Rhythm: So Simple a 14-year-old Can Explain It (Video)

Last summer, Nicole, my 14-year-old daughter, walked into my home office and asked “Daddy, can I intern with you this summer?” I replied “Sure!” She continued, “OK, what would you like me to do for Rhythm Systems this summer?” I laughed and said “I don’t know. You just popped the question. You are the one who wants to intern with me, so how about you think about what you would like to learn, come back, and we can discuss further and decide. Whatever you choose to do, just make sure it gives me and our company value.” Nicole makes a face “OK, Daddy. I'll think about it and come back with some ideas.”

A few weeks later, Nicole came back all excited. “Daddy, I know what I can do for you!” She showed me a school project that she had just finished. It was a wonderful and creative explainer video done with time-lapse photography of her drawing and illustrating the state of transportation in the USA. “Daddy, I want to build videos like this for you!” Now I got really excited. Nicole loves to draw and she has a growing love for photography. What better way to spend her summer than on an internship that will allow her to spend 100% of her energy on two things that she loves? “Ok, Nicole. Here’s your summer internship project. Read my book, Rhythm. Then build a short video just like your school project. It needs to be short, five or six minutes. It can be little longer, but definitely under ten minutes. Your school project did not have narration. Our video will need narration to explain the illustrations. Barry (one of our consultants) can help you with your ideas and answer your questions if anything is unclear. But I want you to explain Rhythm from the perspective of a 14-year-old. So don’t let our team overly influence your ideas.” I could see Nicole was getting excited. She asked if I would review and edit her script. "I do not want to review or approve your script. I really want this from the perspective of a 14-year-old, and I am not 14, you are. So if I edited your script, I would probably mess it up.” She got really excited and a little scared.

And so her project was born. We agreed what success looked like for her project: an explainer video using time-lapse photography with narration, shorter than ten minutes, from her non-corporate business perspective. She would have full control of the script. She could ask for help, receive some guidance from Barry. But she had to be very careful not to allow any of us to write or overly influence her script and how she would explain Rhythm.

Here’s Rhythm from a 14-year old’s perspective. I hope you enjoy it.