Update/Context: Network Kansas continues to grow, providing essential programming and funding for Montgomery County E-Community (MEC.) As of July, 2024, just under $2 million in gap financing loans have been made to entrepreneurs and small businesses in the county.

In addition to my role as director of Fab Lab ICC, I have a volunteer role in an entity we how call Montgomery County E-Community (MEC) In the next column, I’ll fill in some of the details about now MEC has impacted local and area businesses for the last 10 years or so. 

Before we can totally understand the impact of Montgomery County E-Community we need an introduction into the state-wide initiative of Network Kansas. Its programming in support of entrepreneurship and gap financing for small businesses, is unique in the United States. In my view, the overwhelming success of Network Kansas comes about because Steve Radley, President and CEO, and Erik Pedersen, VP of Entrepreneurship are both themselves entrepreneurs, having partnered in both successful and unsuccessful businesses. You can’t really design a program to help entrepreneurs unless you, yourself have struggled to make payroll and pay the bills. I’ve asked my good friend Erik to summarize the start of Network Kansas and the E-Community initiative. 

Kansas Hires Two Entrepreneurs to Run a State Program 

“In May 2005, Steve Radley and I were hired to open the Kansas Center for Entrepreneurship. We were fortunate to have great partners provide us with office space as we got our feet on the ground, including Wichita State University and Butler Community College. Our first charter was to create a referral center, a one-stop shop to connect entrepreneurs to a network of resource partners. This part of NetWork Kansas has grown to over 500 resource partners and we receive 250 - 300 inbound leads each month on our toll-free hotline (1-877-521-8600) or email (info@networkkansas.com). 

Startup Kansas Launched to Provide Matching Loans 

“In 2006, we launched Startup Kansas, a statewide program to provide matching loans to businesses in rural communities or distressed geographical areas of urban communities. This ability to impact Kansas businesses with gap financing, and the realization that a deeper relationship with our resource partners could impact rural communities at a greater level, provided a clear path to the rollout of the Entrepreneurship (E-) Community Partnership in late 2007. An E-Community is a partnership in which NetWork Kansas allocates an amount of loan funds to each of 64 Kansas E-Communities (defined as a town, a cluster of towns or a county). The loan fund is intended as gap financing that the community has local decision-making control over which businesses to provide matching loans to. This loan fund has proven to be a game-changer. Over 11 years, the E-Community network has approved 637 loans to 608 businesses (some have come back more than once), totaling $20.5 million. Remember when I said it's supposed to be gap financing? It's proving out to be - this $20.5 million is only 18% of the money that has gone into those 637 loans, leveraging another $94.6 million of public and private capital. To understand the significant impact these gap financing funds have had in rural Kansas, you only need to look at the fact that 42% of the loans are to startups and 34% are to expansions; one in four are retail, one in five are restaurant, and almost half of the loans have taken place in towns with a population under 5,000.  

E-Community Evolves into Additional Programs for Small Business 

“In addition to having local oversight of the loan fund, the E-Community leadership teams work with a NetWork Kansas E-Community coach to engage in strategic planning, initiate activities and introduce entrepreneurship programming to generate statewide development. Just like each community is unique, each team is unique, and they chart their own path. As the team decides to focus their efforts in a specific area (entrepreneurship mindset, generating startups, perhaps engaging youth), the E-Community coach will introduce programming options such as: Ice House entrepreneurial mindset, Destination Boot Camp and Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge. Sometimes, the local team wants to focus on an area in which a programming option isn't readily available. In those instances, by asking "what if..." and "what would it look like if we did this...", the coach and team can create an idea for a pilot program. Some of the best ideas bubble-up from those one-off conversations. 

New Programs Sometimes Come from Local E-Communities 

“There are countless examples of innovative ideas coming out of our E-Communities and E-Communities themselves leading us down new paths. Montgomery County fits that description well. Coffeyville became an E-Community in 2010. Northern Montgomery County joined the partnership in 2012. The two merged a couple years ago to become Montgomery County E-Community. Not long after, we were introduced to the Fab Lab at Independence Community College. (I've known Jim Correll, Director Fab Lab ICC, for 10+ years, and I hold him in very high regard, so the fact he created this space to design, create and build wasn't a surprise). When the NetWork Kansas staff was able to experience it, touch it, feel it, and see the difference a place like this could make in rural Kansas communities, it was a no-brainer for us to ask "how can we share this model with others". Jim and Tim Haynes (Fab Lab Manager) took that question and ran with it. The result is Maker Space Boot Camp, a 2 1/2 day training for communities who want to learn how to create an entrepreneurial mindset and maker space in their community to enhance community revitalization efforts. The following blog explains it as well as I could. 

https://www.networkkansas.com/ecommunities/news/ntks-blog/2019/11/04/a-unique-experience-at-maker-space-boot-camp 

Sixty-four E-Communities Produce Great Results 

“When people ask about the E-Community partnership, I always tell them the loan funds are the carrot that gives our staff a seat at the table with the local leadership team. And it's at the table where we form relationships and strategically discuss how we can help create a flourishing entrepreneurial environment in that community. The E-Community partnership, in Montgomery County, and the other 63 exceptional communities, is producing great results.  

