Sure, we have brain drain, but we keep growing more brains

Few entrepreneurs have influenced Web 2.0 as much Evan Williams. He started blogger, which was sold to Google. (He invented the word blogger.) His most recent move was to start Twitter. This guy doesn't just innovate, he changed the world. Twice.

Guess which creative urban center calls Evan Williams a native? The answer: Clarks, Nebraska (population 361, according to Wikipedia.) When he lived there, the community had one K-12 school. Williams moved irrigation pipes on the family farm before moving to the technology sector, spent some time back on the farm, then changed the world. (He did need to leave the farm, but he was smart before he left.)

So, latte-sippers who says Midwest farmers are backward have apparently never heard of Blogger or Twitter. And this is not an isolated story.

Why we need Nauvoo

The Nauvoo Commuter blog is produced in Nauvoo, Illinois, in the Midwestern U.S.  It behooves us to introduce our town.

Nauvoo was first settled by Mormon refugees, who bought the area from land speculators. They had come with the intent to build a utopian society. The community flourished for several years until economic competition with a jealous neighboring community led to religious persecution. The Mormons decided to leave. At gunpoint.

The city was then settled by European immigrants seeking a better life. A few years later, another utopian society settled the area. The Icarian movement from France developed a communal society here in Nauvoo.

In my line of work, I interact with business leaders, hedge fund managers, political technicians, and market traders around the world, and I hear a lot of discouragement. Nauvoo is an antidote representing idealism, the concept that a community can be formed to bring about some ideal society for which we yearn. That is our message to the world.

I can't see into Nauvoo's future, but of one thing I am sure. The world needs Nauvoo. 

Are you stupid?

If you say "our town has experienced brain drain," then you are saying "the people in our town are stupid. The smart people left, and only us idiots are left to breed, creating a downward spiral of stupid offspring."

When you verbalize the unspoken meaning, it sounds ridiculous. But we still say it.

From the 1840s until the 1950s, many of the smartest Germans immigrated to the United States. Thousands. Entrepreneurs, scientists, teachers. If you could look at the ship manifests, you would be surprised if any smart people stayed.

Yet Germany is still a first string player on the exclusive Economic All-Star Team.

So please stop using the term "brain drain." Take the people you have, and move forward. If you create an innovative community, the smart people and their capital will flood back to your region.

Market Research that works

Here we repeat the Nauvoo Commuter philosophy of starting a business.

Your goal is to prove your hypothesis as soon as possible. Explanation: everyone starts a business based on a hypothesis:
     - People need a more convenient way to purchase books
     - Area residents would pay a premium for coffee that doesn’t taste horrible
     - Senior citizens would jump if you offered in-home computer support
     - People would flock to a discount store if it were located in the middle of Maple Street

You should start some type of business that does the actual business, and test that hypothesis. See how people respond. That is real market research. So you expand as those signals dictate.

Compare that way to that of the typical start up, let’s say an internet-based company: spend six months writing the business plan, do a road show and secure funding. Rent an office, hire a team, buy cubicles and Aero chairs for all of them. Let people bring their dogs to work, because motivating people is your priority. Then start writing the site’s software. Hire SEO experts to bring in traffic. Set up shopping cart and start selling. After burning through millions of dollars, learn if anyone is interested in your product. Or not.

Our philosophy is just the opposite. Start doing the business as soon as possible, on as small of a scale as possible. Today. 

Really bad news, Really good news

What an exciting time to be alive. What an exciting time to start a business. Especially in a rural area.

Every 500 years or so, civilization seems to implode and reinvent itself. We are in the midst of that now.

About 500 years ago, Reformation and Renaissance (rise of trade within Asia).  Roughly 500 years before that, the Roman Empire completed dividing into Christian and Islamic domains, leading to the cultural divide of today (Chinese civil wars and succession of dynasties and peak of Chinese technological advances). And 500 years before that saw a shift in power from the Mediterranean to Northern Europe (Japan began the pattern of adopting best practices from abroad). The beginning of Christianity in the 500 years before that, with its power to unite Western civilization (Silk Road uniting ancient world and inventing modern world). Of course this is somewhat of an exaggeration, but some sociologists find merit in the concept.

So what will happen this time?  Will secularism become the undisputed state religion?  Plagues or famines? Will we feel protracted wars are needed to wrench away from clutches of progress?  Will population shifts reverse, causing rural populations to start growing again?

Just think of the marvelous possibilities.