Published in the Independence Daily Reporter, November 30, 2016

There’s nothing better than seeing “real” entrepreneurs speaking with others about going out on their own to start a full or part-time business.  We have some great entrepreneurs in our communities and we’ll have several of them on hand to speak with folks on Wednesday, December 14 from 5:00pm to 8:00pm at Fab Lab ICC in Independence.  We call the event “Entrepreneurs’ Showcase” and you are invited.

Before becoming so busy building Fab Lab ICC, I used to set up a booth at area job fairs.  I always tried to have “real” entrepreneurs with me.   I would get out in the aisle between rows of all the businesses on display and greet people as they walked by.  Although many people attending job fairs have a kind of despondent look about them, several would return the greeting.  I’d ask them if they’d ever thought about setting up their own business and becoming self-employed.  Many said “no” and that says something about our society, however, if they showed any interest at all, I’d point to the “real” entrepreneurs at my table and say “Go talk to them.  They are real entrepreneurs, not paid actors and they have started their own businesses and are self-employed right now.”

The real entrepreneurs in our communities differ from the stereotypical entrepreneurs we see portrayed in the media and on shows like “Shark Tank”.  Nearly all of our real entrepreneurs started very small and built their businesses from scratch.  Many were not experts in the subject areas of their businesses but they are all lifelong learners and have learned what they needed to know as they’ve needed to know it.  For the most part, the learning did not come from college degrees.  The learning came from a lot of hard work, trial and error and feedback from their customers.  They all have made mistakes and most will admit they still make mistakes; real knowledge happens when we learn from our mistakes.

Nearly everyone has business ideas or thoughts of new inventions.  Most don’t think they can be like the entrepreneurs we see on television and read about in the media so their ideas languish in their heads while so many continue working for others at jobs they don’t like very well.  This is why we’re having the Entrepreneurs’ Showcase.  We want people to meet our “real” entrepreneurs, not paid actors, in a casual environment to see that these entrepreneurs are ordinary people who have stepped out on their own learning as they go.  We want people to see the spark in the eyes of entrepreneurs totally in control of their daily schedules, indeed, their destinies.

The Entrepreneurs’ Showcase is a come and go, drop-in event from 5:00pm to 8:00pm on Wednesday evening, December 14 at Fab Lab ICC.  We’ll have refreshments and light snacks on hand (from one of our “real” entrepreneurs).  We’ll have several of our area “real” entrepreneurs on hand throughout the evening but a highlight will be the discussion panel we’ll have from 5:30 to 6:30 during which we’ll ask 4 or 5 of the entrepreneurs to share how they started small and grew their businesses by learning and making mistakes along the way.  If you’ve ever had any inkling of having a full or part-time business or inventing a new product, please come by and meet our “real” entrepreneurs.  Contact me for more details at jcorrell@indycc.edu or 620-252-5349.

Published in the Independence Daily Reporter, June 8, 2016

“History is a great teacher, but you have to go to class.”  — Clifton Taulbert, International speaker and Pulitzer nominated author.

Every time I hear Clifton speak, I’m reminded of the great power he has to embrace and inspire his audience.  Today, many of his themes are about entrepreneurial mindset and how that kind of thinking can be used to build stronger communities.  We’ve brought Clifton to speak in Montgomery County three times, starting in April of 2013.  He wows us every time.

On the campus of Tulsa University, Clifton took his keynote audience to class last Saturday at a commemoration of the 95^th anniversary of the Tulsa race riot in 1921, the deadliest riot in American history during which hundreds of African American citizens were killed and 37 square blocks were burned to the ground.  The area, known as “Black Wall Street” was the Greenwood district north of downtown Tulsa.  He talked of much more than the tragedy and in that “rest of the story” lies the lessons from which we can benefit today.

In the years after the devastation of the Civil War, from 1871 through 1921, freed blacks from all over the south headed toward Nicodemus, Kansas, a new black community.  By the early 20^th century, many of them began staying in Tulsa in an area that became known as Greenwood.  Eventually, there was more black intellectual and financial capital in Greenwood than anywhere else in the country.  “Black Wall Street” in Tulsa, became the “crown jewel” of black communities; it flourished.  Just after Decoration Day (now known as Memorial Day) celebrations, on May 31 and June 1, 1921 the unexpected happened and it was all “Black Wall Street” was gone.

Clifton’s lesson, however, focused on what phenomena had made “Black Wall Street” so great in the first place; imagination.  (Today, we would call it entrepreneurial thinking, but of course, we had yet to steal that term from the French.)  Imagination was about the power of thought and that through all the years of slavery “No one can incarcerate my imagination.”  The people coming to Greenwood were dreamers.  Without regard to exact plans or budgets or lack of public financing, they sat around dreaming “What can we build next?” Even the tragedy didn’t kill their imagination.  Within a decade of the devastation, things were rebuilt, stronger than ever.

So, the lesson for us is to use more imagination and power of thought to get things done, in our businesses, our communities and in our families.  There are powerful thoughts within each of us, waiting to come out and do great things while having a fulfilling and prosperous life.  We’re learning that the Fab Lab experience brings out these thoughts.  The psychologists call this “self-efficacy” and we can all benefit from more of it.

