Entrepreneurs will change the world

In the May 225 Magazine issue, the editors described 11 ideas to make Baton Rouge a better place to live and work. But ideas are just ideas until someone makes them happen.

We’re at a unique point in history. The economic engines of the past aren’t working anymore. The world is changing and Baton Rouge needs to step up to keep up.

But why will our collective future be shaped by entrepreneurs?

To answer that question, let’s start with my fav definition of entrepreneurship, lifted from Larry Robertson:

Entrepreneurship is: “to commit to catalyzing significant change in the way people think and act in order to bring something more to humanity, no matter what it takes. The actions that follow such a commitment are fueled by the belief that the world needs that change to progress, and they (the entrepreneurs) must make it happen.”

Larry Robertson — “A Deliberate Pause: Entrepreneurship and its Moment in Human Progress”

According to Robertson, entrepreneurship is bigger than just making money. Rather, it sounds like the kind of actions and people we’ll need to execute on the Big Ideas described in 225 Magazine.

Which is a nice segue to my story and what this blog is about.

As background, I have a history of business ownership and currently do consulting on the side. I possess a slew of acronym credentials like MBA, yadda yadda. I am employed by LSU as the Director of Strategy, Engagement, and Development, as part of the senior leadership team at LSU Continuing Education.

I’ve always planned on jumping back into entrepreneurship in a big way, but I realized Baton Rouge didn’t have the climate or resources I needed to realize any vision of scale.

Looking around, I saw every big thinker here is limited by what Baton Rouge doesn’t have, so I have jumped into building the type of scene in which anyone’s vision can thrive.

I chaired the Baton Rouge Entrepreneurship Week event last year, launched Louisiana’s first (and second) Startup Weekend, and founded Creative Louisiana. LSU has backed me in the launch of these catalyzing ideas and I am (and I hope you are) grateful for LSU’s out-of-the-box approach to making Baton Rouge better.**

I’ve spent the last several years building a network of Connectors* in the entrepreneurial realm: entrepreneurs, investors, community organizers, economic development executives and so forth. This network has brought me into conversations and collaborations with a pretty impressive roster of people, such as Marc Ecko of Artists & Instigators, Philip Rosedale of Coffee and Power, and Noah Kagan of AppSumo.

On this blog, I’ll include nuggets of awesomeness from my conversations with these leaders. I’ll comment on the progress (or not) we’re making here in Baton Rouge. I’ll tell you why I think everyone should have a cup of coffee with Kevin Langley***, why Brandon Williamson’s*** venture could become a global phenomenon, and how I believe we can solve our region’s perpetual invisibility to the national investment community.

In short, I’ll be mapping this new world of entrepreneurship, making sense of it and discovering key ideas for Baton Rouge to explore.

My hope and intent is to spur conversation, inspiration, connections, and action throughout our region. Let’s think big. Then let’s make progress.

Do you have insight to share? Connect with me at @woverton.

Some closing thoughts: I’ve had some crazy great support for my wild ideas over the past couple years from many sectors (you all know who you are and I love you), but special props go to these visionaries: Chancellor Mike Martin of LSU, Doug Weimer, Executive Director of LSU Continuing Ed, Adam Knapp of BRAC, and Terry Jones of BRAC’s Regional Innovation Organization, which is funded by the Research Park Corporation.

*A Connector is a person who knows a lot of people. In the world of entrepreneurship, knowing a large number of entrepreneurs, talent, and investors, is, well, huge. More later on why. Here’s Malcolm Gladwell’s definition of Connectors.

**To be clear, by day I’m working on some very cool things for LSU, but all words on this blog are my own and don’t represent the views of my employer or any other groups with which I’m associated. If you follow me on Twitter, all tweets are my own.

**** Don’t know these names? You will. And you should.