Guest Blogger: John Wechsler
This week, we’ve been gathering virtually and in person to celebrate “all things entrepreneurial” during Indiana Entrepreneurship Week. The ultimate celebration took place last night at our new Launch Fishers facility, with more than 700 entrepreneur enthusiasts showing up to join the celebration.
So why do more than 700 people show up in Fishers on a Thursday night to celebrate entrepreneurship in Indiana?
I’d say it’s because they understand that entrepreneurship is essential to vibrant communities and our state’s economy at large. They’ve come to realize that each of us play a role in building entrepreneurial ecosystems.
While you may not have entrepreneurial ambitions, you may have the resources to help jumpstart another person’s. You can be intentional about supporting local entrepreneurs and their endeavors in your community. And sometimes, like the hundreds that showed up last night, you can find a way to just to celebrate an entrepreneur.
Entrepreneurship is a journey, and along the way most entrepreneurs have great successes as well as great failures. From the elementary school student selling cookies at a neighborhood garage sale to the college student running a business from his or her dorm room to the tech startup founder, we must show our support and encouragement for our entrepreneurs in times of success and in failure. That’s when entrepreneurial communities are made and innovation thrives.
Indiana Entrepreneurship Week and last night’s celebration were all about our state and our local communities championing entrepreneurs. This celebration was about adding fuel to their fire, which in turn will rev the engine of our local economies.
Last night wasn’t your only chance to celebrate entrepreneurship in Indiana. Next week, and in the weeks to come, make a point to stop and shop with a young entrepreneur in your community and watch their entrepreneurial spirits soar.