What’s Next

Opportunities

Even with all of the above mentioned things we have going for us, and some positive things I have left out for the sake of brevity, we do indeed have a long way to go. Where I think we need a shift in thinking is instead of complaining about this or that not being good enough, we should look at this as an opportunity for us to be leaders and do something about whatever issues we may have with the state of the technology community in Mississippi.

Do Something

If you wake up one day and realize there is not enough community, opportunity or excitement around game development, digital animation, or whatever your technical expertise may be, realize that it may be a tremendous opportunity sitting right in front of you. Go on Meetup.com, Eventbrite, or somewhere and start some type of community, and then actively cultivate your community. You do not need an investor to start something like this. Remember that there will never be a better time than this second.

Starting a community around what you are interested in not only helps others and creates something from nothing, you will also see personal benefit from doing so. If you are a the only game developer in Mississippi and someone needs a game developer, and you are part of a group of people where someone in the group hears about this project, you will be the one they contact, not someone out of state. There are numerous other platforms in which your voice can be heard, including video and blogging. If you have a talent, talk about your talent and consistently share it with the world. Opportunity and business will literally come knocking on your door. Create something. Take action.

Russ Davis, CEO of SchoolStatus talking about how to secure investment

The global economy is shifting towards that of freelancers and consultants, so if you are one of those, or if you are someone looking to start your own company, spearheading a community makes even more sense today than ever. This can be an opportunity for you to get your foot in the door as well as make a name for yourself. If you are in the technology sector, you can rest assured that you will see growth in whatever you are specializing in, almost without exception. The only way to ride this wave of opportunity is to actually have your board out and ready to go.

There is a synergistic and exponential effect when you get a group of like minded and motivated people together. You will learn things you never knew you wanted to learn and things will start to happen that you were not even aware were possible! That has certainly been the case for me.

The World Needs Pickaxes

There is not only opportunity for someone looking to get into technology as a career or start a business, there is also the idea of services offered for people looking to break into the industry. There is a saying in the startup world that “you can mine for gold or you can sell pickaxes”.

Levi Strauss and Samuel Brannan didn’t mine for gold themselves but instead sold supplies to miners — wheelbarrows, tents, jeans, pickaxes etc. Mining for gold was the more glamorous path but actually turned out, in aggregate, to be a worse return on capital and labor than selling supplies. — Chris Dixon

In the future we will look back and realize that this is the gold rush of our time, and we are witnessing something unprecedented. Along with the obvious opportunity laid out in front of us to take part in this directly, there is also the opportunity of products, education, and services that overflow from this surge in interest.

Hackathon at Reimagine Prep Middle School

Build Bridges

As a developer, I have been blown away by the amount of free knowledge I have come across. All of this knowledge was put there by someone who definitely could have used their time more selfishly had they chosen to do so. They didn’t. Instead they have put up tutorials and videos on what they have learned. They have open sourced projects and written and given away valuable code, answered questions on forums, and written detailed blog posts about problems they have overcome and things they have learned, all for the benefit of others. I have met countless people who have volunteered their time to answer questions or talk to me and help me along the way as I have progressed in my career. In the developer community, it is not unheard of for a good developer to charge $200 / hour for their time on a project. In my experience, these same developers will not hesitate to help another developer in need if they have a question, for free and with a smile.

I think that all of us, across all career paths, can learn a lot from this mindset. While most of the people I have interacted with locally are happy and helpful, there are still pockets of the old conservative “Every man for himself” attitude that infect the minds of some Mississippians. The problem with this mindset that it is harmful not only to the community, but it sabotages the person living their life with that attitude as they are cut off from things they do not even know they are cut off from, and will subsequently be left out of this new economy. This mentality prevents the synergistic effect of innovating and bouncing ideas off of people who may know something that they don’t know. I have learned that the more people I have helped and interacted with, the more success and opportunities I have seen come my way.

Local

While we need local leaders in the state to identify the opportunities we have laid out in front of us, and to act on those opportunities, we also need to address the problem of brain drain.

Our problem is not that we do not have smart people here, our problem is that many of them get educated here, and leave for what they see as a better future and more future opportunity. In addition to this, we are not seeing an influx of people moving here to either take the place of the ones leaving or to grow the sector in any significant way. One of the reasons why they either leave or do not come here in the first place that they perceive Mississippi as not having any potential. In this also lies a great opportunity.

Mississippi can be a leader in technology, and move away from the stigma that we share as a state, but we need to work at this. Let’s take a step back and see that in every roadblock lies an even bigger opportunity. Our state is starting from a cleaner slate than those who have already innovated and progressed into something of significance in the world of technology. We can look back and say that we took part in Mississippi becoming a world leader in this space, but it will not happen unless each and every one of us takes ownership and leadership in this endeavor, spreads a positive message, and does so consistently and purposefully. There is a lot to do, but we are not starting from scratch.

Thanks to SchoolStatus, J.C. Hiatt, Harper Maddox, Nathan Mcneil, and Matthew McLaughlin for helping me get these thoughts out of my head and onto paper…