We can’t all be the CEO. Not everyone wants to start a company or strive to become a household name. But when we think of entrepreneurs, the names of tech startup giants typically come to mind. While starting businesses and achieving notoriety can be incredible goals, that perception can sometimes have the surprising negative effect of discouraging talented creatives and innovators from thinking of themselves as entrepreneurs. For those who don’t aspire to bring technology to market, entrepreneurship may seem like an elite field reserved for the few that are tirelessly driven and incomparably brilliant. Nothing could be farther from reality. The heart of innovation lies in seeing possibilities for improvement and enrichment in all aspects of our lives and careers.
While traditionally defined as creating new products for the market and forming a company, innovation and entrepreneurship can be found in every pursuit and in every creative endeavor. Whether it’s art, social change, or community growth, innovation is creation to enrich the world. It’s found in every individual bursting with ideas and dreams to improve something about the world around them.
Within the Blackstone LaunchPad & Techstars at Syracuse University, some of our favorite entrepreneurial stories come from those who are innovating and creating in a field outside of business. Erica Morrison ’21, a member of the LaunchPad and winner of some business competitions, is currently creating a documentary on the life of her grandmother who grew up on a reservation, in hopes to showcase the disparities and struggles on reservations. Maggie Sardino ’23, a Syracuse native and talented writer, started a column uncovering the lives of Narratio fellows, refugees currently living in Syracuse and telling the stories of their experiences.
The realm of entrepreneurship is boundless and can include anything from designing a technological product to inspiring social change to creating meaningful impact within larger organizations.
It’s no surprise that humans tirelessly pursue their own vision through entrepreneurship. We as humans are driven to create, constantly imagining and reimaging ways to improve our own lives and the world around us. We dream of ways to make our own impact on the world and to leave it better than we found it. We’re problem solvers and dream chasers. Entrepreneurship is a way that dreams can take flight and turn visions into reality. In whatever projects we start and ideas we wish to make tangible, we are leaning into our natural creativity to innovate for good.
At the LaunchPad at Bird Library, we welcome all to lean into their creativity and bring their ideas to a community continually imagining a better world. Join our creative community.
By LaunchPad Global Fellow Claire Howard ‘23