: Up to 500 useful files for student organization leaders starting and operating organizations. Focus on team building material. Request kit by emailing me.
  • Personal Development Resource Kit: 50+ useful files for helping with personal development. Latest version added: 8/27/08.

Some organizations I want to promote.

Global:

National:

Austin:

University of Texas at Austin:

Some unique sites I find fascinating and/or useful.

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