Rapid Fire: 21 Questions with Alumni

With Michael Narea, EPIC Co-Founder

Michael Narea

Michael Narea graduated in 2014 from McCormick and helped to form the initial EPIC team. He is an avid ocean enthusiast who believes that with the right support, mindset, and accessible pathways every person can conquer anything they desire. Michael has designed educational and lifelong learning programs on 4 continents. When not surfing his favorite beaches across the world, you can find him working with education and talent technology entrepreneurs through his firm, Luminition (www.luminition.com), and hosting learners of all ages through his “self discovery ocean immersion” experience, Surfani (www.surfani.com).

1. What were you doing before this interview? I was planning a retreat. My team in Miami, we have a two day summit coming up. I was collecting a lot of feedback because there will be a lot of reflection on how we communicate as a team. It takes a lot of planning to do.
2. What’s your favorite product? This year I’ve really enjoyed AirBNB Experiences.
3. What new technology will transform the future? I have this belief there’s going to be an awakening in our human consciousness of how we are all connected… A human-to-human 6th sense revolution.
4. Can you write me a haiku about entrepreneurship? Serve your teammates, yah; Results start within yourself; For the greater good
5. Elon Musk, Larry Page, and Sheryl Sandberg are coming for dinner, what’s on the menu? I make a really good homemade spaghetti and meatballs
6. What EPIC experience is most memorable for you? In the early days, there were some meetings at people’s apartments like get-to-know-you, and icebreakers and such. I actually told everybody from a very solemn place that I had an addiction. I started to describe this addiction and everyone was very serious and I said, “My addiction is to the ocean and I can’t live without it.”
7. What would you tell your past self while in EPIC or undergrad? Just hang in there. Those pressures, that college mindset aren’t really that real and just build up in your head. Eventually you’ll learn methods of certain release points… people adapt.
8. What’s a question you really don’t want to be asked? What is the right next step in your career path?
9. What is the right the next step in your career path? The minute I stopped putting emphasis on careers and what should be happening and just listened to where I am right now, my career started to become better in a shorter amount of time. That’s why I don’t like being asked this question because it’s hard to give a concrete answer to it.
10. What’s a class everyone should take at Northwestern? The newest, most interesting course that Segal Design Institute is offering next quarter that hasn’t been offered yet.
11. What is success? Success is realizing, discovering and coming into your true, authentic self so that you can live your purpose in the world. It’s that discovery and putting it into action is what’s success. 3% is that putting it into action, but discovery is that other 97%.
12. Last book you read? “Principles” by Ray Dalio
13. Quality of life or quantity of life? Quality
14. Favorite social media platform? Instagram
15. What did you think you were going to do after you graduated when you were a freshman? I thought I was going to work in the environmental sector as a high-paid chemical engineer — something in cleaner energy.
16. Are you more of a hunter or a gatherer? I would say I switch between the two. Sometimes, I’m the hunter with the sales mindset to get the opportunity and do it. The next day, I’m a completely different Michael where I’m gathering resources to make sure we have enough to get us through the famine that’s coming.
17. Anything you wanted to accomplish in EPIC or at Northwestern that you weren’t able to? I always thought people would join EPIC to understand themselves — to understand their potential and take that passion and potential and put it into a business. I thought that was a responsible way of encouraging people to approach entrepreneurship.
18. You’ve been given an elephant. You can’t give it away or sell it. What would you do with the elephant? That’s a once and a lifetime opportunity so I’m going to go on an adventure like one of those stories where people have connections with animals — like “Life of Pi”.
19. What’s something they don’t teach you in college that you should probably know? How to deal with true risk.
20. What inspires you? Understanding that nothing is really mine that I’ve ever “earned” or was given. It’s just the best that happened to line up at this random time. So what inspires me is not knowing the next event that will happen. The un-knowing of what’s going to happen is a powerful that unrealeases you of the burden that you have to control everything; you are actually free to do a lot more.
21. On a scale of one to ten how excited are you about life right now? It’s definitely over 10.

This interview was conducted on December 5, 2017.

This article is a part of an ongoing project to gather the thoughts and experiences of past EPIC alumni. If you are a current EPIC member and want to participate please contact Sienna and she can set you up with an alumni. If you are an alumni and want to be interviewed, please reach out.