St Louis May 07

In March 2007, Ron Rubin, Chairman of the Board ("Minister of Tea") for The Republic of Tea and Adjunct Professor at Saint Louis University, was among a handful of American business people recognized as 'Trailblazers' by EntrepreneurshipWeek USA - a program promoting entrepreneurship to students which was sponsored by New York Times; Inc.; and the Kauffman Foundation.

Greg Forbes Siegman , Chairman of The 11-10-02 Foundation , was also on the list. At 34 years old, he was one of the youngest.

Shortly thereafter, Ron read The First Thirty (the Jillip Naysinthe Paxson book based on Greg's story). Upon finishing, Ron decided to incorporate the book into his MBA Course (Selected Topics in Entrepreneurship), ordered additional copies of the book for friends and staffers; and then brought Greg to St. Louis as a surprise guest lecturer on the last day of the MBA course in May 2007.

Ron's efforts set the tone for the entire trip -- marked by one act of kindness after another.

This section of the site includes: pictures from the MBA course, plus those taken at other events which occurred during the 48 hours Greg spent in St. Louis. It also includes some feedback from those who were in attendance, and links to more information and/or other websites featuring those who were involved.

If you see something underlined, and it intrigues you, click on it!

Greg's lifelong best friend was his Grandma - so he got off the plane in St. Louis, looking forward to his first stop.

He headed over to Brentmoor Place - a retirement community in St. Louis -- where he spoke and signed books at an event for staff and residents.

(In advance of the trip, Brentmoor Place had ordered some copies of The First Thirty and the posters based on it)

"When Greg spoke to the residents of Brentmoor Place, he encouraged them to 'adopt' young people and tell them their stories. By the end of the presentation, the residents loved him so much they wanted to adopt him! He now has 50 grandparents in the St. Louis area and they can't wait for him to visit again." - Kara Bernsee, Brentmoor Place

To have Greg speak at your event for seniors, email Events@GregForbes.com

To order copies of The First Thirty for the seniors you work with, or your staff who work with seniors (or, simply, for your favorite grandparent), email Books@IdeaListEnterprises.com

In the late afternoon, he was interviewed by a high school student who works for her school paper.

That night, Greg hosted a dinner for 20 or so complete strangers at Nadoz Cafe . The attendees came from a diverse group of ages, backgrounds and walks of life. These Dinners with Friends (except noboody knows each other) have become a tradition on Greg's trips and one of his favorite things to put together (time-consuming, but fun to do!). They started in New York , with dinners he co-hosts there with a friend named Sanda.

At these dinners, everybody pays for themselves - so nobody is singled out as a 'guest of honor'. In St. Louis, things took a slightly different twist. Nobody was singled out...because everybody was treated as a guest of honor --when Ron took care of the entire bill unbeknownst to anyone.

People usually ask the same two questions about the Dinners. Here are those questions with Greg's answers in italics:

"How do you convince people in some faraway town to join strangers for dinner?"

"I call them up and say, "Hello, would you like to go to dinner?"

"What do people do at the dinner?"

"They eat food."

Sometimes, people wonder where Greg finds the strangers who attend. In some cases, they are friends of friends. In other cases, they work at schools or organizations he is familiar with. In other cases, they are people he had read about in the paper or online and to whom he felt a connection. In the St. Louis case, for instance, Greg read about some local undergrads taking part in a project to raise funds to help support a Memorial honoring MLK. Part of The First Thirty is about how MLK influenced Greg's own time as an undergraduate -- click here to see a picture - so he felt a connection to their efforts and invited one of them.

Regardless of how they ended up at the table, the strangers in St. Louis all had one thing in common - Greg had never met any of them in person before they showed up at Nadoz Cafe.

The next morning, at (beautiful!) John Cook School of Business, Greg guest lectured the "Selected Topics in Entrepreneurship " MBA Course. Those in attendance included the students, their guests (including friends, fiancees and spouses), Ron, his guests (including some of his colleagues at The Republic of Tea), plus Greg's guests (some people he met the day before).

Since Greg's appearance was a surprise for the students, some of the guests (who did know) hung out with him in a separate room as the students were arriving.

Greg focused on 'traditional' business-related concepts like marketing, social entrepreneurship, mentoring, philanthropy, and building a small business from the ground up, but he did so by discussing decidedly non-traditional topics. Instead of talking about things like venture capital and stock options, Greg and the class discussed things like Grandparents , Wheel of Fortune, milkshakes , making reservations at a restaurant , and wedding proposals in parking lots, and he spent time drawing stick figure men and a horse on the chalkboard. (He likes art).