Last time, we introduced Gary Schoeniger, founder of what is now the Ice House Entrepreneurship program in a company called the Entrepreneurial Learning Initiative. He had started small in building a successful gutter cleaning business that evolved into a multi-million-dollar construction management company. He also helped his near-drop-out son start a construction site cleaning business while still in high school. Jason went on to be graduated from high school and college and become a Marine seeing combat action.

Two Start-ups Started Small

These two start-ups, starting small without much money and without special business education were in extreme contrast with the way our society has portrayed entrepreneurship and the implied need of big money and special education for a start-up.

In search of a better way to educate aspiring entrepreneurs and business owners, Schoeniger became involved with an initiative supported by Cisco Systems to conduct video interviews with entrepreneurs from all over the United States to try to figure out if there were common traits in their thinking that made them successful. Cisco had discovered that entrepreneurs can't consciously describe how they think, let alone write it down, but if you get them to tell their story about how they started, you can begin to see these common traits.

Gary was in the process of traveling all over the United States, interviewing, on camera, all kinds of entrepreneurs that had become successful. Nearly all had started out with very little money and little formal business education. Many weren't even subject matter experts in the areas of business in which they found themselves.

Schoeniger Interviews Taulbert

In Tulsa, Oklahoma, Gary had finished the planned interview by about lunch time with a flight that didn't leave until the next day. Asking the people he met for suggestions about who else he might try to interview while in Tulsa, someone suggested Clifton Taulbert. Taulbert had lived in Tulsa for several years and was involved and a co-founder of the company that marketed the original "Stairmaster" exercise machine. Clifton was available and, indeed, the interview took place that afternoon in Clifton's office on Lewis Avenue in Tulsa.

Not Only Entrepreneur But Also International Speaker and Author

Clifton's story was quite a find for Schoeniger. The "Stairmaster" piece was only a small part; he had been a shareholder in one of Tulsa's banks and had become, and still is, an international speaker and author, having been nominated for the Pulitzer for his "Last Train North." His first book "Once Upon A Time When We Were Colored" has been in print for thirty years after he struggled to find the first publisher who told him that a run of 5,000 copies would be enough for a lifetime. There have been multiple reprints since then and the book became so popular that the United States State Department asked for a copy of the book to have on Nelson Mandela's desk when he was finally released from prison.

It was the story of Clifton's upbringing and his introduction to entrepreneurship (before we stole that term from the French) that really caught Schoeniger's attention.

Taulbert's Upbringing Is the Real Story

In the segregated South of the late 1950's, Clifton grew up on the Mississippi delta in the small town of Glen Allan. Life was difficult for all African Americans there. Nearly all teenaged and adult males worked in the cotton fields; females were primarily domestic help in the white and Jewish homes. All were for meager wages. The one exception was Clifton's Uncle Cleve Mormon. He owned the only ice house in town--that was before wide-spread refrigeration--everyone bought ice. This most unlikely of entrepreneurs, Uncle Cleve had little money, little formal education and certainly no power or political clout. Yet somehow, he built his own business in this small town and everyone, no matter what ethnicity, bought ice from him. He asked Clifton to help him in his business a couple of high-school summers instead of working in the cotton fields. Today, Taulbert says that's where he really learned the lessons of entrepreneurship.

Ice House Entrepreneurship Program Evolves

Over the months after the interview the two, Schoeniger and Taulbert, had many conversations and co-authored a book "Who Owns the Ice House?" In it, each chapter is a piece of Clifton's story relating back to his upbringing and work with Uncle Cleve followed by commentary from Gary relating why that part of the story is relevant to today's entrepreneurial thinking. After that, the whole entrepreneurship education initiative was changed to revolve around the "Ice House" book and its eight life's lessons from an unlikely entrepreneur.

Entrepreneurial Thinking is for Everyone

Since then, we've learned that those life's lessons really are for everyone, not just those wanting to own businesses. The lessons are about problem solving, taking action, continual search for knowledge and persistence. That's why you'll see and hear me talking about the "Ice House" way so much and for so many people. It represents the idea of always learning new ways to use small experiments in the search of solutions to big problems. The results of each experiment either validate an assumption or point out the need to try something else. Entrepreneurial thinking is not just about starting a business. It's about becoming better at solving the problems we encounter in our personal, academic and career life situations.

