I came to BDW stubbornly set on creating my own business. I had been working on it for a little over a year at that point in my life. I told myself I’d rather starve and be homeless than work somewhere I didn’t want to work doing the same thing day-in and day-out. For about 6 months of BDW, that’s pretty much what I’d end up doing besides literally being homeless.

My experience at BDW has been the biggest challenge of my life and there’s no doubt it has changed my life forever.

And because of that, I’d like to thank everyone that was part of the process.

Strategy

Julio, the amount of business knowledge and strategic genius you possess is something I will always strive to match. The fact that you do it all while being more than just another ‘teacher’ is what makes you so kick ass. Forever grateful for the opportunity to learn from you and I look forward to staying in touch for years to come.

Gary, you still don’t follow me on Twitter. What’s up with that?

Scott, quiet but brilliant. Calm and caring. You taught us not only business but how to do business right. Users are people and people make your business. Treat them like people and you’ll have a business — a business lesson you’d never learn in the b-school.

Carolyn, so much calm, but so much power. In teaching us to realize the potential we hold within ourselves, you taught us something more than business strategy could ever do. You taught us to love and accept who we are, and that is invaluable to our futures.

Pablo and Stafford, I only came for the booze.

Okay, that’s a lie. Seeing the big picture was incredibly helpful. Out of all the things I decided not to listen to (using a calendar), that ended up being the one thing I really learned to value.

Thanks for being more than just teachers, let’s grab shots sometime.

Creative Tech

Benton, my dude. Learned so much from you, man. Can’t say how much I appreciate the competitive nature matched with the calm demeanor. Very much my style. That along with meaningful critiques and empathetic understanding of how we view things made working with and learning from you absolutely top notch.

Jesse, I don’t know that I can sum up my appreciation in a paragraph. You’ve been around as much or more than anyone all year and never missed a beat — you have definitely left your mark on C7. Your critiques are always exactly what we need to hear and crafted to not make us feel like shit. The leadership style you’ve modeled for us and gracefully guided us into probably won’t be recognized until later down the road, but I see you.

The fact that you did all of this while maintaining a work/life balance is truly admirable. Every time I see your kids smiling ear to ear on Instagram it amazes me 1) how you make time to document so much of your life, but 2) how much love you spread throughout the world. Thank you, and Namaste.

Front-End Dev

Nick, there’s no lying that your incredible organization and work ethic was exhausting at times. But after spending some time in the real world and spending late hours at BDW doing things that didn’t need to be repeated, I appreciate the style you pushed on us. It’s never easy to add structure to a creative lifestyle but you do it very well and I can’t thank you enough for not taking it easy on us.

Corban. Dude I really don’t even know how to say thanks. Every time you made me pound my head against the wall instead of coddling me I wanted to shoot myself. But I didn’t. And I’m so much better because of it.

Your ability to take incredibly complex coding processes (and thoughts, in general) and frame them in plain English is something I will always admire.

Out of everyone listed, I hope I can follow in your footsteps more than anyone. If I didn’t have to commute to Denver, I’d be begging to work at Barbershop. Please don’t open shop in Idaho.

I look forward to keeping in touch and learning from you in the future, man. Thanks for everything!

UCD

Rich and Len, I hate creating personas. HATE with the caps lock on.

However, learning to sketch was something I gaffed at initial only to realize how much value it adds. My workflow and the quality of what I produce has improved so much, beyond what I ever imagined. Maybe I’ll appreciate personas more down the road. Maybe.

I say out of everything you two did for us though, the best was your critiques. Of all our instructors at BDW you two were the least afraid to crush our dreams. But you did it in order to help us bring our dreams to life.

Too many people are afraid of listening to their ideas get torn apart but if you can’t objectively look at your idea and understand that there are parts that are flawed, you aren’t ready to create anything great. Thank you for teaching us that.

Design Thinking

Jay, you’re the man. Don’t change. Don’t ever change. But do change your LinkedIn picture.

I usually don’t seek approval or validation from anyone but I can’t say thanks enough for validating and approving my designer schizophrenia/OCD. My shrink said I needed to get on meds and you gave me the courage to drop that motherfucker.

Thank you for everything, over and over again.

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I am currently a student in BDW’s 50 week program. Check out what I do on my site, The Joe Toscano Experiment.

Follow me on Twitter and Instagram or find me on LinkedIn as well, if you‘d like to connect.