Day 69: What Makes a Good Economic Developer?

Day 69:  What makes a good economic developer?  Several of my past posts have touched on different pieces of this.  As with any career, be willing to learn.  Be inquisitive.  Attend conferences.  Stretch yourself and go to a personal improvement course of some sort.  One of my all-time favorite books is Stephen Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.  It made a huge difference in my life.  My wife and I started our bed and breakfast while I was attending a week long course of this book.  I am reading it again because it has been fifteen years since I took the course and I need a refresher.  As I write this I am lying flat on my back because of a serious herniated disk.  Our oldest went back to college this week and my wife is battling cancer.  I have a lot of personal stuff going on.  It is important to have support and a good solid foundation of a positive attitude.  I think some of that is just in our personality but I think reading positive books and books that help us with our line of work are very important.  We have a religious faith and that has helped us cope with a lot of things.  Every week, try to read a positive story that will improve how your react to things at work.  If you are a good economic developer someone is going to get upset with something you did.  It’s going to happen because you are doing something.  Show me an economic developer that everyone loves and I would argue they probably aren’t doing anything except trying to make everyone happy.  The goal should not be to upset someone and you should strive to make every project a win/win.  But that is hard.  Especially when there are negative people out there.  My advice, is don’t worry about the negative people.  They will be unhappy no matter what you do.  Just smile and work with them, but you do the right thing.  If you always do what is right and strive for win/win you are a good economic developer.  Next: Stop and check your progress.

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