The Erie of today is not the Erie of my childhood, and I hope it is not the Erie of my future.

I have taken plenty of business classes in my life, but I understood little about economic development until it really mattered to me. The fact is, if Erie can’t make some major changes, I won’t be able to raise my family here.

The professionals tell me that economic development is a three-legged stool. We need to focus on retaining and growing businesses that are already here; we need to attract new businesses; and we need entrepreneurs to create new businesses and jobs.

The Erie that I grew up in only showed efforts on retaining and growing businesses that were already here. The efforts produced minimal results, with far too many jobs and large companies leaving our region. The Erie of my childhood failed at attracting new businesses. The Erie that I grew up in had little need for entrepreneurs because our big companies were so stable.

My parents were self-employed my entire life. They emphasized the need to “shop local” long before that became the cool thing to do. They were entrepreneurs before everyone wanted to be an entrepreneur. They created jobs, took risks, won some battles and lost some battles. They were the exception to the rule in Erie.

The problem is this: Erie has no tolerance for failure. If someone starts a business, and it doesn’t work out, that person is viewed as a failure. The citizens of our town have been unable to understand that by trying and failing, we are learning. The stories of turning failure into success are abundant.

We’ve heard the cliché that Colonel Sanders was rejected countless times before he succeeded. And you know that Michael Jordan didn’t make his high school basketball team. Talk to any “successful” businessperson in Erie, and they will gladly share mistakes they’ve made along the way.

For too long, we had the luxury of not needing to take risks. The “good jobs” were abundant. The need to create jobs was non-existent.

The Erie of today is working to fix the mentality of relying only on our large, stable employers. The one-legged stool cannot stand for long.

Every day, I become more and more hopeful that our efforts are actually working. We are beginning to celebrate new businesses. Our large employers are collaborating to support a new, vibrant city and encourage entrepreneurship. Businesses are starting, some are growing, some are failing. The attitude around new businesses is better now than it was in 2010 when I returned to Erie, but it still has a long way to go.

My hope is that we can change the mentality around “failure” in Erie. All net new job creation comes from companies that are less than five years old. But half of all businesses fail before their fifth birthday.

The Erie of my future is going to do a better job at all three of the economic development tasks. We just need to make sure that those with the old Erie mentality get out of our way long enough for real change to occur.

Let’s start swinging for the fences. Let’s fail big. Let’s fail fast. Don’t let the stigma of an unsuccessful venture attach to a person like zebra mussels on the dock. The future of my Erie depends on a major change in mindset.

If we can create an environment that is friendly to entrepreneurs and startup businesses, we can create an environment that attracts new businesses and encourages our established businesses to stay and grow. That’s an environment where I want to raise my children.

Adam Williams is a small business attorney with Williams & Jorden. In 2016, he helped launch a board game that failed miserably. In 2018, he co-founded the Big Cheese Food truck. He is also a member of Young Erie Professionals. He and his wife have two children.