The next "Entrepreneurial Mindset" class featuring the "Ice House Entrepreneurship Program" starts in August 12 on Thursday nights from 6 to 8 PM through September 30. It is different than any other class with no heavy reading or testing. Most say it's inspiring; some, life changing. Learn more at www.fablabicc.org. (Registration discount is available through July 31.)

Many people within our network of contacts here locally, around Kansas and across the country are familiar with "Ice House Entrepreneurship." We use the term frequently when we speak of "Ice House" concepts or the "Ice House" way. It must sound very strange to people that don't know the origin of the term. For many of us, the "Ice House" way represents not only the way we should be starting new businesses, but the way we should all be thinking in how we solve the problems in our career, academic and personal lives.

Most businesses start small and grow

Most new businesses do not start as have been portrayed by our society. The impression we've had all these years was that businesses are started by people with business degrees from the top business schools with detailed business plans and projections. The plan is pitched and after receiving startup capital from venture capitalists, an all-or-nothing gamble takes place. I've not seen much evidence of those kinds of start-ups in the various areas of Kansas in which I've lived.

Then, in 2011, I learned of a statistic that ninety-eight percent of the Fortune 500 businesses were started with less than $10,000 in start-up capital. Even the mighty Walmart started out as a small store owned and operated by Sam Walton. Amazon was started in a garage with a few computers and doors converted to desks by adding 4 x 4 legs. (When I did my hard time as an area manager at the now defunct Coffeyville Amazon fulfillment center, that's what we still used for desks; a door on 4 x 4 legs.)

Introduction to the "Ice House" way

This revelation came to me at a conference in Oregon in October of 2011 when I heard, for the first time, Ohio business man, Gary Schoeniger and international speaker and Pulitzer nominated author Clifton Taulbert speak of a book titled "Who Owns the Ice House?"

From gutter cleaning to construction management

Schoeniger, without a business degree and with little money, started a small business cleaning roof gutters. He recognized that homeowners had a problem; they knew their gutters needed to be cleaned, but didn't want to do the work themselves. Although he didn't like ladders either, he went door to door offering to clean gutters for a fee. One customer asked if he could fix her garage door opener. He told her he'd have to check and, in the era preceding Google, he went to the library to find a resource to help him figure out how garage door openers work.

One thing led to another as Gary tweaked his business model, always looking for new problems he could solve for his customers. A few years later, he owned and operated a multi-million dollar construction management firm.

From flunk-out to another family business

At the time Gary was a single father with a teenaged son living with him. The son had a friend named Jason whose personal life was a train wreck. Jason was about to flunk out of high school seeing no relevance in the subject matter. Again, one thing led to another and Schoeniger ended up adopting Jason. With no special training in helping a teenager with Jason's background Gary first set about finding something constructive for Jason to do after school. In his construction management business, Gary knew that most contractors don't like to clean up their sites (we all know this too) so the two went to garage sales picking up bargain tools and supplies that could be used in construction site cleanup. They designed some flyers and business cards and Jason became the proprietor of a construction site cleaning business. He became well known for his reliability and ability to use a calendar to do the work for his customers when and where needed without reminders. Jason operated the successful business until he was graduated from high school and enlisted in the Marine Corp. The business made him see the relevance in much of the subject matter in school and his grades improved greatly.

Gary Schoeniger and adopted son, Jason Campbell, both started businesses with no special education and very little money. The businesses flourished as they both learned to solve problems for their customers.

Changing how we grow entrepreneurs

Gary saw the discrepancy between what we've been led to believe is required to start a business and his own experience, along with that of son Jason. He set about to change the way we educate people in starting businesses by studying the way successful entrepreneurs and business owners think in terms of solving problems for others. There was a huge challenge in this undertaking since most successful entrepreneurs can't verbalize how they think, let alone write it down.

Next time; how it became "Ice House"

In the next column, we'll explore how Schoeniger solved this problem and how he met Clifton Taulbert and co-authored the book "Who Owns the Ice House?" with him to become the center of what we now call the "Ice House Entrepreneurship" program.

The next "Entrepreneurial Mindset" class featuring the "Ice House Entrepreneurship Program" starts in August 12 on Thursday nights from 6 to 8 PM through September 30. It is different than any other class with no heavy reading or testing. Most say it's inspiring; some, life changing. Learn more at www.fablabicc.org. (Registration discount is available through July 31.)

