Garaen Flake

Many years ago a young boy sitting in his not so quiet room in Harlem, NY decided that he would play his life to the fullest and set off one day on an adventure. It began when he was chosen to participate in a special program for intellectually gifted urban minorities that took him to Simsbury, CT.

From there, he went on to graduate from Wesleyan University. Eventually, he completed course work for two advanced degrees - an MBA in Marketing and a Master of Management in Innovation and Technology Management from the University of Washington. In the in-between time, he began to travel the globe.

Life for me is about discovery, challenging accepted norms and questioning beliefs in an attempt to understand choice. If we have choice, even in situations that seem insurmountable, what is possible when we exercise that choice? This is the driving question of my life.

I do not pretend to know the answer to the grand question, "what is life about?" However, like Langston, I have come to realize that as with music, life is an improvisational pulling together of sometimes discordant notes into chords full of reverberating sound; it rings out into the air declaring to the world, I am.

I love:

• Discovering a new way of looking at everyday things
• Stunning design
• Writing when the spirit moves me
• A fine sound system
• Standing for the success of others
• Helping people realize something they hadn't thought before
• Collaborating on a cool idea
• Returning the inspiration I've been given
• Supporting the arts
• Aikido
• Beautiful Vistas

Associations

CEEI, Centro Europea de Empresas Inovadoras, Spain

Innovation Nation, Seattle