

Why Chance Encounters Work - BallinBige
http://www.growdetroit.com/why-chance-encounters-work/

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kj1210
As I mentioned in the posts comments, one thing the valley has that many
cities don't is a completely different perspective on failure. In the valley,
if you don't have a successful exit on your startup, no one jumps on you in a
bad way. Everyone understands the challenge and knows you learned from it.
First thing people say are, "So, what's next?".

This allows people to try things more and take risk. Something that our
Michigan and Detroit culture don't have built into our makeup. It's definitely
changing and sites like GrowDetroit and their community are making big strides
in changing this mentality.

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jordanskole
This 10000000%

I just got interviewed in the State News and the reporter kept asking me these
same questions about getting over failure. I told her I have never failed, not
even one time. from my beef jerky enterprise in high school all through
college, I just made adjustments.

I gave her an anecdote about selling pink and yellow lemonade, and if i was
selling way more pink than yellow, yellow lemonade didnt 'fail' my feelings
wernt hurt, it wasnt a personal feat that made me rise up above it. I just
adjust.

She didnt really like the answer so asked me again, and none of it made it in
the paper.

~~~
BallinBige
you are a warrior, hustler and have the 'can do' attitude towards business.
big ups

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rmason
I marvel at Silicon Valley everytime I visit. Here we're a tiny minority and
in SV its like visiting the company town. I imagine that's what it must be for
a Hungarian car manufacturer to visit Detroit.

I think we have to work hard in Michigan to encourage chance encounters. How
do we do that? Pick a single place at a set time to meet every week. Make it
within walking distance of a university. Do it for each Michigan city with
startup activity.

Do you have a Michigan startup? In Lansing all the user groups are having a
DemoCamp at the Michigan Historical Museum on Dec 15. Sign up to speak here:

<https://adobeformscentral.com/?f=OQitLN6urkwqMVB8csMG4A>

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chadhietala
It's not only rough doing a startup in Detroit, it's hard to find good people
in Detroit, specifically designers and developers that have done "web" stuff
before or are even interested in it. You have a lot of people who have worked
for the big 3 or GE, but not too many who have picked up "newer" technologies
and methodologies that a startup would use.

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growdetroit
The question is: are they not here at all, or are they disconnected by virtue
of the lack of a community element. I find the former hard to believe -- some
of the biggest tech innovators in the US have come out of the state.

With regard to the latter, that's one fight we're making our own, in the hopes
that our combined efforts can foster a more united scene here in MI.

~~~
BallinBige
they definitely are here - just very fragmented

