Today NC IDEA, in conjunction with the Governor’s Entrepreneurial Council (GEC), hosted the inaugural North Carolina Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Summit with the ambition to catalyze entrepreneurship as an economic development strategy for the state of North Carolina. The Ecosystem Summit is an official event of Global Entrepreneurship Week where from November 12-18, as part of GEW, 10 million people in 170 countries will take part in 39,000 events, and activities that help make it possible for anyone, anywhere to start and scale a business.

The Ecosystem Summit brought together the people and organizations who support, encourage and nourish North Carolina’s entrepreneurs to share what is working; address issues and concerns; meet and network with those doing similar work in other communities; and celebrate and promote entrepreneurs and their successes across the state. One of the most interesting presentations was the, The Entrepreneurial Mindset Imperative. In this talk the perception was shared on how the world has changed in ways that now require everyone to be more innovative and entrepreneurial regardless of their chosen path. The theory goes, if we are to adapt and thrive in a rapidly changing world, we must recognize the entrepreneurial mindset as a teachable framework for thinking that can empower anyone to succeed. We enjoyed a great message from Gary Schoeniger, Founder and CEO, The Entrepreneurial Learning Initiative. Here is a summary of some key points shared to support your life and career:

• Rate of technological advancement is starting to exceed our human capacity and human infrastructure (institutions) to adapt. Time for us all to think and act with entrepreneur mindset.
• Entrepreneurial Mindset = Creative, Optimally Engaged, Have Little Fear, Act and make things happen when path not clear, Persevere, Maximize Power of Choice, Proper Smartly Allocate Time, and constantly change and adapt.
• Entrepreneurial Mindset is a Life Path and Prized Life Skill! Its a way of thinking and living!
• What can we learn from entrepreneurs? How can we be more innovative in our own lives?
• Four Buckets Of Entrepreneur Perceptions: First venture backed high growth entrepreneur path like Silicon Valley model. But tiny fraction of a single % of new business is supported by this VC high-growth model. 2nd Model: Small business development centers and bank branches that help new businesses. 94% of all new jobs created by small businesses with 19 employees or less. The challenge is this path focuses on management of assets versus entrepreneurship innovation and growth. Third bucket view is agnostic toward entrepreneurship or carries negative perception thinking is about greed. The fourth bucket thinks entrepreneurship is irrelevant and not important to life per other traditional career paths.
• Most founders of Inc 500 companies today started off with no real big idea or unique IP, did not have much money, and did not have much startup experience. For example: Walmart, Waste Management, Apple, and HP. They started with 3 Fs support and funding: Friends, Fools, and Family.
• Must Read Book for entrepreneur mindset. Who Owns The Ice House? Uncle Cleve presented in book gives 8 key principles to entrepreneurship success. Like:
• 1 CHOICE: “Perhaps the greatest lesson Uncle Cleve left behind is that it is the choices we make that ultimately determine the outcome of our lives.”
• 2 OPPORTUNITY: Smart entrepreneurs are problem solvers. Just like Uncle Cleve, they recognize that problems are opportunities. Identify problems and find solutions for other people, and you will prosper.
• 3 ACTION: “Entrepreneurs …understand that if they do what they have always done, they will get what they have always gotten,” While good ideas are certainly a hot commodity, it’s actually taking action that really counts when it comes to starting a business of your own.
• 4 KNOWLEDGE: While Uncle Cleve never had any formal schooling, “he sure did know how to treat people the right way,” He also always emphasized the importance of seeking knowledge and embracing curiosity. He was a very wise man who was not afraid to learn and who sought information and insight anywhere he could find it. “Knowledge—combined with effort—is the engine that drives entrepreneurs,”
• ​5 WEALTH: As Uncle Cleve used to say, “You gotta save to have,” and “You don’t need everthing your eyes want.” Uncle Cleve made his money, and then he held on to it. He “saw money as a tool to invest in his future, a tool that would enable him to create wealth,”. “He was willing to live beneath his means because he valued financial freedom (his goal) more than he valued the opinions of others
• 6 BRAND: Uncle Cleve’s word was his bond. His integrity as a businessman was rock solid. He treated everyone with the utmost respect, even if they did not return the favor. He made buying from him an enjoyable experience. He left early and arrived on time. While he could never control others’ opinions of him, he could control what they observed of him, and that made a world of difference in his success.
• ​7 COMMUNITY: Uncle Cleve was part of a community that would have encouraged him to settle for the status quo, if he let it. But he didn’t. Instead he chose very carefully how he wanted to respond to his circumstances. Social influence, or so-called peer pressure, can be an extremely powerful deterrent for anyone who wants to break free of the boundaries placed on them by their upbringing, surroundings or social status. But your community does not define you unless you let it.
• 8 PERSISTENCE: 35th President of the United States Calvin Coolidge once said that, “Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence.” He was right, especially where entrepreneurship is concerned. People who are successful in owning their own businesses do not give up. They don’t quit

