When others were giving way to the Great Recession’s doom and gloom, Dr. Lisa Ross, president of Pioneer Passion LLC, searched for a silver lining instead. “America is still the greatest country in the world,” she thought. “Surely there’s more we can do than hunker down, cut expenses, and wait for the storm to pass.” So she became a student of history and researched the Great Depression, the American Revolution, and the founding and evolution of pivotal cities in American history, like Chicago and New York.

Dr. Ross found that our forbearers overcame obstacles against all odds through four distinct qualities, but she warns the nature of those qualities was radically different than we perceive them today. The enterprise, mastery, resoluteness, and self-reliance of our great grandparents were strengths and skills born out of necessity under extreme hardship — severe climates, unforgiving economies, and no modern conveniences — that are difficult for our current consumer culture to grasp.

“We still possess these qualities within us,” she explains, “although they’re atrophied, like muscles that haven’t been used. Americans throughout history, not only faced unforeseen challenges with vigor and confidence, but also set their sights on accomplishing unimaginable feats to boot, like building the Erie Canal and the Brooklyn Bridge — efforts that we have forgotten how hard they were Because technology has faced us so squarely on the future that we rarely look back to our past.”

Dr. Ross developed the Creatorpreneur™ program during the Great Recession to help adults, youth, businesses, and organizations reclaim the qualities of enterprise, mastery, resoluteness, and self-reliance of their late 19th and early 20th century great grandparents and integrate those qualities into the 21st century technological economy. Dr. Ross describes “Creatorpreneur,” a concept she originated and trademarked, as an idea-doer. The “creator-” in a Creatorpreneur compels an individual or organization to conceive ideas for alternative employment, ground breaking businesses, social change projects, and diffusing innovation into mainstream organizations. The “-preneur” in a Creatorpreneur develops and applies the skills of enterprise, mastery, resoluteness, and self-reliance to turn those ideas into reality.

Dr. Ross sees Creatorpreneur™ as a niche movement within the mainstream economy, rising from the Great Recession’s ashes. “The Great Recession showed us that a comfortable paycheck with benefits is no longer a given for experienced, educated Americans willing and able to work. That realization shook the nation to its core, but we forget we’ve only had the security of working for a large employer for a century or so. Before the advent of big business and mass produced goods in the 1920s, most Americans worked in family-owned businesses and farms in small towns. Faced with adversity daily, they made their living through enterprise, mastery, resoluteness, and self-reliance. In some ways, we have come full circle. Creatorpreneur™ offers a small yet important choice for those who want more control over their future in a volatile economy.”

The Creatorpreneur™ program offers training, coaching, and consulting on Overcoming Obstacles to Innovation; The Creatorpreneur Manager; The Creatorpreneur Team; The Creatorpreneur Teacher; Creatorpreneur for College and High School Students; and Creatorpreneur for Seniors. Each session is based on the following framework:

Creatorpreneurs are Enterprising. They “want to do” and have an insatiable desire to bring their ideas to life by materializing them in the physical world.

Creatorpreneurs are Mastering. They understand that having a great idea is not enough and apply their knowledge to turn their ideas into reality. What Creatorpreneurs don’t already “know how to do,” they learn to do by figuring it out on their own or finding someone who does know to show them.

Creatorpreneurs are Self-reliant. They are confident they possess the inner strength and outer resourcefulness to achieve what they set out to do. Creatorpreneurs are self-starters and take full ownership of their thoughts and actions.

Creatorpreneurs are Resolute. They “will to do no matter what.” Motivated by a relentless drive to accomplish, Creatorpreneurs focus unwaveringly on their end goal. They enjoy the challenge in overcoming obstacles and look upon defeat as temporary and instructive.

Karen Adamedes, international author of Hot Tips For Career Chicks, praises the Creatorpreneur vision: “Dr. Lisa’s ‘Creatorpreneur’ concept is a powerful framework that shows individuals how to take positive action. This is especially timely in a difficult-to-navigate economy where individuals are wanting to take the responsibility for determining their own destinies. Whether in the U.S. or across the globe in Australia we need Creatorpreneurs now like never before.”

Bonus Video: Visual expression: Phases of Strategic Brand Development (from DocStoc)

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About Dr. Lisa Ross
Lisa Ross, Ed.D., is president and founder of Pioneer Passion LLC, a Washington DC-based training and organizational development consulting firm that takes a root cause approach to people-in-organization issues. She has helped individuals and organizations overcome obstacles and achieve their goals for the past 25 years through her roles in healthcare human resources, nonprofit management, higher education, and consulting. She holds a doctorate in Educational Psychology and Research from the University of Memphis and a master’s degree in Mass Communication/Advertising from the University of Florida. Visit her online at http://pioneerpassion.com.

Source: Everything Small Business Journal (http://s.tt/12JJP)