Published in the Independence Daily Reporter March 2019

I spent most of my earlier adult life thinking I was too busy to read. Since I started at the college in 2006, I’ve been reading continuously. This is not two or three books per week like some over-readers I know, but more like one book every three to four weeks.

Recently a couple of people have asked me for recommendations, so I thought I’d develop my Super 8 Reading list. I have no idea how to prioritize these and I don’t remember the order in which I read them so I present them here in alphabetical order.

Here are my top picks along with the main take-a-ways I received from reading them.

A Different Kind of Teacher           John Taylor Gatto

Back in the 1980’s John Gatto went from winning teacher of the year in his Manhattan, New York district to being fired as he raised the hood of education and began to discover how much change our education system needs to undergo. Reading this book a few years ago made me begin to realize that our institution of education needs to change.

Creative Confidence: Unleashing the Creative Potential Within Us All Tom Kelley and David Kelley

Everyone has creativity bottled up inside waiting to get out and David Kelley, founder of the design firm IDEO (he invented the first computer mouse for Apple’s Steve Jobs) and the Stanford d-School uses the book to share what he’s learned about bringing out this creativity in everyone.

E-Myth Revisited      Michael Gerber

Building a business beyond start-up requires more than the founder putting in more and more hours. The key is to build systems and processes so that when others are brought in to help they can know what to do in a way that will produce consistent and repeatable results. (What customers want.)

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success  Carol Dweck

Dweck introduces the concept of fixed and growth mindset. With fixed mindset, we believe we have a given set up intelligence and talents and that’s that. We either have talent or we don’t. With growth mindset, we believe that intelligence and talent can be developed and improved with hard work. People with growth mindset have healthier attitudes about life and take more control of their life’s outcome. Those with fixed mindset struggle to make it through life being fulfilled (happy.)

The Entrepreneurial Imperative     Carl J. Schramm

The old industrial economy, in terms of a stable marketplace and lifetime employment, is dead for two main reasons. First, with the fall of the Soviet Union in the late 1980’s more people all over the globe wanted a piece of the American consumer market. Second, the advent of the Internet lowered all kinds of barriers to people getting into all kinds of businesses, thus disrupting the economic model that lasted from the end of World War II to about 1990.

Think and Grow Rich, 2005 Edition           Napoleon Hill

First published in 1937, Napoleon Hill demonstrates the power of thinking about and writing down the things one would like to happen. Although neither widely discussed nor taught in schools, the power of thought and the written word can be a valuable tool in helping people take more control over their lives.

What School Could Be         Ted Dintersmith

There are K-12 schools and sometimes whole districts in all 50 states where, in spite of mandatory standardized testing, innovative methods of learning have been implemented with great success. Nearly all the best success stories involve some kind of making or experiential, project-based learning.

Who Owns the Ice House     Clifton Taulbert and Gary Schoeniger

Entrepreneurial mindset is a way of looking at problems in the world as opportunities for solving. It can empower ordinary people to do extraordinary and unexpected things. This is demonstrated by Pulitzer nominated author, Clifton Taulbert in the story of how his Uncle Cleve, an African-American man in the segregation of the late 1950’s, somehow owned the only ice house in the small town of Glen Allen, Mississippi. Clifton says he learned everything he knows about entrepreneurship by working for his uncle in the ice house a few summers in his early teens. Gary Schoeniger follows up each of Clifton’s stories with why they remain relevant and useful in helping us all today better understand the entrepreneurial mindset.

Taking up reading again, both using real books and digital versions on Kindle, has given me a perspective in the development of Fab Lab ICC I would not have been able get in any other way.

 

Jim Correll is the director of Fab Lab ICC at the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship on the campus of Independence Community College. He can be reached at (620) 252-5349, by email at jcorrell@indycc.edu or Twitter @jimcorrellks.

 

 

 

Published in the Independence Daily Reporter March 2019

A friend the other day said “Jim, how many years do you have left until you can retire?” The question was a good natured one that I am asked occasionally. I’m never quite sure how to answer. At four and one-half years into the Lab, I feel like we’re just getting started and there is a lot of work yet to do; meaningful, fulfilling work. Every day you feel like you’re helping others and learning new things all the time makes it difficult to want to stop. I’m not yet quite ready for the pasture.

In our culture of the last 100 years or so, we’ve been encouraged to work hard, many times for a company, for a long career, and then retire. We’ve even coined the phrase “Golden Years” to describe the time you are no longer needed on an every-day basis at your place of work. There used to be this thing called a pension that would provide money to live on while no longer working. For the most part, pensions are gone so having the means to continue living becomes an issue. Many of those that have no purpose in life after retirement end up losing their reason for living. For many, the Golden Years aren’t so golden.

