Something Out of Nothing: The Creative Spark of Founders and Makers

Today carried a very unexpected moment of inspiration. I had the real pleasure of attending the Spring Showcase for the Oregon Innovation Challenge (OIC) at the University of Oregon. My wife Kathleen works at UO’s Lundquist College of Business and is the faculty advisor to the Oregon Entrepreneurship Group (OEG). She wanted to support her students and attend the Spring Showcase event for the OIC and asked me to go with her. 

Its website describes OIC as follows:  “OIC is a 12-week program designed to support student-led projects and ventures. It’s a community where UO students, regardless of major or experience, can develop their ideas into tangible products or services. The program provides mentorship, a supportive environment, and the opportunity to pitch for fundingThe essence of this culminating event for the OIC was to showcase the 30 new products, services and businesses developed this year by students of all levels and disciplines.” 

This Spring Showcase event is the culminating event of the whole program, when the 30 funding recipients present their ideas to the whole community. Founder mindset is very powerful. And being around that energy today and talking with the students after their presentations and listening to their stories and their ideas, it was electric.

“That’s the magic. Making something out of nothing.” 

This is was what my friend Jake Weatherly—next year’s UO Center for Entrepreneurship’s Entrepreneur in Residence—said in his remarks at the event. These students are truly getting a taste of the magic of what it means to come up with an idea, refine it, and then launch it and become a founder. 

It’s my belief that many of us have the creator or founder gene in our DNA. But how does that “founder gene” get expressed? What makes someone passionate and fearless to build a business from the ground up? All of these students looked so young to me. Where did that energy come from? 

I believe that the source of this energy is in the deep need we have as humans to tell a story that makes meaning out of the chaos of life. These ventures become an opportunity to create order and they provide a structure for our life’s mission. In our 20s we face the great wide open task of making a life. And we want to feel like we are going to have a strong mission that will bring a sense of purpose and autonomy. 

Talking to the students after their presentations, it was clear—they all had a tone in their voice and a look on their face that revealed a true drive and intensity that they wanted to create something of their own. Especially in 2025, when social media makes the marketplace feel congested and unforgiving; a far cry from a hospitable environment for the creative energy these kids showed today.

Some ideas presented today were so massive that they stopped me in my tracks. One PhD student has discovered a new membrane needed for new climate tech systems testing; essentially it could be a modern day equivalent to the microchip that was the tech breakthrough for computers back in the 80s.

But there was such a beautiful range of passions, from an authentic flour tortilla business, to an online NIL training course and community, apps, an Asian sauce company, to a bookkeeping service, to a commercial filtration system to improve the taste of beverages.  I was so impressed by the innovation of these ideas and the scale that they could reach. 

The takeaway for me was a huge dose of inspiration and a reminder that the energy of creativity and making something out of nothing is alive and well. When we tap into this energy at events like the OIC Spring Showcase, it is infectious. Today was a great reminder that when we push ourselves out of our comfort zones and embrace the challenge of founding a new venture, the potential rewards are immense. But the key to it all is risk. 

We have to face failure, disappointment, embarrassment and risk our personal pride and ego. We confront the challenge of the task itself, but we have to wrestle with the deeper challenge of self-trust and the core vulnerability we face as humans. As we get older we lose some of that fearless ambition. Watching these students embrace this challenge was a powerful moment that I won’t soon forget. 

Meditation: What idea have you had recently that carried this creative spark? On a 10 count take a moment to tap into that energy of creativity and the magic of making something out of nothing. Lean into this and take a moment to see if this energy is stuck or flowing freely. By simply bringing awareness to this, it will reveal insights that will pay dividends. 

Have a great week.