Jim Correll just may have figured out the biggest secret to business success, and it didn’t require an advanced business degree to do it. Instead, it’s been a matter of following his instincts, sponging up knowledge from thought leaders, making mistakes and pursuing passions in a wildly diverse 25-year career working in small business, manufacturing, entrepreneurial ventures and post-secondary education. What has he learned? When your mind is open to possibility rather than paralyzed by pessimism, amazing things can happen.
Now, many of the lessons learned of the last 25-years are captured in “The Correll Files,” a diverse collection of stories related to business, entrepreneurship, empathetic design, self-efficacy, maker space, Fab Lab and inspiration. Many of the stories are presented in the form of the “Entrepreneurial Minute”, a radio program that aired on a regional station for a period a few years ago. The shorter, “Minute” programs are combined with interviews with many of the interesting entrepreneurs and thought leaders Jim has come to know over the years.
In his work as a business coach, entrepreneur mentor and the director of Fab Lab ICC at Independence (KS) Community College, Jim teaches aspiring entrepreneurs to challenge the archaic models of conventional business thinking and education and explore new paths for solving the world’s problems through innovation, creativity, trial and error. A former professional photographer, Jim encourages his proteges to first look at the world through a wide-angle lens, then focus their efforts where they believe they can make a difference and take the shot. “The environment may not be perfectly composed, you may not have just the right angle on your first try, and you certainly may feel over exposed when you put yourself out there and launch an idea,” he analogizes. “But so often, the raw, candid moments we capture are the most representative of real life, the ones that draw us in, take our breath away and haunt our memory.”
Such are the lessons of entrepreneurship, says Jim. There’s no script, precise formula or lesson plan. Success requires a willingness to try something unconventional and to redefine failure as learning. It’s all about the mindset, and anyone can achieve it.
In “The Correll Files,” Jim shares his goal to build a growing circle of “entrepreneurial thinkers" with a limitless ripple effect.
The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the author and/or guests and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of Fab Lab ICC or Independence Community College.