"...a wonderful three hours!....I plan to share [The First Thirty] with a few of my colleagues and tell them about my experience on Friday. I am so glad I was able to attend..." - Libby, The Republic of Tea

In advance of the trip, a university student named Michelle took the initiative to write and ask if Greg needed an intern for the day he spoke to the MBAs. In truth, he didn't, but he thought it was a neat excuse to let an undergrad spend the day with some MBA students - so he accepted the offer.

After the event, Michelle the Intern wrote: "...It was unlike any other business class I'd ever been to....definitely one of my most worthwhile experiences here at SLU.... He didn't talk at the students, he talked with them...he engaged them. Most importantly, the class wasn't just about business principles and practices – it was about themes that could be applied to every day life....I have [recommended] The First Thirty to some good friends back home and they are looking forward to reading the book...today was fantastic, and I can't say thanks enough for giving me the chance [to be there]..."

Pics from a previous event for undergrads elsewhere

"This morning [the MBA course] was great!...an awesome perspective on connecting people and relationships and the way we should use every opportunity to bring people together for the good of everyone..." - Joe, MBA student

Entrepreneurship: click HERE

Universities: click HERE

To inquire about having Greg speak at your school (or company, conference or event), email Events@GregForbes.com

Wellbridge Athletic Club & Spa ordered copies of the companion workbook, A Place To Sit, for each student in the course. (Wellbridge was also where Greg exercised during the trip - great facilities and they care about getting involved in the community).

To order copies of the book or workbook for students in your community, email Books@IdeaListEnterprises.com (You can decide who the recipients are - or we can help you select the school/program)

Advance Mentoring Inc. sponsored a civic project for the MBA course - ordering additional copies of The First Thirty for the students to donate to a place-to-be-determined in St. Louis.

During the 48 hour trip, Greg had a chance to visit all kinds of fun places and meet all kinds of new friends along the way. Here (below) are pictures from some of those fun places and of some of those new friends.

Greg's love of milkshakes is well-documented -- The First Thirty is based on his dream to see the whole world come together to have them! - so going out for frozen custard was another one of his favorite stops on the trip.

Another favorite stop: The Gateway Arch (Greg couldn't turn down a chance to run the steps leading up to it and pretend he was Rocky - can you spot him at the top of the steps? Click here to see pictures of him pretending he was Rocky at different times over the last 25 years).

This marked Greg's first trip to St. Louis, but it was not the first time he had come to the general area. Earlier in 2007, he spoke at an event attended by educators and school administrators about 30 minutes away from St. Louis.

Educators and Future Educators, click here.

Earlier in 2007, prior to this trip, a variety of schools, companies and nonprofit organizations in St. Louis had incorporated The First Thirty into some aspect of their internal or external work (i.e. getting copies of the book for staffers). On one of those occasions, after reading the book, one of the staffers (Lindsay) at one of those places subsequently went out on her own and bought 20 more copies to give to friends!

In the St. Louis area, The First Thirty is available at Borders in Brentwood, Borders in Creve Coeur and Borders in Sunset Hills.

The First Thirty is also available at Godfrey Bookstore in nearby Godfrey, IL

Online, The First Thirty and companion workbook, A Place To Sit, are available here

For bulk orders for your class, staff, volunteers or clients, email Books@IdeaListEnterprises.com

Answer to commonly asked question: Yes, everything you just saw and read took place in 48 hours :)

RIPPLE EFFECTS

After sending her feedback on the MBA course (noted earlier, above), Michelle the One Day Intern sent a second note a couple days later: "Greg, Thank you for the opportunity to intern for you for the day when you were in St. Louis. The experience was definitely worthwhile. I was wondering if you needed an intern for the summer."

She starts in mid-May.

Even though the Dinner with Friends (except nobody knows each other) involves no speeches or theme -- just people eating food and spending time together -- something good for the community always seems to come out of it. The St. Louis dinner at Nadoz Cafe was no exception - as two attendees (Ron & Pam) decided to donate $1,000 to a project involving students from two local universities, after learning more about it from a student at the dinner (Leonard). The project is a joint effort between students from the two schools to help raise funds for the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Project in Washington, D.C.

Leonard sent in the following note (excerpted): "...I just wanted to share this story with you. I had the opportunity to meet Ron Rubin at the dinner last night... I called him [today] about [a program in] East St. Louis...Suprisingly, when I called him...he told me that he [would be donating] $1000... This was so unexpected...thank you again for inviting me to [come to] dinner...when you place a group of productive people in the same room on any given day, the end product will be achievement. It is my hope that in the next few months you receive another email, not from myself, but from Ron; And in that email I hope that he shares with you a similar success story of how you connected him to me..."