Update/Context: The article "How to Stop the Shrink," published in November 2021, remains highly relevant today as rural communities still face challenges related to population decline. In 2024, the issues of urban dissatisfaction, housing shortages, and opportunities for small-town growth are more pronounced than ever. The article's suggestions—inviting family members back, changing the narrative for youth, and fostering local entrepreneurship—continue to offer valuable strategies for revitalizing rural areas. Communities aiming for sustainable growth can still benefit from these ideas by embracing local resources and attracting residents disillusioned with urban life.

Rural American communities have been shrinking in population for decades. It’s not just the alure of the city with shiny lights and activities that have caused the slide. For those same decades, we’ve been telling our youth that there are few job opportunities in our communities and that the real opportunities are somewhere else, and you must go away to find them. For the most part, our youth have bought the story and left our communities while we sit around tables in community meetings trying to figure out what has happened to our youth and ways to bring them back. Fortunately for us, big cities and big city leaders are doing their part to reverse the trend. Many big cities aren’t shiny, and some are even dangerous. We’re seeing more and more of our youth returning to our area after finding that big city life did not turn out to be as satisfying as they thought it would be.

2020 Census: Is the Shrink all its cranked up to be?

The 2020 census paints a dire picture for our county and area, showing drastic declines in population. I’m not sure the census results paint a totally accurate picture. No doubt, there are serious implications of lower census numbers in terms of the way congressional districts are defined and the amount of federal funding returning to our area.

Gathering data for an accurate census, every ten years as specified in the constitution, has always been a challenge. Last year was worse than ever. We were in the very worst part of the pandemic when it was time to collect data. There were all manner of advertising and public relations campaigns urging people to respond to the census, but in the confusion of it all, I have to believe we missed a lot of people, exacerbating the shrinking problem.

Also, I don’t believe there’s any way, from the once-every-ten-years data, to tell whether the shrinking is as bad today as it was at the beginning of this last period in 2010. We don’t know if we’re still on a downward trend or if we bottomed out and are maintaining or perhaps growing again. 

People are moving into our area, and they range in age from young professional families to retired people looking for an escape from the hub bub, crime, and politics of the big city. I spoke with a real estate agent a couple of months ago with 15 properties scheduled for closing. Real estate in our area is hot right now.

Stopping the Shrink

Area politicians are talking a lot about the shrink. They will have to deal with it in the form of drawing new state congressional districts. Some of them talk about what the government can do to help stop the shrink, but really, other than trying to provide a business-friendly environment, the government is not going to be able to do much to stop the shrink.

(Former) Kansas Attorney General, Derek Schmidt, visited one of my classes years ago when he was a state senator. He said at the time he didn’t think the communities in our county, and state, had done enough to be great places to live. I think his point was that we were spending too much time, effort and money trying to attract white-knight industry to come to our towns while not having enough housing inventory and local business.

Keep Doing What We’re Doing

Since the AG’s class visit, things have changed, for the better. We have strong chambers, main street, reawakening and community betterment groups working to improve our communities. We have a stronger retail business presence than I can remember in the twenty years I’ve been in the area. Many local businesses are growing and despite challenges, several businesses I know are having record years and a few even had record years last year during the pandemic. We have lots of entertainment opportunities and there are efforts underway to alleviate our housing shortages. Continuing these efforts will go a long way to stopping the shrink.

A Couple of Things to Add

In addition, there are a couple of things we can do more of. First, we all need to issue open invitations to our family members who live elsewhere to return, especially those that may want to start a business. Second, we need to change the message to our youth and quit telling them that their opportunities for a successful future are all somewhere else. There are opportunities right here in this area, especially to start businesses filling in the local market gaps.

In recent history, there has never been so much dissatisfaction by so many city dwellers across the United States in the conditions of their cities and their disability to continue living there. Many, fed up with big city crime and other problems are ready to try life in smaller, rural communities. If we keep doing what we’re doing, invite our family members to return and change the message to our youth, we have a shot at attracting more people to come, or stay, and live in our small corner of the Midwest.

Update/Context: I first wrote this column in 2018, then repeated it at the beginning of 2021 as we ended the Covid era. Each year is going to include situations and experiences that make us wonder what the new year will bring. Whether or not it will be a good year is entirely up to each of us. We even have the means to make it awesome.

 People who know me know that I don't use the word "awesome" very often.  While so many others have made it a tired cliché, I use it very rarely to describe only exceptional situations. How could we possibly have an awesome new year with everything that’s happened to us over the past few years?

We Have Control of the New Year

Every one of us has total control over whether the New Year will be awesome or not.  The quality of the New Year, indeed, the quality of our lives is determined by the choices we make, not only in how we respond to adversity but in how we choose to move forward. The quality of the new year is also determined by the relationships we develop and the people we help along the way.  There are examples all throughout history of people in every kind of situation who choose triumph over adversity.  From minor inconveniences to major tragedies, it's our choices of how we respond, not our circumstances that control the outcome of our lives.

