It’s a Puzzle, Not a Bullseye
The best education digs deep into your psyche, creates connections, makes you ask more questions than it provides answers, and sometimes—if you are very lucky—it allows for an entirely new perspective.
ASSETS, a non-profit based in Lancaster, PA, helps entrepreneurs develop, fund, and incorporate their businesses. At its most basic level, ASSETS introduces business concepts that are not taught in our school system. (On a side note/soapbox: I never understood why business classes in high school are electives. We live and function in a capitalist society and we, in every profession from nurse to plumber to educator, sell for a living. Why not teach business basics that we will all, at some point, use in our lives?)
ASSETS offers a 10-week class that works you, with your business idea, through the realities of running, expanding, or beginning a business. Your 15-person cohort meets once a week in the evening, for 2.5 to 3 hours per session. Over the course of those weeks, we all witness and co-experience the changes people go through as they solidify their direction, pivot into something new, or just rest and evaluate.
Rest, evaluation, and self-reflection are integral in this process — yet we often cringe when there is no movement forward. Maybe it harkens back to our parents or teachers who yelled at us to, “Get back to reality. Stop daydreaming.” Sure, we could daydream our way into inertia — but, it is in the daydreaming and reflection that we are moving the puzzle pieces of our lives into a new picture.
Throughout our lives, we have been focused on the bullseye—the grades, the degree, the perfect job, the house, the end goal… whatever it is. Now, what if we change our perspective and, instead of seeing a bullseye, we see a table with puzzle pieces, trying to merge those pieces together, creating and uncreating? And unlike the bullseye metaphor, the puzzle is best done surrounded by family and friends, while chatting, helping, encouraging, and laughing.
That is what this ASSETS cohort was for all of us—sitting around a table, figuring out the pieces, seeking encouragement and advice from those who have gone before us, and not worrying about the finished puzzle because we know it is always changing and we will find the right pieces when we need them. It’s just nice to know we are not alone in the search and we can laugh along the way!
I must give a shout out to the following businesses who are already up and running; they joined our cohort to learn a little more and to help the rest of us navigate this new territory.
Hattie McCarter (Mend Solutions, DEI practitioner): When one of the “Sharks” at the final ASSETS pitch presentations asked Hattie why her DEI work would stand out, she responded, “I win hearts. I tackle tough subjects, but once I win hearts they are in my pocket." She won ours.
Johnny Rivera (Blackbeard): Barber-extraordinaire opening a new shop, The Avenue, on Lititz Pike—creating an opportunity for his clients to not only get a haircut and a shave, but a place to unwind, speak frankly, and find help and resources, if needed.
Devon Philbert (Taste and Toast Catering): Incredible food, a family man, and a visionary for our community.
Tina Tate (The Brownie Pop Company Bakery): ”I have been working on this brownie recipe for ten years. I’ve nailed it.” Yes, she has. And her designs and presentations are spectacular. I shall be ordering a customized dozen for my next book club.