Former regent Phil Power sells U-M students on entrepreneurship

The founder for The Center for Michigan encourages the leaders of tomorrow to take a risk and start a business.

Excerpt:

Here’s what Phil Power believes: “There is nothing in life that is more challenging or more of an art form than being an entrepreneur.”

The former U-M regent and newspaper publisher was talking to a group of University of Michigan students on Friday afternoon, giving them some insights on his own experiences founding Hometown Communications Network as well as his newest venture in social entrepreneurism, the Ann Arbor-based Center for Michigan. His talk was part of a series hosted by MPowered, a student entrepreneur group.

Power said he’d read Friday’s Detroit News article reporting that more than half of U-M’s graduates leave the state after graduation. People have told him there’s nothing here for them in Michigan, he said, “which I think is a load of bull.”

This state is a great place for entrepreneurs, Power said, in large part because major market discontinuities (which he defined as “when things are really screwed up”) are creating opportunities. “Michigan is a perfect example today of wholesale market discontinuity,” he said, specifically in the auto and newspaper industries.

Michigan also has a rich history of inventive ideas spawning business ventures, he said, much of it occurring at the turn of the last century. Dow, Upjohn, Kellogg, Ford and Hudson’s are the most high-profile examples – each started small and grew into major corporations. “Entrepreneurship DNA is in our bones,” Power said.

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