In the Entrepreneurial Mindset class, featuring the Ice House Entrepreneurship program, we learn that one of the traits common to successful entrepreneurs is this realization that we can choose to control our personal destiny through the choices we make.  We talk about taking time to respond to situations rather than acting immediately in knee-jerk reactions.  Through all kinds of adversity, these entrepreneurs, not only the ones we study in the video interview content, but also the area entrepreneurs we bring in as guests, have chosen to control their outcomes through what we call an internal locus of control.

Positive Thinking Amid Negative Messaging

One of the choices we need to make is to think positively, expecting good things and not bad things to happen.  I know several people who have actually told me they expect the worst things in life.  They get what they expect.  Our society teaches us to expect the worst, once you pay attention to the messages.  The pharmaceutical companies bombard us with messages telling us how sick we are and that we need to go to the doctor to prescribe their medicine for us.  The news media quotes so-called "experts" telling us there's a good chance we'll suffer one kind of calamity or another. A high school teacher told us, in driver’s ed class, that statistically one out of two people would die in an auto crash before the age of 50. He then said, “Look at the person next to you and decide which one of you it’s going to be.” Although he meant no harm, it was a terrible message to present to a class of 13 and 14-year-olds; an example of the subliminally negative messages still pervasive in our society.

Thinking positively doesn't mean we won't ever have a flat tire, but we can choose how we react to the flat tires of life and make decisions to minimize the number of flat tires we'll have. Maybe we also learn that maintenance and care of the things we use every day can minimize the number of flat tires and breakdowns we may have in life.

It will be an awesome New Year if we believe it will be and we make the choices and decisions to make it so.

In 2025, the Entrepreneurial Mindset class, will be offered by Life Skills Academy, a part of Innovative Business Resource Center (IBRC.) We plan to offer the next class in the latter part of March. To know when we set the schedule, find and follow the IBRC page on Facebook.

Update/Context: The article “Go Ahead—Count Those Chickens Before They Hatch,” published in May 2017, remains relevant today because it challenges limiting beliefs about waiting for good things to happen by chance. In 2024, the importance of mindset, intentional planning, and positive goal-setting is critical for personal and entrepreneurial success. The idea of writing down goals as a powerful tool for achieving them, along with embracing setbacks as learning opportunities, continues to resonate. This mindset shift is crucial for anyone looking to take control of their future, both personally and professionally.

“Don’t count your chickens before they hatch.” I’ve heard that one all my life. Here’s what the Cambridge Dictionary has to say about this old adage; “you should not make plans that depend on something good happening before you know that it has actually happened” 

This is a terrible message for any of us, especially our youth, it implies that any good thing happening is a matter of some kind of chance or luck; that life is some kind of lottery where good things happen randomly only to the “lucky” ones. When something goes wrong or we otherwise suffer, we think it’s just bad luck. In the United States, our society is full of messages that tell us we’re supposed to suffer. The pharmaceutical ads tell us that we’re either sick or we’re going to become sick. One ad the other night showed individual shots of children, sad faced, each shot including a numerical statistic showing the chances that the child would contract some terrible disease. In high school once, a teacher told us that fifty percent of us would be involved in a horrible auto accident. He said, “Now, look at the person next to you and think about which one of you it will be.” 

Many psychologists know that people actually have a lot of control over the outcome of their lives by learning to think positively and consciously making plans for good things to happen. The brain has a way of driving you toward your goals, indeed, a good life once you make a decision to change it for the better. There are plenty of people that have taken control of their lives by the choices they make and a change in the way they think. Life does not have to be controlled by circumstances or bad luck. 

Good things come about when we think about them, working toward making them happened rather than “not making plans that depend on something good happening before it happens.” As we’ve learned over the last couple of years, the first step in making those plans, which depend on good things happening, starts with writing them down. There are many examples of the power of written thought in a book by Henriette Anne Klauser called “Write It Down, Make It Happen: Knowing What You Want And Getting It.” Writing down your goals can also help clarify them. A banker friend of mine once told me he liked to tell kids visiting the bank that he was going to give them a magic wand to make their dreams come true. Before the kids left the building, he gave them all a pencil and told them the “magic” of making their dreams come true is to write them down. We all need such a magic wand. 

Thought is powerful and writing down the thoughts makes them more powerful, but we don’t always control the time-table on which our thoughts produce the results we think we want. The rest of the equation has to do with the way we respond to set-backs and delays in realizing our dreams. Having a growth mindset means that the journey is more important than the end result. If we spend our lives always learning new things as we take incremental steps toward our goals, we’ll have the persistence to accomplish those goals. And, we’ll have the wisdom to realize, that what we wanted or needed in the past may not be what we want or need now. It’s okay to change our goals along the way. 

