By Royann Dean
I’ve been hearing a lot about the need for innovation and creativity lately. This got me thinking about “Inspired/By”, a conversation that I developed about business, design and creativity. The guests for one of my panel discussions were innovators from diverse educational and professional backgrounds who are impacting the community. Through their entrepreneurial endeavors, they were creating economic value and changing their industries.
The conversation featured Stefen Deleveaux, an economist and blockchain enthusiast; Orchid Burnside, a hospitality entrepreneur; Tino Sands, a designer and entrepreneur; and Nekia Brice, an IT entrepreneur.
Most people think that entrepreneurs are innovative and innovators are entrepreneurs. There is a school of thought, however, that entrepreneurs and innovators are not necessarily the same.
While both may have new ideas and ways to solve complex problems, innovators do not necessarily create economic value whereas entrepreneurs create models that do. Fortunately Stefen, Orchid and Tino are entrepreneurs who are innovating on existing models or creating something new.
As the conversation evolved, it became obvious that it takes a special mix of education, culture, creativity, shrewdness, sociability and self-confidence to be an entrepreneur. One will inevitably face naysayers, fewer opportunities and opposition to changes to the status quo. And in a small island community, there are typically fewer avenues for business development support in addition to even more pronounced obstacles to bring an idea to fruition.
One of the most interesting takeaways from this “Inspired/By” session was that there’s one thing that entrepreneurs are good at and it’s keeping things moving.
They understand that they will fail sometimes. Rather than having the failure become a deterrent, they chose to learn from it and use it to improve or build the next thing. They try to fail early and often, learning something valuable each time.
What was clear was the importance of having a support system, namely a community of entrepreneurs that understood their specific issues and with which they could share their experiences and receive advice.
One of the major takeaways of this “Inspired/By” talk, other than perseverance, was finding inner calm to balance out the craziness of unanticipated changes, family and life in general.
To stay motivated and inspired during the not-so-fun long days and isolation, these entrepreneurs centered themselves through practices like meditation, reading fiction, going to the beach or just quieting things down.
It’s a lesson we can all put to good use.
Royann Dean is the managing director of ONWRD Advisors, a digital solutions, communications and design agency in Nassau. Find out more at www.onwrdtogether.com. Follow her on LinkedIn @RoyannDean.
