About the author: Grant Morris, a New Zealand native, is a screenwriter, founder, broadcaster, and entrepreneur all rolled into one at It’s New Orleans!, a web radio show geared towards locals and people outside of the city that have a connection to it.
—————————————————————————————————————————————-
Thanks to magazines, talk shows, and even entire TV channels devoted to the subject, we’re all very familiar with biographies of success.
For musicians, the narrative usually follows the model of struggle; fame; hooked on drugs; lose everything; make a comeback.
In sports, the biography is typically child standout; college superstar; struggle in the pros; fade away. Or, never noticed, overlooked, undrafted, sudden superstar, MVP, Hall of Fame.
In business, the biography of big-time success almost invariably includes having an original idea that nobody believes in, nobody wants to fund, nobody cares about, and that any number of banks, business plan readers, and funders poke holes in and reject.
Typically we only get to hear the story of this struggle after a measure of success brings the company and the entrepreneur to the attention of the media.
Host of New Orleans business show Out to Lunch (WWNO 89.9FM and podcast site www.itsneworleans.com) and Tulane Business Professor, Peter Ricchiuti is familiar with this career trajectory. But he’s interested in jumping on these stories earlier.
“I think it would be interesting to hear entrepreneur’s stories about the tough times before the big break,” said Ricchiuti, “While entrepreneurs are actually struggling to get attention.”
Ricchiuti is planning on featuring entrepreneurs at the beginning of their career path on his weekly show, it he can find them. Ricchiuti said, “Successful people have PR folks or there’s an article about them that pops up somewhere. People who are struggling, who nobody is paying any attention to are, by definition, harder to find. I’d like to find them. Not just anybody with a half-baked business plan, but entrepreneurs with genuinely interesting ideas who aren’t getting traction. I’d like to be a part of their story. Wouldn’t it be great to hear someone successful say, ‘Nobody paid any attention to me till a financier happened to hear about me on a radio show.’”
If you know an entrepreneur with a great idea who is fighting to be heard, have them get in touch with Out to Lunch, outtolunch@inobroadcasting.com .