Our youth, and all of us, need to know that it’s okay to count our chickens before they hatch, that is, we should all make plans based on the good things that we can make happen, not waiting around for good things happen by chance. 

Update/Context: We’re seeing positive changes in how we guide our youth toward becoming productive, self-supporting members of society. The message has shifted from the old model of "find a job at a big company and retire with a pension" to the more open-ended "you can be anything you want to be" and "follow your passion." While this is progress, there’s still more work to be done. Instead of asking young people what they want to be, let's ask them what problems they want to solve. This mindset shift can empower them to think entrepreneurially and create meaningful impact in their careers and communities.

It's All About Problem-Solving 

All of this has to be within a framework of providing some kind of useful service to others, whether bosses, coworkers, customers or society. To be useful, the service has to solve problems for others. Hence the emphasis, when I was at Fab Lab ICC, in all our classes on problem-solving as well as in all our activities and projects. Indeed, as related to career building and making a living, all educational institutions should be emphasizing problem-solving as the primary objective, not how much salary can be drawn from an employer or how much profit can be extracted from customers. Don't misunderstand, salaries have to be right for the work performed and profits have to be sufficient to provide for the sustainability of the company and the satisfaction of the investors and/or stock holders, but money and profits should be secondary to an objective of solving problems in the best, most innovative and efficient ways possible. 

Challenge Youth to Change the World 

At every opportunity, we challenge youth to start figuring out how to change the world and "you don't have to wait until you get out of school to start." We are not challenging them to make large salaries or become rich. We are challenging them to figure out ways to change the world by making it better. The challenge will be met by solving problems of one kind or another. This kind of challenge will tend to lead these young students to a life of work solving problems by doing something about which they are passionate. There's nothing wrong with making a lot of money and/or becoming rich but that's not the primary goal. If you've built a life around helping others, chances are that you'll use whatever money you make and wealth you build to help others throughout your life. 

The Best Life Is One of Serving Others 

You can follow your passion as long as it solves problems in ways better than any other solutions available. You only get to follow your passion if people individually or in our society are willing to pay for your solutions. You can't make a living following your passion if no one else cares about or benefits from the fruit of your passion. 

If we can continue to change the message to our youth in this way, eventually we'll have a society of people concerned with making the world around them better, many of them following their passion. The best way to have a happy and fulfilled life is to figure out how to serve others by solving problems while doing work about which you are passionate.

Update/Context: Originally published on April 5, 2017, this article's message about the necessity of continuous innovation remains as relevant as ever. In today’s fast-paced business environment, those who stop improving risk being left behind. The case of Dixon mowers serves as a cautionary tale for businesses and organizations alike: even revolutionary products must keep evolving to maintain their edge. The principles of reinvention and innovation continue to drive success across industries, highlighting the timeless importance of adaptability.

We’ve all heard it “There’s no need to reinvent the wheel,” It makes me cringe as much as fingernails on a chalk board. A statement like that indicates a desire to find someone else’s solution and call it good enough. Entrepreneurs almost never leave well enough alone.    

Reinventing the wheel doesn’t necessarily mean creating a wheel like no other, ever. Most of the time, reinventing the wheel means making continuous improvement to existing wheels. To reinvent something requires that it was an original invention at some point. Many times, original inventions are a result of mistakes or accidents. We don’t really know much about the caveman (or woman) that invented the first wheel. Maybe it was a joint effort. Could be that in moving a big rock from point A to point B, someone discovered that when pushed on a round stick, the pushing got easier. Through continuous improvement, the big rock eventually was suspended by two big sticks with round rocks on the end of each; axles and wheels. For eons, wheels have been reinvented and made out of various materials. Until relatively recently, the rides from all various materials have been bone-jarring. Finally, we discovered rubber and developed the inflated tires on our wheels today. We can all be thankful that so many people over so many years didn’t say “There’s no need to reinvent the wheel.”  

What we’re really talking about here is the need for continuous innovation and constant improvement. In today’s competitive world, if you leave well enough alone, someone will likely reinvent your wheel and leave you in the dust. When you get a good thing going, you had better keep improving it and always be developing the next big thing. 

As a teenager in the 1970’s growing up in western Kansas, I remember seeing the TV commercials for the Dixon Zero-Turn lawn mower. Revolutionary; it turned on a dime, allowing very close mowing around tress and other obstacles. Mowing time was cut in half. When I moved to southeast Kansas in 2000, I discovered that Dixon mowers were made in Coffeyville. I toured the plant once in about 2003 and saw mower bodies stacked to the ceiling. It had been a slow year. For thirty years, Dixon was king of the zero-turn mower market, especially for residential mowers. Then something happen, perhaps a patent ran out. Overnight, new zero-turn mowers flooded the market from manufacturers everywhere. Dixon, apparently, was caught with no new innovations. In the next couple of years, after layoffs, the Coffeyville plant closed and what was left of production moved to a new owner’s location. Dixon mowers are still made, but long ago lost their dominance in the marketplace. Maybe there could have been a different outcome had the company recognized the need for continuous innovation. 