• We must recognize that there is a teachable cognitive framework to entrepreneurship. Everyone has desire to be engaged and have autonomy for their life that leads to good contribution to world. We must recognize that every worker and student needs entrepreneurship mindset. We need to shift entrepreneurship from the fringe of what we do to the core of education and teaching.
• The entrepreneur spirit is the human spirit. It's not just for some of us, it resides in all of us!

Special thanks to NC Idea, Thom Ruhe leading the charge alongside his team that put on this Summit and GEC for great event. Thanks to the sponsors to who made for a wonderful occasion.

We enjoyed a great night, with great content from featured speaker Doug Kaufman, former CEO of Transloc. Doug shared a message for all salespeople around this theme, "if you want to make serious money, stop focusing on money".  Doug is a serial entrepreneur with great experience and shared some good wisdom. Here is summary of some key points to help you with your journey!

• To be good in sales, you must know your "Why". Why do you like selling what you are selling and what gets you excited about it per helping and serving others. Know the "Why" on how you can help someone or a company and "why" you are excited to sell it! Know "Why" you can create value for people!
• Read "Brave New Work" by Aaron Dignan. Human beings can't thrive in a work culture that uses burnout and 'being always on' as proxies for dedication and success. This book shows us that, in fact, workplaces that empower people to take care of themselves are far more likely to deliver sustainable performance and happiness.
• Microwave Capitalism is creating a pressure environment to get return as quickly as possible. This is sometimes hindering longevity to company and healthy decision making. VCs want their money back within 3-5 years. Money out and money in quickly. This causes hardship on companies and an ideal selling process. High pressure selling with artificial timelines and false expectations creates low employee morale and poor engagement. To sell well you need healthy expectations, vision, support, and realistic timeline to close! 
• Sales is not about BtoC, BtoB, BtoG! Sales is about P2P! People to People!
• Joe Girard, #1 sales person in the world who sold average 6 cars a day for entire career said the #1 thing to sales success is: Trust & Empathy. "People Buy People Not Things." You must play the long game. It's about relationships. A sale is not the end of the party, It's just the beginning. Remember it's about People & Relationships. Show in your actions and words, "I Like You".
• The keys to BIG Money: Empathy, Trust, People, and The Long Game
• Don't be old school hunter who thinks of "ABC" and "Coffee Is For Closers". Think about caring first. Empathy for people to build trust and see every person as long term relationship to service and make happy customers.
• If you focus on commissions and money you start to think short term. This makes you miss real and bigger opportunities and more likely to do bad deals. Customers can smell you coming a mile away if it's only about closing. Bad deals result in more churn which hurts the company.
• To achieve great growth. Think Big! Don't sell to one account at a time. Think how you can you sell to bigger groups like a consortium that sells into all these accounts. Focus on the big strategic sale!
• Sometimes you need to give things away for free to win the bigger picture. Lose the short term revenue battle to gain more market-share and secure more data per winning the bigger valuation growth war! For example, running a test pilot for free to show value to win bigger partnership contract down the road can be a good strategy for longer term growth & valuation play.
• Remember reputation takes 20 years to build and 5 minutes to destroy. Integrity and character come first!

Special thanks to Vince Beese and Eric Boggs with T-Rex for putting on this nice event, speaker Doug Kaufman for presenting, and tasty pizza from sponsor DeMos with support from Will Barfield with "Barfield Revenue Consulting"!