Top Ten Quotes from #FEECon2019

This article is a summary of my personal thoughts and opinions based on the recent FEECon 2019 conference.

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Set Your Path, Change The World – sounds ambiguous, doesn’t it?

It wasn’t until I actually attended FEECon 2019 that I got the meaning behind the theme for this year’s FEECon.

To provide some context, FEECon is an annual conference organized by the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) that gathers people from all over the world together to discuss the merits of liberty and freedom from an economic standpoint. In the span of 3 days, participants will take part in various Keynote Sessions and Breakout Sessions covering verticals such as Skills for Success, Entrepreneurship and Startup Experience, Philosophy, Politics, and Economics, Disruptive Innovators, Creative Arts, and Business in Perspective.

Two weeks ago, my sister and I had the opportunity to attend FEECon 2019 which took place at Atlanta, Georgia from June 13-15. Armed with nothing but the little economic knowledge I had from the few classes I took in university, I was set to attend a conference where debates and discussions about different economic systems in the world seemed to be the norm.

Having organized and participated in a number of events and international conferences in the past, there were a few things about FEECon 2019 that really stood out for me, three of which I thought deserved a shout-out.

1. Exceptional Event Management – The entire conference was in an essence, neat and orderly. Every session started exactly on time. The FEECon app was also a nice touch, in T.K. Coleman’s words, to prevent fellow participants from looking like a lost freshman on the first day of university. Attention to detail was definitely what I perceive as key to the successful FEECon 2019.
2. Friendly FEE Team – From the Registration Table to the Closing Party, everyone from FEE was definitely very friendly and welcoming. One can easily find the top leadership of FEE all the way down to the interns at FEE simply mixing around and creating conversations.
3. Spectacular Speaker Line-up – For almost every session, there were speakers that were influential in their own industry, armed with knowledge and experience ready to be shared with fellow participants. Every Keynote/ Breakout Session definitely left participants with food for thought and a desire to get out and kick-start the ideas churning in their minds.

One thing I remember doing throughout the conference was taking pictures of the speakers and jotting down notes on what I thought would, later on, make amazing quotes. And just because the speakers were – in my opinion – pretty amazing, highlighted below are my top ten quotes from the #FEECon2019 sessions.

QUOTE 1:

"Through the pursuit of risk, you can find abundance.”  - Austin Wintory

Austin Wintory – My Life as a Creative Entrepreneur

Grammy-nominated and BAFTA-winning composer

Would you be willing to help others in your industry succeed?

Austin Wintory shared about one of the most beguiling questions in his life as a creative entrepreneur: Do I care about my creative powers or my career perspectives?

As a soundtrack composer for the gaming industry, Austin noted that creativity definitely plays a role in a free market ecosystem. Competition is inevitable, and if one acts on the notion of scarcity, and thus believe that their creativity is limited, that person may easily feel threatened by competition. However, to Austin, competition is simply a form of industry-wide collaboration to make things better and to help all parties in the industry to improve. If the art is what matters, you should be able to acknowledge that someone else has a better product than you and strive to improve upon your offerings. And because the gaming industry is fluid and dynamic, it allows you to re-evaluate ideas previously thought of as ‘dusty’ and to find new meanings for them. To Austin, the creative industry is less about the product you offer, but more about the process in which you get to the final product.

Will the thoughts of scarcity or abundance rule your thoughts?

QUOTE 2:

“I’m not here to change the world, I’m here to change the world you see. When I’m done, you’ll never see things the same way again.” – T.K. Coleman

T.K. Coleman – Set Your Path, Change The World

Director of Entrepreneurial Education, FEE/ Emcee, FEECon 2019

T.K. Coleman dug deeper into this year’s theme for FEECon by sharing a very profound quote by Howard Thurman, “Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” The best way to change the world is not to look at the world and see what you can do, but the way you change the world is the way you set your path – do what makes you come alive, instead of things done just out of duty or obligation.

T.K. Coleman also explained that if your ability to change the world is affected by the views of other people, you will be easily triggered. Therefore, live a trigger-free life and stop treating the worth of your ideas as though it depends on everybody who believes in it. People respond to incentives; don’t change the way people change the world, change the incentives.

T.K. Coleman was also this year’s FEECon emcee and he is definitely one of the most natural emcees I have ever seen. #Skills2Learn

QUOTE 3:

“The most important asset in the 21st century is not our hands, or the mind, but the heart.” – Brian Brenberg

Brian Brenberg – The Nature of Profit in Business

Vice President of Business and Finance, The King’s College.