We all need to be like the entrepreneur who can’t leave well enough alone whether we own a small business or work for others. The businesses, organizations and government offices that don’t recognize the need for continuous innovation run the risk of being deemed obsolete by a demanding marketplace for which “good enough” is no longer good enough. 

Update/Context: Building on the first article, this second part dives deeper into the systemic reasons behind the life skills gap in today’s youth. From cultural shifts to changes in parenting styles, we discuss the societal factors contributing to the problem. This article emphasizes the importance of community and educational programs that focus on developing life skills in young people, ensuring they are equipped to handle the demands of adulthood and thrive in an increasingly complex world.

In part 1 we discussed the way the education system in the United States was forever changed in the late 19^th century by the Committee of 10. The goal of this committee was to divide students by age and class rooms by subject matter so as to teach them all the same subject matter one subject at a time through their school day. Industrial production was the primary motivating factor and the committee felt that workers should possess basic reading and math skills so they could understand basic instructions about how to run various machines and do various processes. There was not much, if any, thought about preparation for life skills outside of working in the factories. In that era the country was still recovering, less than 30 years after the end of the Civil War. “Making a living” was a challenge so many people settled in for the factory work and it kind of made sense for schools to give students just enough knowledge to do their work efficiently.

Fast forward to the 1950’s, 60’s and 70’s and pretty much the same subjects were being taught in schools, however, wood shop and auto shop classes offered some hands-on knowledge that could translate into life skills. Girls rarely took these classes. For girls, there was home economics, home-ec, teaching life skills of the household. In the 1980’s, 90’s and 2000’s many of these classes started to disappear from high schools yielding to budget pressure to keep the traditional academic and athletic programs going. Today, we’re nearing two or three generations that lack basic life skills to “participate fully and independently in everyday life.”

Film Explores the Deficiencies of Conventional Education

Many would say that not only are these generations without life skills but also lacking the career skills needed for our current and future society with automation, computers and artificial intelligence able to do many things previously requiring humans. A 2018 documentary by Greg Whitely provides an excellent commentary. Here is the Amazon description.  “Most Likely to Succeed examines the growing shortcomings of conventional education methods in today's innovative world and explores compelling new approaches aimed at inspiring communities to reimagine what students and teachers are capable of doing.” The film is centered around an entirely project-based high school called “High Tech High” and chronicles students’ journeys through this very different school and the skills it gives them to better deal with the future both in their professional and personal lives. It is worth the five-dollar rental.

Adding Hands-On Through Fab Labs and Maker Spaces

So, what do we do in the meantime, while we’re waiting for a version of High Tech High to become available in our area? We engage our youth in Fab Labs and Maker Spaces to gain hands on experience making physical manifestations of their ideas. When kids are making something they are interested in, they will learn whatever is necessary to make it work. We should also lobby for shop and home economics (now they are called Family and Consumer Sciences) classes to return to our high schools. When we do have the kids gathered in the Fab Labs and Maker Spaces for hand on activities, we also take time out to give them some practical information about other life topics.

REALity Fair Adds Sample of Life Skills to STEM Camp

In the Verizon STEM camp—for middle school girls-- recently completed in the Fab Lab and on the ICC campus, camp leaders did just that. They had what they called a REALity Fair. Girls “chose” a career from a list provided, noting the income that could be expected. They then spent a couple of hours making the rounds to various stations that had information about various topics, financial planning, clothing and wardrobe, cellular and data services, entertainment, banking, transportation, utilities, life surprises, housing and charity. The information included how much these things in life cost. They had to try to make the income from their “chosen” career stretch to buy the things they wanted/needed. Adult volunteers from the community came to be at the booths to help disseminate the information.

The girls were asked to list a point or two about their experience with the REALity Fair.

“Today I learned that money isn’t endless and that I should start saving for the future.”

“I thought it was really fun to walk around with friends and learn how to help each other with finances and real-life problems. This gave me a bigger understanding of the world and how things work with dealing with finances, which I didn’t think much about when I was choosing a career.”

“Phones and Internet are expensive! Melissa talked to us about getting the most with our money and choosing plans wisely.”

“I learned at the grocery station that eating at home and cooking healthy is much cheaper than eating out all the time. It’s important to budget for eating out and entertainment too.”

