Persist and Persevere

Good ideas are not adopted automatically. They must be driven into practice with courageous patience.
-Hyman Rickover

Economic development can be slow and incremental. When significant things happen, they can be perceived as quick leaps forward, when in actuality they may be the result of years of persistence and patience. Headlines often only report on the outcome, while there is often a long, rich story behind each success.

The economic developer often sits between those who wish to preserve the status quo and those who seek a wholly different path to progress. So often, the role is to take the best ideas from both and gain ground (and revenue) where possible. Sometimes that means taking the gain of a single block and not the entire neighborhood, or a single parcel instead of an entire business park. Sometimes it means forgoing an immediate opportunity for one that is much larger in the future.

Again, progress can be slow and incremental, but leadership accelerates progress through vision and the acquisition of assets that contribute to success. Where leaders work together, progress can be multiplied many times over.

-Kenny McDonald

One Columbus Update

• This week, the One Columbus team will travel to Los Angeles for meetings with companies and consultants and to Dallas for Consultant Connect. Back at home, we’ll attend the Columbus Chamber Annual Meeting 2016.
• Next week, an inside look at Central Ohio’s major development projects will be given at Columbus Business First’s Power Breakfast. Click here for details.