This was definitely one of my favorite sessions.

Profit is often seen as a dirty word, one that you try to avoid in conversations. People often think that to make a profit is to take advantage of others. In his session, Brian Brenberg highlighted the other face of profit in business, contrasting the negative connotations constantly attached to the word profit.

If business was a movie, then profit would have been the villain – and people like it this way because villains are interesting. The good guy aspect of profit is often neglected – the fact that profit-making businesses have, in fact, helped a lot of people, a point that Brian pointed out. Just think of everything that has helped make your lives easier today – most of them would have been made/ created by profit-making businesses. Therefore, to change people’s standing on the word ‘profit’ is to change the stories tied to it. Just look at Earl Bakken’s development of the wearable pacemaker, an invention that not only generated profits but also helped changed the lives of millions of people. 

Imagine how different our public discourse would be if our moral imagination was rooted in stories like this?

Quoting the wise words of G.K. Chesterton, “We are perishing for want of wonder, not for want of wonders,” Brian stressed upon the fact that ‘wonder’ has been extracted from our vision of the world, and that people should instead be constantly be filled with gladness because there is just so much in the world to wonder at. The absence of such feeling has led many to cease asking the ‘whys’ behind everything. “‘Why’ is the question of gratitude that keeps us from taking marvelous things for granted.”

QUOTE 4:

“We need to appreciate that the world has become a better place.” – Antony Davies

Antony Davies – How Do We Fight The Bias Against Capitalism That Perpetuates Global Poverty?

Co-host, Words and Numbers

Do you think good news or bad news sell better? This was an interesting point highlighted by Antony Davies. According to Antony, it is now almost a must for mainstream media to sell entertaining truths. Parallel to Brian Brenberg’s ‘villains are interesting’ is the unfortunate truth that bad news sells. As such, mainstream media constantly evokes a very terrible picture of the world. And due to the media’s immense influence on public perception, human beings have developed the tendency to believe what they do say and to not believe what they don’t say, which becomes a problem.

Accompanying Antony on stage was a slide deck filled with graphs and numbers, comparing the trends in middle-class wages as well as working hours needed to purchase items. As a person that appreciate facts and data comparison, this was truly an amazing speech that made me think more on the role media plays in our lives, as well as the naivety that exists within me when I sometime look at mainstream content.

QUOTE 5:

“Love and empathy are the real powers to make changes.” – Magatte Wade

Magatte Wade - How Do We Fight the Bias Against Capitalism That Perpetuates Global Poverty?

Founder, Skin is Skin

Before appearing on stage, Magatte Wade was described as a philosophical, entrepreneurial, economical shot of espresso by T.K. Coleman. If a shot of espresso is supposed to pack a punch (having never really drank coffee), then I have to say he was definitely right.

Born in Senegal, Magatte Wade expands on her younger years in West Africa. In her speech, she shared that Africans tend to accept that they are inferior after a gradual process of media influence and media portrayal highlighting them as such. However, this is not the case – they are not inferior to others, but it’s simply because they lack capitalism. People are poor because they have no money; they have no money because they have no source of income, and they have no source of income because there are no jobs, and there are no jobs because there are no businesses and entrepreneurs.

According to Magatte Wade, to say someone or a certain population is anti-capitalism is a bias. People should first look at the business climate of the target countries before making such sentiments. Put yourself into the shoes of the people living in countries who have a lack of capitalism; make connections with them and share your ideas. 

QUOTE 6:

“Being free is about being responsible for the consequences of your acts.” – Gloria Alvarez

Gloria Alvarez - How Do We Fight the Bias Against Capitalism That Perpetuates Global Poverty?

Guatemalan Political Commentator

Gloria Alvarez began with a very interesting premise: Just because socialism is wrong, it doesn’t mean that people would immediately jump onto the capitalism bandwagon. In her personal life, when she first realized that socialism did not work, it also did not make sense to her that capitalism would cure everything. However, she later came to understand that in a capitalistic environment, the definition of ‘free’ in a free market system is to be accountable for your own actions – and that was when she truly began to embrace the concept of a free market.

Through her personal career, she is now an active commentator for the free market, equality, and freedom. 