This event was sponsored by an organization called North Tulsa 100 (www.northtulsa100.com).  The “100” stands for their goal to create 100 new businesses in North Tulsa by the 100^th anniversary of the “Black Wall Street” riot of 1921.  There’s a lesson for us there too.  North Tulsa 100 realizes that, like Black Wall Street, their future prosperity lies within the economy and imagination that will be created by these 100 new businesses.  We should strive to create 100 new businesses in Montgomery County in the next five years.

Clifton Taulbert, International speaker, Pulitzer nominated author, and co-author of “Who Owns the Ice House?” used in the Entrepreneurial Mindset class at Independence Community College.

Published in the Independence Daily Reporter, November 24, 2016

I get a little nervous when I hear politicians, policy makers and educators talking about making college free for everyone.  Free college is a bad idea and here are some reasons why.  By the way, these principles apply to many parents who are killing themselves trying to provide a totally free ride so Junior can attend college with no “skin in the game” of his or her own.

People don’t value things they receive for free.  Many times it’s because the free things are really of little value.  This gives people the impression that free things don’t have much value so that even things of value are not appreciated.  Giving things away does nothing to build people’s ability to be self-reliant, building their self-efficacy, a form of self-confidence that leads to better life-long decisions.  “Habitat for Humanity” is a program that helps people have affordable housing, not free.  The reason the program is successful is that everyone has to contribute to the house being built for them in some way.  This “sweat equity” is what makes people value the program and the homes they receive from the volunteers who help make them possible.  A college education should be affordable, but not free.

Another reason free college is a bad idea is that not everyone needs college.  Don’t misunderstand, everyone needs to be educated, and everyone needs to be committed to life-long learning, but there are lots of ways to become educated besides going to college.  After decades of a societal message that everyone should go to college, many of us now realize this is not the case.  There are plenty of examples of people that have made huge differences in the lives of others, indeed, the world without a formal college education.

Finally, with more than fifty-percent of college graduates unemployed or under employed, we need to re-engineer higher education before we make it free and pump even more unemployable graduates into the market place.  The college degree needs to include training and knowledge about how to be agile and adaptive to a changing world.   As the world changes and career paths come and go, we need our educated people to be able to change course and thrive rather than hit the unemployment line while waiting for the next job in a career that is no longer of value to the market place.

College should be attainable, but not free.  Scholarships and financial aid should be available for those willing to work in exchange.  There’s nothing wrong with the idea of students working their way through college.  Students having their own “skin in the game” will take their education more seriously and will tend to make sure how and what they learn will serve them well in a future world of continual change and disruption.

Published in the Independence Daily Reporter, November 16, 2016

It’s important to know that all millennials are not like the cry-babies we’re seeing on the campuses of our prestigious Ivy League universities.  These are the students that are crying, whining and otherwise sniffling about the outcome of the presidential election.  The same students that require “safe zones” to protect them from any opposing viewpoints are the ones now that are refusing to accept the results of the election.

The fact that certain of these higher education institutions would be enabling such a fixed mindset is appalling.  The act of setting up cry-rooms, therapy animals and Play-Doh, let alone the canceling of classes and rescheduling of exams, sends a message that any time in life when someone disagrees with your or things go wrong, you can just retreat to your cry-room and feel sorry for yourself.  I guess these universities and faculty will be encouraging each graduate to set up a cry-room in their home (or demand that Mom and Dad designate a cry-room when they move back in) so they will be able to retreat to a safe place when things in life don’t go well.

What’s not clear is how problems in the personal lives of these students will be solved as they retreat to the cry-rooms.  If the car breaks down or the toilet backs up, who will fix these problems?  How will these students contribute to the problem-solving our world needs if they go into a room and cry instead of working with others to find solutions?

Many, many of the millennials we see around here are not like that.  They want to be good problem-solvers not only in their personal lives, but they want to make a positive contribution solving the world’s problems.  Some even want to change the world.  Most don’t articulate this because they haven’t been challenged in terms of changing the world, only to get a good education so someone can give them a job; the job they deserve.

We hosted thirty-seven sixth graders at Fab Lab ICC the other day.  We gave them a tour, divided them into teams and had each team take the marshmallow challenge.  In the challenge, teams have 18 minutes, 20 pieces of uncooked spaghetti, 3 feet of tape and 3 feet of string to build the tallest free-standing tower that will support a standard size marshmallow.  After that, we had a discussion.  I asked them if they had been told to get a good education so they could get a job.  Thirty-seven hands went up.  Then I asked them where the companies were going to come from that would provide all of these jobs.  Silence.  I then told them that nearly every company that hires people today was started small by one or a few people.  They were people that found a problem to solve and started a business to solve it.  The companies grew and eventually had to hire employees to help solve the problems.  I said “Some of you can be the ones that start new companies.”

We need to change the narrative to these kids and we need to change it now.  We need to tell them that they each can change the world in some way by solving problems and that some should start their own companies to solve these problems so others will have a place to work.  The longer we wait, the more of them that will end up at our public universities demanding cry-rooms and Play-Doh when things don’t go their way.