== In addition to sponsoring the trip, Ron also gave Greg a series of gifts, including some GREAT books to read. One of Greg's favorites in the bunch was Raising the Bar - a book by Gary Erickson (Founder & Owner of Clif Bar) Greg loved the story, Gary's business philosophies & lessons, and he especially enjoyed the company's efforts in the community - so he tried their products (and loved them!). He now eats Clif Bars regularly - a great addition for someone like him who works out daily.

== The MBA students selected the site to receive the 10 copies of The First Thirty, provided by Advance Mentoring Inc. They selected a program overseen by SLU's Office of Multicultural Affairs. Shortly thereafter, the following note (excerpted) was received from SLU's Fredrick Hamilton:

== "Saint Louis University's Office of Multicultural Affairs was selected to receive the ten copies of this wonderful book (The First Thirty). We have plans to use the book in three of our Mathematics and Science summer programs that target minority middle and high school students. These programs utilize a corps of health care practitioners and medical students as instructors and are designed to attract participants to the health care pipeline...Dr. Ben Carson's books are used extensively, and we envision a similar fate for this delightful book. Thank you [to those who made this possible and those who chose us for the books] for your caring, sharing and contributing to the development of of tomorrow's health care professionals."

== The trip was featured on the home page of EntrepreneurshipWeek USA's website, and linked to a really nice article - click here to read it

== Borders Sunset Hills and Borders Creve Coeur both sold out of The First Thirty. Both have ordered more copies. The book is also available at Borders - Brentwood (and down the street a bit, it is available at Godfrey Book Store in Godfrey IL)

== In addition to the books, Ron gave Greg some boxes of products affiiliated with The Republic of Tea. Since some of the products were Luna Tea Cakes - which are primarily geared toward female consumers - Greg gave out some of the tea cakes (and some of the tea) to women he knew and/or ones he met (including a lady named Violet, whose boyfriend lent the camera used to take the picture of this box, when Greg's camera wouldn't work)

== Greg called an office in St. Louis to let someone know how the trip turned out. He left a message with another lady (Peggy) in the office, whom he'd never previously spoken with. Through a surreal series of circumstances over the next 24 hours, Peggy came across a note Greg had posted online about his favorite tv show (Lost) - on a website devoted to the show that neither Greg nor Peggy had ever visited before. Soon after, Peggy wrote him a note to share news of the coincidence, and said she had gone to Borders Sunset Hills, picked up a copy of The First Thirty, and set up a time to meet with her best friend to share the story with her.

== The Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial Project Foundation ran a really nice story about Greg's Dinner for Strangers and what resulted from it - click here to read it

== The article written by the student reporter (Jessen) who interviewed Greg and Ron during the trip was published in her school paper

== A nice article was published on the website for the Cook School of Business - click here to read it

== One of the books Greg received from Ron while in St. Louis (The Ultimate Gift by Jim Stovall) is the kind of book that is supposed to be passed on and shared with others. After reading this incredible story, Greg knew exactly who he wanted to pass it on to -- and when. On a Friday night a few weeks after returning home, Greg attended a party recognizing a number of teachers and school administrators who were retiring after decades of working with kids. He gave the book to a very special Principal (Mr. G.) he'd now known for a decade and who was retiring after 45 years in the school system.

== A few days later, Mr. G. sent in a note to Greg that read, in part: "...my deep gratitude to you for attending the retirement party last Friday. To look across the table and see your face...brought back a flood of happy memories and experiences...I would like to thank you for all that you have done for our children, our families, and our school...Secondly, thank you for your interest in Jamal. He is a most capable young man and the experiences that you can give him during his internship will be most valuable...I have begun to read The Ultimate Gift and am finding it most fascinating and so on target. Thank you for this gift--I will treasure it..."

In July 2007, one of the people (Kara) who attended the Dinner with Friends in St. Louis traveled to Chicago with some friends to meet up with some other friends who live there. In a case of what goes around comes around, Kara invited Greg to join them for dinner (and, in turn, Greg invited a friend named Evan to come along as well).

One of Kara's friends at the Dinner (Lindsey) did a project featuring The 11-10-02 Foundation for her MBA course.

STAY TUNED FOR MORE RIPPLE EFFECTS TO COME... (AND/OR LET US KNOW IF YOU WANT TO BE THE NEXT ONE!)

Personal note from Greg: Special thanks to Ron Rubin & The Republic of Tea for making this trip possible, and thanks to everyone who crossed my path along the way, and made me feel so at home in St. Louis. I hope I have a chance to come back soon.