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I have an idea, but no one else to help me. Can you help me find a co-founder type of teammate?

Ideas are everywhere -- literally! Almost everything that you have seen, bought, ate, touched, etc. started out as an idea. Disney World. A chocolate chip cookie. Play-Doh. But how did anyone think of such things? Where did these ideas come from? Certainly they didn’t just suddenly appear out of thin air like an impressive magic trick. Every idea must have come from somewhere – but where exactly? If you are wanting to create your own idea but are having some trouble getting started, perhaps you have asked yourself these same questions. Luckily, ideas can be found in more than one place. With that being said, let’s start looking, shall we?

Our own Big Idea Center Entrepreneur-in-Residence, Jeanine McCreary shares what she believes it takes to be a leader and tackles the age-old argument of whether leaders are made or born?

At the end of the semi-final round of presentations for the Randall Family Big Idea Competition, 100+ teams of dedicated students where whittled down to 50 and were to be making the journey through the next month of planning and strategy to, ultimately, present to final round judges on March 21st, 2019. As part of their introduction to the next phase of competition, students were matched with mentors during this year’s Meet Your Mentor and Finalist Bootcamp event.

The first competitive round of the Randall Family Big Idea Competition took place on February 22nd, 2019. Throughout the course of the day, judges heard big ideas from over one-hundred teams and three-hundred Pitt students.

In February 2019, three hundred Pitt students of all degrees and disciplines, gathered at the O’Hara Student Center to kick off the two-month long Randall Family Big Idea Competition. The road would eventually end on March 21st with $100,000 given to deserving teams who showed dedication to their idea and promise towards starting their own entrepreneurship endeavors.

Entrepreneur (noun) – one who organizes, manages, and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise. As student program coordinator for the Big Idea Center, the main question I receive is: “can I participate or is all of this just for business students?” My response varies person to person, but always follows the same theme: Entrepreneurship is for anyone and everyone.

As a certified mediator, I have seen my share of conflict and I like it! Conflict leads to resolution, growth, and innovation. In every team of goal-oriented individuals, it’s not every day that things run smoothly. Thanks to their diverse backgrounds, viewpoints, and perspectives, team conflicts are typical and will inevitably crop up. They will creep in, causing disharmony and confusion, sometimes even throwing the whole project into jeopardy.

From an aspiration to pursue one’s passion to someone wanting to become his or her own boss, various reasons drive people to start businesses. However, not every business startup ends up being successful; a significant percentage of them collapse even before seeing the second year. The 2017 Economic Report by the National Association of Small Business shows that 20% of small businesses started in the United States in the year 2014 didn’t make to 2016. Nevertheless, that’s not to mean that you’ll be part of the failure percentage if you go ahead and pursue your business dream.