Entrepreneurial Mindset Has Changed My Life-Nancy Kishpaugh

By Fab Lab ICC 
Reposted with permission

IceHouseIcon-Color

After completing the Entrepreneurial Mindset class featuring the Ice House Entrepreneurship Program, Nancy Kishpaugh had this to say about the life-effect of her change in mindset.

“I recommend this class to everyone! It can change your life if you let it. I didn’t know what an entrepreneur was until I took this class. I thought it meant you had to have lots of money, have wealthy friends, and that it took a long time to earn the title. What I learned in class is that being an entrepreneur is simply a way of thinking. It’s looking at things and seeing opportunities instead of obstacles. It is about freeing your brain from what you thought you knew and letting yourself think about the possibilities. Sometimes when people brainstorm a problem, they get hung up right away because they see all the reasons why they can’t do something instead of looking for ways in which they could. Figure out where you want to go and then the pieces will begin to fall into place.

When I took the class, about 2-3 weeks in, I noticed a shift in my thinking. I was looking for solutions and was not so bound up in the negatives of the problem, whatever it was. My boss said she noticed a change in me and so did my husband (who also took the class). I have been much more positive in my thinking. I’ve gotten involved in community organizations, doors have opened to me, I am pursuing my passions, and I am happier in general. I worry less about how I’m going to live my life and think more about what’s important to me.

I got to go to Destination BootCamp in Longmont, Colorado, where I met a number of people from my hometown of Atchison, Kansas. They are reenergizing Atchison through innovative thinking, in much the same way we are doing in Independence. I was a member of the 2019 class of Leadership Independence. I am a member of the Board of the Independence Historical Museum, the Imagination Library, and the Astra Festival. I helped plan Miss Able Days in Independence and am now a member of the team planning the Independence sesquicentennial (150 years) celebration. I am pursuing my love of photography and I’ve learned to paint as a member of the Eclectix artist’s coop.

My passion is a project to honor the 60 servicemen from Independence who were killed in WWII and Korea and were not returned home. These men gave their lives for us, they weren’t returned to their families back home, and they deserve more than a white wooden cross at Mount Hope Cemetery, that doesn’t even have their name on it. I am going to obtain permanent white marble markers for each man and I am going to put faces to the names with an exhibit here at the library. I volunteered to work at the Inge Festival for the first time this year (it was awesome!) and as a result, I am also looking for a playwright to take my research and give the lost men their voices back. A play is a powerful vehicle to do that!

Ice House also changed the way I work in my full-time day job at the Independence Public Library. I always had ideas but thought they were probably dumb ones because they were different and people looked at me strangely. Now I understand I was simply being creative. My boss and several of my coworkers have also taken the Ice House class. It helps to hang out with other creative people. We’ve made changes here at the library and will continue to do so, with an eye towards how we can best serve the community.

So, again, the answer is yes. I highly recommend the Ice House class. It unleashed changes in me and there’s no going back!”

Check out the Independence Public Library Facebook page here

 

Share this post