Some frequently heard terms recently: “economic development” (whatever the heck that is!) “Economic stimulus.” “Innovation economy.” “Business growth”.

Long story short - there’s a bunch of people (who don’t necessarily talk to each other…) - wanting to find ways for the Cape to grow. But no one quite knows how except that the words innovation and technology are somehow involved.

Human critters like to think. Sometime we think too much and we end up with big mouthfuls of letters like … economic stimulus. But maybe the answer is much more simple.

One of the transforming moments in my life came when I was in grad school. I was trying to figure out how to move to my own next stage and doing a fair amount of thrashing around along the way. Eventually I ended up talking to the career office

I’d failed the graduate-high-school/find-a-husband-with-steady-job path. I was not happy with safe-line-job-at-big-safe-company route. I wanted growth! Development! Adventure! Economic … well, I didn’t know. But I was off researching and weaving all sorts of long sentence descriptions none of which I really understood from the heart.

And then I met career counselor Belle. Who ignored the plans and all the borrowed terms and cut right to the heart of the matter: “Do you have a business card?”

Uh, turned out I didn’t really know what a business card was.

“Get one.”

Forget the frou-frou plans and the fancy language and the talk. The solution was very simple - get the card and go into business. It was a symbol of making a decision to just do it. And by doing it, to create the reality.

Maybe that’s what we need to hear as we all mumble on about economic missions and innovation economies. I heard it from Patricia Kennedy, CEO of BackOffice Associates, a company with hundreds of employees worldwide and a Harwich headquarters.

She was speaking at the CCTC February First Friday. The audience posed the standard question/statement about how hard it is to start a company on the Cape. She wasn’t having any of it. “It’s hard work to start a company ANYWHERE,” she said in response.

And she’s right. All the talk, all the programs, all the plans don’t change the fact that growing a company is hard work, long hours, and a total commitment. All the economic stimulus and economic development policy in the world doesn’t change that.

So maybe the answer we are all looking for is already staring us in the face: If you’ve got an idea or technology or a product - stick a stake in the ground, make up those business cards, and go for it.

I think that sometimes we all want permission to try something. And that, perhaps, was the real strength of that “get a business card” moment in my life. It wasn’t so much the literal advice, but it was the implied permission to take a chance and the implied assumption that I could do it.

No muss, no fuss, no special encouragement - just a flat declaration that if you want to do it, don’t let overthinking or hyper-cogitation or all the nay-sayers of the world stop you.
Give yourself permission to take the step . You’ll never know how it turns out unless you do.