But why?

There’s a number of reasons, and dozens of examples, but it all comes down to one word: opportunity.

Austin bleeds opportunity, and as I’ve noted through my research thus far, young people are attracted to opportunistic locales. They want to live in a place that offers them to ability to shape, to mold, to create. They want to be immersed in an inclusive community that’s open to new ideas, embraces fresh ways of thinking, and is accepting of nontraditional lifestyles. In a world where people are more socially connected than ever, social capital itself has increased in value dramatically - and young people realize this. They want to be somewhere that offers them ample opportunities to increase their social capital and utilize it effectively.

Throughout my trips, I’ve broken my research down into three main areas of focus:

• Innovative Capacity - What is each city able to create? What is it able to produce? How many entrepreneurs and startups does it have? How does it support them?
• Quality of Opportunity - How does the city allow residents to shape, mold, and create their own opportunities to develop themselves personally and professionally? How does the city cultivate an entrepreneurial spirit that fosters innovation and, in turn, produce new opportunities?
• Placemaking - How does the city embrace the concept of placemaking? Does it offer opportunities for residents to build a community that’s relevant to their lifestyles and able to adapt with generational and / or lifestyle changes?

These three research areas all focus on a city’s ability to create an environment where people thrive on possibilities, and have the opportunity to create new possibilities. In a fascinating conversation earlier today at Cospace, a coworking space here in Austin, I stated that my personal definition of an entrepreneur is anyone who is able to take an opportunity and create new opportunities from it to contribute to society in a meaningful way. If that’s the definition of an entrepreneur, Austin is full of them.

In his book The Rise of the Creative Class, Richard Florida highlights Austin as a creative hub that’s full of creative capital - something he sites as being of increasing value as we transition into a creativity / knowledge-based economy. From what I’ve witnessed across the country, cities are full of creative capital. What sets one city apart from the next, however, is its ability to tap into the creative capital it holds and utilize it effectively in a way to catalyze economic growth.

Austin has this down to a science. Not only do they realize how much creative capital they hold, they understand how to strengthen it, how to increase its value, how to build it, and how to mix it with other forms of capital to maximize efficiency and stimulate growth. They understand that people are more socially connected than they ever have been in the past, but social networks are still fragmented. People may interact with people who work in different fields or realms, but how do you turn that into a growth formula? Here’s your recipe:

Social capital + human capital + creative capital + resources + entrepreneurial mindset = economic growth

You take the networks of people (social capital) and lay it over the number of people you have (human capital), then pair that with the creativity held within a city (creative capital). Take this mix and pair it up with access to necessary resources and an entrepreneurial / innovative spirit, and you have a economic engine churning out fresh ideas at an incredible rate.

Now granted, there are multitudes of details that play into this formula that can have different effects on the outcome, but so far, this is what I’m seeing play out in Austin. The rate at which they’re able to produce is incredible. It’s become a lifestyle here; like I said before, everyone is an ‘entrepreneur’ in some way or another. According to Cospace co-founder Kurtis Dixon, just about everyone in Austin is engaged in making Austin a better place one way or another. People have their day jobs - maybe even two or three of them - and then they have a plethora of activities, organizations, and groups that they contribute to in various ways. Just from the conversations I’ve had with people here, that spirit of constantly improving or “innovating” Austin is very prevalent. Even more, it’s contagious.

When I asked the Cospace team about how arts / cultural groups in Austin interact with its startup / entrepreneurial community, the look on their faces could have easily been interpreted as a question mark. They went on to explain that these two groups really aren’t separate in Austin. Yes, you have artists and you have entrepreneurs - but the artists are entrepreneurs, and the entrepreneurs are artists. They share a common thread along with anyone else in this city: they think in an entrepreneurial mindset and constantly consider ways that they can innovate current processes and systems to create a better city. As anyone who understands entrepreneurial development will tell you, art and innovation go hand in hand. In Austin, those two come from the same hand. They share an immersed, collaborative ecosystem that sustains itself.

Earlier findings of the Twelve Cities Project prompted conversations in Fort Wayne about changing the way we talk about ourselves. Too often, young talent in Fort Wayne only have negative things to say about their city or they explain it with a cautious, “much to be desired” dialogue. Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Paducah, Kentucky, were very different; young people in both of these cities obviously loved where they lived, were very attached to it, and spoke eloquently about all the wonderful things their city has to offer. The attitude was contagious. Austin has challenged me to think through this on a deeper level. People will tell you it’s a wonderful place, they will offer evidence to support their claims, but what really hits me is being able to see the fruits of their labor. They’re not proud of the place they call home; they’re proud of the home they’ve created. They all have a stake in the transformation that Austin has seen over the years, and they genuinely reap the benefits of their work.

Which leads me to the question, do we train residents to speak optimistically about their city, or do we give them a reason to be optimistic? One produces a short-term fix, but its long-term sustainability is left to question. The other is more genuine, more sincere. People speak from the heart because they truly are emotionally attached to their home. Why? Because they created it, and they know that collectively, they will be rewarded for their hard work. This fuels their inspiration, motivates them to continue pushing forward, and gives them a fearless spirit. Chattanooga calls itself the “can-do” city, but they didn’t get that title without doing something first. Austin shares the same spirit and has equally accomplished incredible feats over the past few decades.

More to come in the next few days, but for now, I’ll leave you with a few questions:

1.) What opportunities does your city offer for you to connect, share, and collaborate?
2.) Is a genuine sense of connectivity to community improvement efforts important to you?
3.) Do residents in your city share an entrepreneurial mindset? If so, how has your city benefited from this?

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Interested in supporting the Twelve Cities Project? You can donate online by clicking here.