“I needed a change, and one day a friend of mine said, ‘You should teach.’ The suggestion clicked. A new journey began.”

• • • • •

“I worked for companies like Coca-Cola and the US Army. I got to meet thousands of new people from all walks of life. I learned how to drive on the “wrong” side of the road, how to catch trains in strange places, and how to pick the best local restaurants in every new city.”

My Journey

About twenty-five or so years ago I shed the design business I had been running since graduating from college and started a new journey.

I loved design. The daily mixture of business and creativity with a deadline and check at the end of each project was very satisfying. I loved the people. The writers, designers, photographers, illustrators, printers, advertising experts, marketing gurus and big personalities with boundless love for what they were doing filled me with energy. At one point there were thirteen of us in our little design shop in North Arlington. Our clients ran the gamut from small, local businesses to big ones like Hewlett Packard. We hung lots of awards on our wall, endured plenty of late-night pizza-fueled work sessions, survived hundreds of client lunches, and had our share of celebratory happy hours.

It was a trip.

But, like a lot of things, the twenty-year journey of running a business started to wear on me. I needed a change, and one day a friend of mine said, “You should teach.” The suggestion clicked. A new journey began.

I started a training and workshop business and spent five years on the road delivering workshops on design, business, and creativity in every major city in the US, all across Canada, and throughout the UK and Australia. I worked for companies like Coca-Cola and the US Army. I got to meet thousands of new people from all walks of life. I learned how to drive on the “wrong” side of the road, how to catch trains in strange places, and how to pick the best local restaurants in every new city. Along the way, I took advantage of new ideas in alternative and online education to earn a Master’s and a Doctorate so I could one day “retire” and teach in college.

I delivered training to faculty at a lot of different secondary and post-secondary institutions and I fell in love with academia. One day I found myself teaching a course to a fantastic class of blossoming designers at Texas Christian University. I was hooked.

I unpacked my bags and started a new journey.

I am now more than twenty years into teaching design, entrepreneurship, and creativity at TCU. What follows is a collection of essays based on lectures and discussions I have shared with students over the years. Thank you for indulging me. If you like what you have read, want to connect, or have comments, drop me a note at dusty@dustycrocker.com.