I didn’t expect to be working at the i.Lab this summer. I was actually looking to work at Shark Mountain—the coffee shop in the lobby—when I stumbled upon the i.Lab page. (My other leading job option was at a laundromat.)
But I’m a writer by trade, and while coffee and laundry services are honorable lines of work, something didn't feel right about knocking on those doors. (As Rick Kulow would say, my "spider sense" wasn't having it.) What I really live for is creative community: helping people think, bouncing ideas back and forth, making something. The i.Lab seemed like it could be a place to live that out, so I reached out, and it led to the promise of something meaningful to explore.
I tell you this story of how I got here because I think it is, in its own way, a parable of the creative process, which I am learning to lean into. When I started with my means—who I was (a creative, community-minded person), what I knew (how to write), and who I knew (or at least, who I wanted to get to know: entrepreneurs and business people)—I found new goals worth pursuing. I found new people to partner with on the journey (Rick and Jason), and together we came up with this project.
Six months ago, I would have stopped listening had I heard the word “entrepreneurship” in conversation. I used to think it was about “business” and “leadership” and the Brooks Brothers catalogue; or worse, that it was primarily about money. And I would have thought you were crazy had you told me I’d be partnering with entrepreneurs and becoming an "us" with them.
But that’s exactly what I’m doing. (And strangely enough, I've even started to see myself as a kind of entrepreneur.)
I had a kind of conversion experience reading Saras Sarasvathy’s “What Makes Entrepreneurs Entrepreneurial?”, and I’m here because of what she made me see. Entrepreneurship, I realized that day at the Mudhouse, is not about business.
It’s about the creative process—exactly the same one I’m passionate about. It’s about the deeply human act of making. And it’s about hope; for as Sarasvathy writes, “All markets are ultimately markets in human hope.”
I’m here because I think there’s deep wisdom to be gained from paying attention to the entrepreneurial journey. I think this is about learning how to orient ourselves as humans towards an unpredictable universe. I think it's about how to look into the face of the uncertain future, with nothing but ourselves, our ideas and our relationships, and make something of it all. And I think if we look into it, we'll find some amazing things to share.
So I’m here to learn from you and with you what this journey is and means, and to put words to it. I’m also here to have a little fun, to “fail fast, often and cheap” and run with the surprises.
And mostly, right now, I’m just excited to meet you all.
