Techpreneurship: Strive for Meaning and Do It Right

Jeff Amerine

Techpreneurship, with Jeff Amerine

(Jeff Amerine is an IA advisor, entrepreneurship educator, and officer with the University of Arkansas Technology Licensing Office. Each Thursday, his Techpreneurship blog will appear in INOV8. Drop him a line in comments.)

Warren Bennis, the author of “Managing People is Like Herding Cats,” says,

Leaders are people who do the right things, and managers are people who do things right.

Steven Covey, the author of “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,” says,

Principle-based goal setting requires leaders to do the  right thing, for the right reasons, in the right way.

Finally, Guy Kawasaki, the author of “The Art of the Start,” says,

Strive to make meaning first and the money will follow.

By now you may be wondering where the feel good, do good sermon is going, eh?  Every now and then, we run across leaders and companies that take the mantras above, and actually live by these fine words.  They inspire all of us to be better by their example.

This week, I am casting the Techpreneurship spotlight on two such Arkansas serial entrepreneurs who walk that special walk.  Dr. John James and Terry Turpin have had much success already in their professional careers by building and exiting viable Internet e-commerce and B2B advertising ventures.

These guys are really interesting.  By education, John is a medical doctor and Terry is a lawyer.  They both decided long ago that creating and growing new businesses is more fun than medicine and law.  Imagine that!

Now, they are on to a new high growth e-commerce venture called Acumen Holdings.  Acumen Holdings is based right here in Fayetteville.   They provide a highly efficient e-commerce channel for a wide variety of different product lines (including nursing scrubs, workwear, and car wash chemicals), and they are positioned for very rapid growth.   Okay, so you might ask, “what’s different about this entrepreneurial, capitalistic story?”

Acumen’s focus is on making meaning, not just money. That is the difference.  Acumen Holdings, at this very early stage of its growth, came out this week with the announcement of a major ”do-good” project.  In conjunction with Razorback Athletics, they are organizing an event to pack in excess of two million meals for Haiti relief in less than 24 hours!

The event will be held at the Razorback indoor track facility beginning at 7 p.m. on June 25, and will continue for 24 hours.  They plan to recruit over 10,000 volunteers to make this happen.  If you’d like more information, here are the details on the event and on Acumen Holdings:

http://www.acumenholdings.com/razorback-relief/

http://www.facebook.com/razorbackrelief#!/razorbackrelief?v=app_2344061033

I’ll be there with my family packing up some good grub for Haiti relief, and I hope to see all you Techpreneurs there as well!

Acumen Holdings has all the potential to be a very special company.  They are currently beginning to look for the right kind of strategic partners that share their vision and moral compass.  If you think you’d like to learn a bit more, go to the Acumen Holdings website and contact John and Terry.

John and Terry light a meaningful path for all aspiring Techpreneurs.  Let’s not just learn from their example, let’s help fuel their journey…

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