Lessons in Economic Recovery from Small-Town America
May 27, 2021
Around 100,000 businesses shut their doors in 2020. Two-thirds of small business owners say it was their most difficult year in business. Now that the worst of the COVID pandemic is behind us, organizations like the bipartisan Economic Innovation Group are watching closely for signs of how the recovery will play out. In their recent analysis of U.S. Census Small Business Pulse Survey data, EIG found that more than a third of businesses anticipate…
Read moreDeveloping an Entrepreneurial Mindset on the Path to Recovery
May 14, 2021
Judy Raper never saw herself as someone whose entrepreneurial mindset would make an impact on her community. She might have pointed to her younger sister, a CEO, as the mover and shaker in the family. Then Raper learned a new definition of entrepreneurship as the self-directed pursuit of opportunities to create value for others. She realized that by creating value for others, we empower ourselves. She realized that the Ice House training she…
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The Time Is Now, Read Our New White Paper, “Entrepreneurial Mindset Imperative”
April 13, 2021
Download the White Paper Here Im-per-a-tive (Noun): An essential or urgent thing; of vital importance Life today is filled with imperatives. Everything seems urgent and critically important in vying for our attention daily. As such, when we sat down to write our new white paper, we did not decide to call it the Entrepreneurial Mindset Imperative lightly. Between the pandemic, political strife, social strain, and massive changes in education and the workplace, the world…
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Solutions Are Entrepreneurs’ True Currency
March 10, 2021
After interviewing hundreds of entrepreneurs, ELI’s Founder, Gary Schoeniger, has found one commonly held assumption that drives their behavior. They assume that by solving problems for others, they can empower themselves. Solving others’ problems is the deceptively simple logic from which all other entrepreneurial attitudes, behaviors, and skills arise. It is also the underlying logic that enables them to recognize opportunities that others overlook. From this perspective, entrepreneurs learn to see problems as opportunities.…
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The Choice Is Yours: How Do We Respond to Adversity?
February 10, 2021
The ability to choose the way we respond to our individual circumstances is perhaps the single most powerful ability we have as human beings. Yet it is often misunderstood and under-appreciated. Some may see this topic as diminishing the difficult circumstances many people face. The goal of this post is to unpack the ability to empower ourselves by tapping into this powerful human ability, to respond rather than react. It is also a fundamental…
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Are You an Employee or an Entrepreneur?
January 14, 2021
If you’re like most, you probably think of an entrepreneur as someone who organizes and operates a business. Meanwhile, the rest of us think of ourselves as employees. And yet the world has changed in ways that now require everyone to think like an entrepreneur. As such, the distinction between employee and entrepreneur is rapidly becoming obsolete. A brief history It’s worth noting that the term “entrepreneur” emerged at the dawn of the industrial…
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The Hidden Science Behind Persistence
April 7, 2020
Photo by Marc-Olivier Jodoin on Unsplash Learn How to Think (and Act) Like an Entrepreneur Part 8/8 Throughout this eight-part series, I have attempted to describe core concepts distilled from my observations and analysis of “unlikely” entrepreneurs. My intention was to tease out the common and replicable factors that anyone could embrace. Among those observations was what appeared to be an almost Herculean ability to persist through a mind-boggling array of challenges, setbacks, and…
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Creating Wealth: An Altruistic Paradox
August 8, 2019
Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash Learn How to Think (and Act) Like an Entrepreneur Part 5/8 We’ve all heard it said that “it takes money to make money.” And yet among the most intriguing attributes of the underdog entrepreneur is their ability to start where they are and use whatever they have in order to succeed. At the same time, access to capital is often cited as the biggest hurdle for aspiring entrepreneurs.…
Read moreGary Schoeniger’s Commencement Address, Pierpont Community & Technical College, 2019
May 31, 2019
How Underdogs Win How do underdogs win? This is a question I’ve been pursuing for more than 25 years. How do those who have no particular advantage in life—those who may not be particularly brilliant or creative, those who may not come from privileged backgrounds, those who may not have advanced degrees—manage to rise above their circumstances to create meaningful and prosperous lives? My thought was that if I could somehow understand what makes…
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