“Jim and Lori talked about ways I could save money buying/renting a home and getting an affordable vehicle. I found out I might not need such a big car after all.”

“I am thankful for the people that came in and helped us plan for our future. I learned that it is important to save money. All the people that were there were very informative. The people were soooo nice, especially Gavin, they really helped me.”

Young people want to learn life skills. All we need to do is work out ways they can learn them. It’s time to incorporate more hands-on, project-based and practical learning into our education system even if it means reducing the time and resources spent in preparing these kids for the next round of standardized tests.

Update/Context: Since this first article was published, the gap in basic life skills among today’s youth has become even more apparent. In this first part, we explore the fundamental skills that are lacking, from financial literacy to practical decision-making. As traditional education focuses more on academic achievement, critical skills for daily living are often overlooked. It's crucial to revisit how we prepare young people for the real world, emphasizing hands-on experiences that build self-reliance and resilience.

Patriot Story

One of my favorite movies, released in 2000, is “The Patriot.” Mel Gibson plays Benjamin Martin, a widower and past war hero with a remaining family of three or four kids. The story starts just before and runs through the end of the Revolutionary War. He struggles with the decision of whether to leave his family and join the war effort. For him, making a living consisted of growing crops and livestock and attempting to perfect a rocking chair design so that he could make and sell chairs, adding cash to his agrarian “income” to use to purchase food and supplies that he and his family couldn’t make for themselves. At that time, the economy was mostly agrarian, with people growing, raising, and making much of what they needed for everyday living, although there were artisans and crafts people that made things to sell. There were no assembly lines or economies of scale as would come with the industrial revolution in the late 19^th century. Everyone had life skills and young people learned them while growing up, required to do so by the realities of everyday life.

Young People (and Many Old) Lack Life Skills

A recent news story talked about the fact that young people don’t have “life skills.” I’m not sure about the exact definition of life skills but according to a source on Google, and we all know we can trust Google, a life skill is “A skill that is necessary or desirable for full participation in everyday life.” So, generally, participation in everyday life can mean having and maintaining a home as well as some sort of transportation mode. It also means being gainfully employed (the gainful part means taking in more money than you spend) or owning a profitable business. It also means knowing how to manage one’s finances (i.e. checking account) with a savings plan to build a nest egg and have an emergency fund available. In my mind, maintaining a home would mean having some knowledge about and basic tools on hand to fix a lot of the little things that break or need maintenance. Finally, knowing how to cook is a life skill. Knowing how to shop to have food in the house and how to prepare it is certainly essential to “participation in everyday life.” Knowing how to grow food, i.e., gardening is also a plus.

How We Got To This Point

Somehow, somewhere along the line, our young people—maybe not just the young people—have gotten the idea to specialize in some kind of career, thus, not to worry about learning skills beyond what is needed for the career. If you picked the right career, you could make enough money not to worry too much about life skills. You would be able to afford a nice home and car and you could hire people to fix anything that broke. You wouldn’t have to worry much about keeping food in the house or knowing how to prepare it. There would be supermarkets readily available and there would be nice restaurants.

Committee of 10 Story

As the industrial revolution developed in the 19^th century, machines were used to speed up production and provide a consistency not possible with hand made products. After the Civil War, factories wanted higher production and workers that knew how to run machines, not really caring if they knew much else. In 1892 the “committee of 10”, mostly Ivy League university representatives but also including a couple of high school principals and what was called the “commissioner of education” from Washington DC convened to restructure the education system. This committee changed the face of public education in America forever.

Schools were divided into classes based on the age of the student. The need for basic math, reading and writing skills was recognized but the main goal for the rank-and-file students were to teach them enough that they could follow instructions to produce items in America’s factories. Everything back then was about production, more of it and faster. The emphasis was on providing efficient labor for industry not so much on making the individual flourish.

Much of this legacy culture remains in academia today even though it does not well suit our current economy or the young people coming up through our education system. We now have a couple of generations not interested in the kinds of repetitive assembly line work of the past. They want to do something that matters, and many want to be their own boss, even while not possessing the skills to “fully participate in everyday life.”

Pandemic Story About Supply Chain Frailty

The shortages experienced in the 2020 pandemic demonstrate that our supply chain is not nearly as robust as we may have believed. The idea that we can concentrate on our jobs and count on enough money to buy the food we need at the supermarkets and restaurants may prove to be fallacy the next time something happens to disrupt our supply chain; supermarket shelves empty and restaurants closed. It would behoove us all to gain some more life skills and become more self-sufficient in the event of disruptions in the future.

How to Inspire and Teach People to have Life Skills

In part 2, we’ll look at how we can greatly improve the life skills of our young people. In involves more project-based learning and, you guessed it, activities in a Fab Lab or maker space.