Buck Goldstein talks innovation

The University kicked off its participation in Global Entrepreneurship Week Monday with a lecture on how failure can be acceptable.

“From defeat to defeat to final victory,” said Buck Goldstein, quoting former Chinese revolutionary Mao Zedong.

Goldstein, an economics professor, co-wrote “Engines of Innovation” with Chancellor Holden Thorp.

The lecture, which took place on an impromptu stage in the Student Union, also focused on entrepreneurship and how it serves as an intersection between innovators and executors.

Goldstein repeatedly said he wants students to realize that failure is okay, as long as it teaches a lesson.

“Entrepreneurship is not for everybody,” he said. “If you want a guarantee that you will not fail, there are other things to try.”

Throughout the week, events sponsored by Innovate@Carolina, the Campus Y and other UNC organizations will be held to get students thinking about entrepreneurship and its implications for the University.

“There are obviously problems, and we are trying to channel our large knowledge base to better the University and the world,” said Mackenzie Thomas, a sophomore economics major and entrepreneurship minor who said she had Goldstein as a professor last year..

Goldstein added that students are the key to this effort’s success. He said that students have helped invent social entrepreneurship and their expertise with social networking will prove to be a huge advantage in furthering this entrepreneurial mindset.

“You put results ahead of ideology,” he said. “Your urgency and short attention span are important for solving problems. You students provide the energy and the fuel.”

Shruti Shah, chairwoman of the chancellor’s Student Innovation Team, said the group was needed to help provide student feedback on the innovation roadmap, an idea Thomas echoed.

“It’s a total mix of students representing a lot of the major student groups on campus,” Thomas said.

Judith Cone, special assistant to the chancellor for innovation and entrepreneurship, said that if students have ideas, the University is there to help them become reality.

“Obviously, our world is under a lot of stress; we have a lot of issues,” she said. “And on this campus we have resources and brilliant people who care deeply.”

“We asked ourselves, ‘what is the role of the University in the world?’”

Goldstein also talked about learning by doing instead of sitting around in a classroom. He said entrepreneurship is a mindset that takes a big problem and turns it into an opportunity, and that the University is a practice ground.

“At the University we can create protected failure, where you can fail and it’s OK,” he said. “It’s a whole different way of thinking about things. Where that will take us now, no one can know.”

Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.