I concede that I am a nerd. No contest. As a friend recently put it, I "got to meet my Taylor Swift."Prof. Steven Levitt, co-author of Freakonomics and Superfreakonomics was a recent speaker at Purdue for the Krannert Leadership Speaker Series which I had the privilege of attending and covering (article here). Aside from being a personal hero of mine, he has been heralded as the "Indiana Jones of Economics" by the Wall Street Journal. Time named him to the "Top 100 People Who Shape Our World" in 2006.
The man embodies everything that is entrepreneurial, minus the directly creating a business part. He has made a career out of challenging conventional wisdom and taking a moment to step back, and look at common problems at a slightly different angle. Isn't that essentially what an entrepreneur aims to do? Creating a need, solving a problem, explaining the abnormal, defining a connection, etc.
How does he apply to entrepreneurship careers? Like his father, he set out to answer the questions that others in their respective fields failed to. Therefore, he doesn't consider himself a "real" economist, but something gives me the feeling that he is OK with that. As members of the Orr Fellowship, placed in fast paced jobs, Fellows thrive on innovation. Whether it is expanding our role within our host organization or bouncing off ideas with other 20-somethings, I would like to think that we are trying to ask those unasked questions and seeking answers to ones that have been given up on.
If I learned anything from Prof. Levitt, it's that a key element to creating an industry is questioning the norm. Figuring out whether the way something has been done is in fact the best way to do it. Taking something that is granted and proving its worth.
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