A recent news story reported a study showing that sometimes early retirement may lead to premature death. There have been similar studies over the years. While some may have retired early due to preexisting health conditions, and die soon after, there may be something else going on here. People are not made to sit around and do nothing. People are made to have a purpose in life and the purpose needs to be to help others. If retirement makes that purpose go away, things can go downhill fast.

After working in several professions, my father-in-law ended up settling in a career with the Boeing Company. A child of the Great Depression, his purpose in helping others was to provide for his family. The Boeing job paid well with good benefits. He did some electrical wiring in the Apollo program and later moved all over the country with the Minute Man missile program. As he progressed through his career, he noticed that many Boeing people died soon after retirement. It happened often enough that he set up a paper spread sheet (this was before Excel when spread sheet meant an actual paper tool) so he could figure out when he had enough money to retire early. He and his wife (mother-in-law) scrimped and saved until the day he could retire at 55. His purpose in life didn’t end, however. By then, his family was just the two of them and a series of dogs over the years, but he still had to provide for his family. He set about to do and learn things in retirement for which he didn’t have the time while working. He built and flew an experimental aircraft (the Vari-Eze), bought a sail boat and became a self-taught sailor. He also became quite the vintner and his wines, all gone now, are still among my favorites.

When we see young people in the Lab, we encourage them that the key to a happy and fulfilling life is to help others by solving their problems and let the money take care of itself rather than just working for the paycheck. That way, whether working for someone else or starting a business there will be the satisfaction of solving problems and helping others.

Our Fab Lab volunteer program provides opportunity for retirees to help us help others and help themselves. “I’m retired and I see this as a place where I can try out some of the ideas I’ve had in my head for 20 years.” says Dean Silvey, Fab Lab ICC Volunteer from Chanute.

The “Golden Years” should be a transition from one method of helping others solve problems, whether in a job-work environment or an entrepreneurial venture, to some other form of helping others. Those maintaining a purpose for their lives in the transition to retirement have a much better chance of their “Golden Years” really being golden.

 

Jim Correll is the director of Fab Lab ICC at the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship on the campus of Independence Community College. He can be reached at (620) 252-5349, by email at jcorrell@indycc.edu or Twitter @jimcorrellks.

 

 

 

Published in the Independence Daily Reporter March 2019

We rarely talk politics at the Fab Lab. We don’t spend a lot of time figuring out how to be politically correct either. We spend most of our time working to welcome everyone into our environment to learn and do things they didn’t know they could do. Somehow when that’s the goal politics and political correctness seem to take care of themselves.

Even so, we live in a political world. That’s reality. Most small business owners and entrepreneurs work hard to make their businesses work in spite of what the politicians do to help or hinder their efforts. One very successful business owner I know ignores most of the national political news so as not to waste time worrying about things outside his circle of influence.

In spite of our dislike of politics, especially in the national arena, we believe it’s important to do what we can to inform and educate politicians about the benefits Fab Labs and maker spaces can have on regional economic and educational efforts. Indeed, for the second year, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation will send me and local entrepreneur Joanne Smith (Fab Creative Services) to Washington DC for a jam-packed day of meetings with our legislators to educate them about how entrepreneurship really works.

During the last election campaign season, we were fortunate to welcome two out of the three Kansas gubernatorial candidates to the Lab. In the past, we’ve had U.S. Senator Jerry Moran pay a visit and during their respective campaigns, state Sen. Dan Goddard and state house Rep. Doug Blex spent time with us. These were not just cursory visits to smile for the camera and then say goodbye. Each visit was long enough to get a sense of what we are trying to do – promote entrepreneurship and a new kind of workforce training in a variety of disciplines. In the case of Sen. Moran, we had a mini-trade show set up with about five of “our entrepreneurs” showing how they use Fab Lab ICC to help their businesses.

After World War II, the political, economic and education systems in the United States were set up to provide life-long jobs for people, complete with pensions to provide for retirement. The thought was that among the big corporations, the government and the labor unions, provision would be made to properly care for the population through these jobs and retirement. That worked fairly well from the 1950’s through 1970’s. (Well, except for a couple of nasty recessions along the way.) With the fall of the Soviet Union and the advent of the Internet, the world wanted part of our U.S. markets, and the American model of good jobs for everyone began to erode.

