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www.HartfordBusiness.com August 3, 2015 • Hartford Business Journal 21 BIZ BOOKS Lawbreakers offer entrepreneurs tips for sniffing out opportunity "T he Misfit Economy — Lessons in Creativity from Pirates, Hackers, Gangsters and Other Informal Entrepreneurs" by Alexa Clay and Kyra Maya Phillips (Simon & Schuster, $26). Opportunity presents itself in many ways. Without condoning lawbreakers' methods, the authors show how unique situations cre- ate unique solutions through "hustle, copy, hack, provoke and pivot." Here's what entre- preneurs can learn from some of society's misfits: Hustle creates opportuni- ty by filling a void. While serv- ing time, Fabian Ruiz noticed that prisoners' limited access to the Internet created a void when it came to obtaining legal information, and information that would be helpful when re- entering society. Upon parole, he started Infor- Nation, which provides mail-order information to prisoners. Since all mail leav- ing and entering a prison is read, there's no problem with fulfilling many of the requests he receives. Copying, with a twist, provides a running start for startups. Copycats serve what isn't on the menu. It's not new; many of the machines that fueled America's Industrial Revolution were knockoffs of those invented in Europe. Similarly, the Samwer brothers used R&D (rip- off and duplicate) to clone sites like eBay and Groupon and introduced them in countries ignored by these giants. Hackers enjoy "the intel- lectual challenge of creatively overcoming or circumvent- ing limitations." Black Bart and Blackbeard "hacked" the merchant shipping business. Piracy paid better, and, unlike merchant seaman, even the lowliest pirate had rights. While they were lawbreak- ers, they were also industry disruptors — like Airbnb, Uber, Lyft and Zipcar. "Provocation is about learning to harness your own self-expression to take a stand and shake up the status quo." Doing the same old, same old never creates new. Misfits like inventors, scientists, writ- ers, social activists, protestors, etc. shape tomorrow. "Why not?" guides their paths. Pivots represent the choices made — leaving the known behind. Antonio Fernan- dez, former leader of the Latin Kings gang, tried to transform the gang into one with a civic agenda. His strategy involved linking to other organizations that advocated civic responsibility. When it didn't succeed, he con- tinued to work on his own with at-risk youth. The bottom line: Growing a business involves allowing employees to think and act outside their box and yours, too. • • • "Insight Out: Get Ideas Out of Your Head and Into the World" by Tina Seelig (Harper One, $26.99). Seelig, a Stanford University profes- sor, invites you into her "Invention Cycle" class, which helps entrepreneurs move from inspiration through execution. Here are my class notes: Imagination involves identi- fying unmet needs; it's all about alternatives based upon expe- riences. Logan Green's imagi- nation kicked into gear while vacationing in Zimbabwe. He observed that most cars were packed with people. Driv- ers would pick up and drop off people along their route to wherever. In the U.S., he started Zimride, which changed its name to Lyft. Visualization, as mental rehearsal, plays an important role, too. It uses "vivid, high- ly-detailed images and run-throughs" of planned actions. To enhance visualization, write and illustrate stories about completing your world; as you write, their plots unfold and your illustrations become more detailed. Use the illustration on page 41 to complete your first story. Tomorrow depends upon today's choices. Creating your stories shows you that "the boundaries you define are self-imposed." As such, they can help widen your frame of refer- ence because you can always change the storyline to create a new ending. They promote the mental flexibility needed to adapt to changing situations. They become an expression of your virtual reality. Her message: "Entrepre- neurs can do much more than imaginable with much less than seems possible." n Jim Pawlak is a nationally syndicated book reviewer. Jim Pawlak TALKING POINTS Investing in young people best cure to CT's aging population By Ellen Shemitz I n a July 20th article ("Aging population to worsen CT's budget woes"), Hartford Business Jour- nal Managing Editor Brad Kane described the fiscal challenges that the graying of Connecticut's resi- dents poses to the long-term financial health of our state. While his descrip- tion of the challenge posed by an aging population is sound, his subsequent policy recommendations suffer from the failure to account for another ongoing demographic shift that has dramatic implica- tions for the economic future of our state: The growing diversity of our children and youth and, by extension, of our emerging workforce. As Kane describes, an aging population will require more funds diverted to pen- sion costs and healthcare expenses, as well as increased demand on transportation, housing, food assistance and more. This very real dynamic, alongside a shrinking workforce, makes it imperative that the state invest strategically to ensure that every young person raised in our state remains here and enters the workforce with the skills necessary to contribute to the health of the economy. Indeed it's this investment imperative, rath- er than any "spending problem" that defines the true challenge facing our state. Connecti- cut needs to adopt a new investment strategy, one which considers both short-and long-term returns. This can be hard in state government when the election cycle is far shorter than the investment cycle. By limiting investments to those with short-term return, however, the state risks undermining our long-term success. Public investment in children today can grow our domestic workforce and increase produc- tivity to meet the fiscal challenges of our aging population tomorrow. Rather than cut spend- ing, we need to reconsider resource allocation and the timeline for effective investment. Consider for example the underinvestment in public education. While the state Education Cost Sharing grant (ECS) was designed to equal- ize school funding, failures in both funding and distribution have limited the educational resources available in many towns and cities. Districts with low property wealth are unable to raise revenue through property taxes to equalize municipal spending in edu- cation, leaving schools serving students in need with insufficient resources to provide a high-quality education. As such, many school districts in our poorest communities are doubly disadvantaged by the level of school funding and the extra challenges they face in supporting children living in poverty. The disparities in funding for our schools lead to disparities in the quality of education chil- dren receive. The disparities in the quality of education children receive leads to dispari- ties in workforce preparation and long-term wage earning capacity. The state can't afford to take a one-sided or short-sighted approach to the budget. Con- necticut Voices for Children calls on the state to make smarter fiscal decisions by allocat- ing more resources to our greatest asset: our children. Sustaining and growing public investment in children will pay Connecticut greater dividends than today's inadequate contribution in our future workforce. n Ellen Shemitz is executive director of Connect- icut Voices for Children (www.ctvoices.org). Ellen Shemitz ▶ ▶ Public investment in children today can grow our domestic workforce and increase productivity to meet the fiscal challenges of our aging population tomorrow. Rather than cut spending, we need to reconsider resource allocation and the timeline for effective investment. ▶ ▶ Growing a business involves allowing employees to think and act outside their box and yours, too.