QUOTE 7:

“Disruption is not a bug, it’s a feature.” – Emily Chamlee-Wright 

Emily Chamlee-Wright – The Most Important Idea Every Entrepreneur Needs

President & CEO, Institute for Humane Studies

Emily Chamlee-Wright believes that the fundamental economic problem is discovery, not resource allocation. Her question was, “How do we discover a way that allows human beings to coordinate plans with each other so that widespread cooperation can occur?” The entrepreneurial world is a world of cooperation – and this allows people to create an abundance out of scarcity. Disruption is bound to happen, and entrepreneurs should be ready to expect it.

Expertise often comes from unconventional sources; therefore, it is important to remember that humility is key. Encouraging spontaneous order thinking, a concept derived from the work of Hayek, Emily believes that such thinking not only inspires entrepreneurial value, but it also gives entrepreneurs the right to learn, fail, and try again. This will eventually lead to new knowledge.

QUOTE 8:

“Entrepreneurs do what people won’t so they can do for the rest of their lives what people don’t.” – Henrik Scheel

Henrik Scheel – Dare to Dream BIG – The Power of an Entrepreneurial Mindset

Founder & CEO, Startup Experience Inc.

This was another one of my favorite sessions!

Thinking of entrepreneurship as an extreme sport, Henrik Scheel delivers three powerful points to remember when starting your entrepreneurial venture:

1. The most important trait: Integrity
2. The most important thing to do now: Take action
3. The best way to eliminate risk: Sell it before you have it.

QUOTE 9:

“We look at the ordinary, but what we see is the extraordinary when we fall in love.” – Dewitt Jones

Dewitt Jones – Extraordinary Visions

Photographer, National Geographic

Dewitt Jones is a powerful speaker with a natural talent to deliver messages that encourage people to take actions. This was one of the best sessions in the FEECon 2019 conference.

In a story about two workers, both doing the same jobs but with different descriptions of their own work – chipping stone vs. building a cathedral – Dewitt Jones highlight the differences in simply working at a job versus working at a job with love and passion. Four main characteristics in life are important for success: Vision, Passion, Purpose, and Creativity. In his speech, Dewitt stresses the fact that people should celebrate what is right in the world, instead of only focusing on what is wrong with the world.

As creative entrepreneurs, it is important to move from imagination to imaginACTion. We all have a set of skills that is unique, and we need not prove ourselves to others. What we need to do instead is to keep improving ourselves. Carpe Diem, seize the day, is what he advocates. Instead of seeing and then believing, say to yourself, “I’ll see it because I believe it.”

When the vision is clear, passion and creativity will follow. As a photographer for National Geographic, Dewitt has been to multiple places all around the world. To him, nature has shared that in the search for the right answers in life, there is always more than just one right answer. You never have to settle at the first answer you find. Keep finding for the next right answer and do it comfortably. The question is not about “How many good shots did you get in an 8GB card (parallel to “How many right answers did you get”),” but instead, “Did you get it?”

Fun fact: It usually takes about 14,000 images for just one National Geographic article.

QUOTE 10:

“It is the uncommon among us that really makes the difference.” – Lawrence Reed

Lawrence (Larry) Reed – An Interview with Larry

President Emeritus, FEE

In an interview with Larry (conducted by T.K. Coleman), Lawrence Reed expanded on the concepts of liberty. Larry defines liberty as the absence of the initiation of force. To Larry, if you want to succeed economically, you have to know where to add value.

Expanding on his book, Real Heroes: Inspiring True Stories of Courage, Character, and Conviction, Larry believes that the real heroes are those who do uncommon things.

This session was pretty impactful, and it served as a reminder for people to never take other people for granted. Everyone, big or small, plays a role in the world that we live in today.

And that wraps up my top ten quotes from FEECon 2019! FEECon may have been a conference that was meant to focus on economics, liberty, and the entrepreneurial spirit, but I believe it also has indirectly planted a seed of thought for morality as well as the question of "What do we take for granted in our lives?" At the end of FEECon 2019, I can’t say for sure if I would identify as a libertarian, but I can definitely see the benefits a free market has to offer.

Nonetheless, some of my largest takeaways are:

1. Humility is key.
2. Be grateful for and appreciate what the world has to offer.
3. Creativity is a key driver for the entrepreneurial mindset.
4. Believe first in yourself, then go and take action.
5. Set your path, and then the world will naturally change.

So, which quote is your favorite? :)

Disclaimer: This article contains my personal thoughts, learnings, and opinions on FEECon 2019. All speaker's content and points are a reiteration of and takeaways from the session.