Today, pretty much gone are the concepts of lifelong employment, pensions for retirement and job security. Yet many of the components of our old economic systems remain in support of an economy that no longer exists. Most political candidates talk about job creation and how they can do it better than their opponent. More are finally talking about entrepreneurial start-ups, but many think that always means big, risky start-ups requiring lots of capital for finance. The reality is that 98% of new businesses start with $10,000 or less and grow as they go, learning to be agile and pivot when markets for their products change.

To compete in today’s global marketplace, employers need a workforce of entrepreneurial thinkers that can solve problems quickly and in new ways. Our Fab Force program is designed to create such entrepreneurial thinkers that can help their employers be more competitive. Employees want to think they are part of a solution. As with other aspects of the old economy, gone are the days when most people want to do boring, repetitive work, without thinking, just doing what they are told.

So, we welcome the opportunity to host political candidates and office holders to share what a place like Fab Lab ICC can do to help support entrepreneurship and the new needs for workforce.

 

Jim Correll is the director of Fab Lab ICC at the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship on the campus of Independence Community College. He can be reached at (620) 252-5349, by email at jcorrell@indycc.edu or Twitter @jimcorrellks.

 

Published in the Independence Daily Reporter March 2019

Critical thinking, problem-solving and leadership skills, are all a sub-set of the elusive “soft skills” our businesses say they want in their employees. In the marketplace of customers, these skills are mandatory for competitive business owners to survive. Yet, traditional academia can’t produce a lecture class that yields critical thinkers, problem-solvers or leaders.

Those traits and qualities can be developed and grown in individuals but have to come from within. Successful entrepreneurs have these qualities. By successful, I don’t necessarily mean the flamboyant entrepreneurs we see in the media nor the entrepreneurs that judge “Shark Tank.” I mean the ones in our own communities, quietly running their businesses from day to day, working to be exceptional to attract customers in a market where customers are constantly being lured away by the Internet and the dreaded box stores. Most of these people started their businesses from nothing without much money, building them up from scratch using each customer encounter to learn how to make their business better at solving the problems of the marketplace.

We use exposure to these entrepreneurs as a way to instill these entrepreneurial qualities in the youth, and adults, we host at Fab Lab ICC. In the Entrepreneurial Mindset class, we bring in these local entrepreneurs to tell their stories of how they got started. Many don’t realize their stories have value. Some I have had to coax and beg for up to two years to get to agree to come and talk to class. Their stories have immense value.

This is all part of developing an Entrepreneurial Community. The Entrepreneurial Community has no traditional boundaries such as city limits or county lines. Entrepreneurial thinking transcends all of that. Among entrepreneurial thinkers sharing ideas no one cares about geography, age or gender.

We are fortunate to be a part of a Network Kansas E-Community initiative locally known as Montgomery County E-Community. Regardless of the name, we are not limited in any way by our county line.

Within E-Community, there is an activity called the Youth Entrepreneur Challenge, a business contest (note, not business plan contest, but business contest) for individuals or teams to develop business concepts and enter a contest with substantial cash prizes. (i.e $1,000 for first place.) The 2019 Montgomery County Youth Entrepreneur Challenge competition was recently completed on the third attempt after being snowed and iced out twice. Although all the rescheduling took its toll, we had seven young people, ranging from seventh through twelfth grade competing with six business concepts.

These young people and their business concepts were amazing. Four of the six have already launched and had sales. The other two could be launched within the next few months. All six could likely be viable with one possibly causing disruption in its industry. Nick Slavin, Coffeyville; Morgan Hugo, Cherryvale; Ryan Piper, Independence; Leann and Renee Trout, Independence; Grace Pinkerton, Caney and Alex Rodriquez, Independence made up this group of young entrepreneurs. A team from Fredonia was not able to reschedule but also had a good business idea.

On one hand, I’m not a big fan of individuals, whether it be judges, coaches or teachers determining that one business idea is better than another. Only the marketplace can do that. But, in America, we like a contest and we like to name winners. In this Challenge, we named a first, second and third place but they were all winners each taking away some form of prize money or scholarship. It wasn’t just because they competed, it was because each was a solid idea and each represented a lot of work to prepare for the trade show display and 4-minute presentation to a panel of judges.

The very work they each did in preparing for their businesses and this contest is the work that instills critical thinking, problem-solving and leadership skills, the skills that all customers and employers want.

Inspiring all youth to start and run a business before they finish high school would pay big dividends in preparing them for life whether as a business owner or a valued employee in a competitive business or organization. We will conduct this Youth Entrepreneur Challenge each year, working to attract more and more youth entrepreneurs from our area.

 

Jim Correll is the director of Fab Lab ICC at the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship on the campus of Independence Community College. He can be reached at (620) 252-5349, by email at jcorrell@indycc.edu or Twitter @jimcorrellks.