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Global Entrepreneurship Week Kicks Off at Semo

Samantha Rinehart
/
KRCU

Global Entrepreneurship Week began this Monday. Southeast Missouri State University began the week long event with a keynote address and kickoff ceremony featuring the comedic improvisational theatre company, the Second City

Piero Procaccini  is a member of the Second City Communications group. He says a key element of their presentations is to remind the audience that entrepreneurship begins with basic communication elements: active listening and becoming “others focused.”

“The idea of being ‘others focused’ is something that is, I think, pretty rare in the real world. We tend to be focused on ourselves a lot and one aspect of entrepreneurship is finding the human need,” Procaccini said. “What is the need that requires filling and looking to solve that. That’s a great way to guide you towards success.”

Procaccini says it is important to realize that entrepreneurship is not just about job creation, but about filling societal needs.

Shad Kunkle, another member of the Second City Communications group, says improvisation is an important part of creativity and entrepreneurship because it helps people become “comfortable with the uncomfortable.”

“I want people to learn that risk taking is more natural than you think,” Kunkle said. “I think people live in a lot of fear that if I do anything outrageous there will be consequences. And, that there is more power in ‘yes’ than there is in ‘no.’ That through the power of saying ‘yes,’ that we can come to more complex and well-built solutions.”

Global Entrepreneurship Week is a worldwide celebration of innovation and job creation that seeks to introduce others to the world of entrepreneurship. 

It concludes this Saturday with a Fault Line Film Festival Film Screening in Rose Theatre.

Samantha Rinehart was a student reporter for KRCU from 2012-2013.