Campus Engagement 1

Campus Engagement- 4/12/12
Global perspectives
Event: Author Sarah Lacy
Topic: Brilliant, Crazy, Cocky: How the Top 1% of Entrepreneurs Profit from Global Chaos

               I attended the campus engagement event on global perspectives. The speaker of the portion I went for was author Sarah Lacey. She spoke on her book Brilliant, Crazy, Cocky: How the Top 1% of Entrepreneurs Profit from Global Chaos. I enjoyed this event. Sarah Lacey was a very engaging speaker who is clearly passionate about her work and research on business from a global perspective. A story she spoke of which stuck with me was the story of an African boy named Jean who lived in a remote village whose father owned a successful sugar trade business. He due to unrest and genocide in his country, Jean and his four siblings were orphaned at a young age. Jean’s two older brothers spent all of their parent’s fortune quickly on alcohol to deal with their grief, leaving Jean and his younger sister to fend for themselves. Jean was only 14 but he was very observant and a quick learner. He found a way to enter the free market and capitalize on buying and selling key items that the people in his village desperately wanted and needed. By the age of 16, he was profiting well from his business and found other ways to provide goods/ services to solve people’s problems either through goods, ideas and business. He was able to send his younger sister to the top academies in the UK and became so well to do that he would never have to want for anything for the rest of his life. Entrepreneurs are born, not made. This story was inspiring in a different way than just the warm and fuzzy stories some other speakers gave because it was a story of the unexpected underdog who counted for nothing. Jean was orphaned, poor, left raising his family and he made it to the top on creativity determination and ideas; not schooling or status, but hard work and dedication and a fierce drive for something better out of life. This speaker made me step back and consider my many “first world problems” and put me in check. If someone is successful with all odds counting against, there is no excuse for giving up when things get a bit sticky and complicated given all the resources I have access to. Sarah Lacey made it a point to say that some of the most successful entrepreneurs are those who are inspired by something…a book, a parent, a teacher, an event, most are undereducated but determined almost to the point of complete tunnel vision to make their ideas into something real that will benefit people. I agree with her, whether you are an entrepreneur or not, people should find what inspires them and let it be the driving force, pushing you to your goals and ambitions in life.

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