Hello, and welcome to another episode of the entrepreneurial mindset project. Today, I’m speaking with Jim Correll, an everyday entrepreneur who started an entrepreneurial mindset revolution that transformed his community.

At the age of 50, Jim was hired as an outside staff instructor to teach the Successful Entrepreneur Program at a small community college in Independence, Kansas.

At first, his efforts struggled to gain the attention of students who were otherwise focused on a degree. And because he was a non-academic outsider, he wasn't getting much support from faculty and staff.

Yet once he realized he needed to shift his focus from traditional business planning to the entrepreneurial mindset, things began to change as word soon began to spread.

Before long, Jim transformed an abandoned building into a thriving fab lab that soon became a hub of entrepreneurial activity. Soon, he was attracting not only degree-seeking students from the college but also everything from middle schoolers to mid-career adults, retirees, and everything in between. Some were starting businesses, some were reinventing their careers, and some were doing both.

This is a great story that demonstrates how one person can make a difference in their community by taking an entrepreneurial approach to grassroots economic development.