Kevin Turner, Chief Operating Officer at Microsoft Corporation, recently said during a speech to 20,000  employees: “Great people are attracted by great challenges.” I thought about this in terms of our “chicken or egg” challenge here in West Virginia.

Typically, the conventional thinking is that until we have companies offering jobs here in the state, young people will not be able to stay or move to West Virginia. Thousands upon thousands of people, young and old, have migrated out of the state to North Carolina, Ohio and Virginia following good-paying job opportunities.

Yet we’re also told that fast-growth New Economy companies do not want to locate in places where there isn’t a large base of highly-educated knowledge workers. Considering the fact that we are 51st in the percentage of citizens with a college degree, it seems to be a conundrum.

But if Kevin Turner is correct, perhaps our pitch to young people shouldn’t be “this is where the jobs are.” Perhaps it should be, “this is where the big challenges are”, or, “This is where an opportunity to make a difference is.”

In the New Economy, our welcome sign should say “creators welcome.” A significant portion  of the Creative Community is made up of people who don’t necessarily come for a job, but to create a new opportunity for themselves or others. Whether they are artists or entrepreneurs, the very challenge and act of creating is what they are attracted to. Think: “West Virginia – A Place to Create.” 

By really emphasizing this twist in economic development strategy, we would be jumping onto a trend that is developing in which Creative Class members are in fact re-defining their life by moving to the place where they feel they can make a life, as opposed to following a job. This is documented very nicely in this recent New York Times article (free registration required).

We need high-powered, entrepreneurial talent in this state very badly. It may not be as simple as throwing open our welcome mat and challenging them to create here without some other good reasons to do so, but it wouldn’t be a bad place to start either.