The idea came to Agoada just before his senior year at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, which he graduated from last year. The vision is both simple and elegant: green rooftops, not just as gardens, but as urban agriculture hubs for herbs and edible greens, utilizing off-the-shelf hydroponics and aquaponics equipment in greenhouses to grow food to sell for profit within the community.

He saw the community gardens in Chicago and thought that it was fantastic that they were building community by growing food and doing it in the city. So he went back his senior year at Wisconsin and received three credits for doing a feasibility study to see if rooftops could be commercial farming locations, quickly learning that it was possible to generate self reliance and grow a myriad of things in the middle of a Wisconsin winter, when it’s below zero and covered in snow.

That led to a business plan competition, which he won, garnering local press coverage and investor interest.

Amid all this, Agoada remained a reluctant businessman. He studied entrepreneurship in school and learned that he didn’t want to be an entrepreneur.  He was afraid of the gut-wrenching roller coaster .
He eventually took on investors and business partners, based in the Boston area, a continent away from Agoada’s Berkeley, Calif., base. And Sky Vegetables was born.

Now he is not only going green but is encouraging self reliance in communities and changing the face of the modern urban landscape. Sky Vegetables has unlimited potential to feed all of our appetites for creative and conscious capitalism.

Shane Krider- Polaris Media Group

Linda Hollander is a big fan of Estee Lauder who started out doing makeovers at local salons and grew her business into a global cosmetics empire. Lauder’s self reliance was so inspiring that she and her best friend, Sheryl Felice, launched a packaging business called The Bag Ladies, selling custom-printed paper and plastic bags to leading-edge companies. She made every mistake and faced every kind of business hardship imaginable. The girls learned self-reliance and pushed through the roadblocks finally breaking through and picking up huge business. Clients like Disney, Cisco Systems, Mattel, Universal Studios, Nissan, Yamaha, Sony, Revlon and many more besides were drawn to their entrepreneur business because The Bag Ladies is one of the only women-owned packaging firms in the country and the women in charge at the respective companies were attracted to their whole package.

Linda started out worse than broke. She was buried in debt, involved in abusive relationships and couldn’t find a way out of the poverty trap. Now self-reliance has changed her life and October being Women’s Small Business Month, I am sure more women will be hot on their heels.

Shannon Lavenia- Polaris Media Group

Fields and fields of them.

After he convinced the farmers to begin growing, they found themselves with thousands of acres of head high sunflowers. Investments had been raised to the tune of 5 million dollars for the plant, but they had to rethink their entire business model in mid construction. Government biodiesel funding dried up and they decided to focus on the food grade sunflower oil production process.

It was a bold move given the amount of faith the community needed to place in Berman.

He stuck to his vision of a green company and worked at finding a solution to the impending disaster. His self-reliance won out, resulting in a renewable energy source.

He found by converting the biomass (the left over stalks and bits of plant) into a pellet, he could burn it and it would give off a gas. Add to this their solar projects and solar panels, soon they will be able to power their entire operation from completely green components.

Once again, necessity is the mother of invention. Self-reliance and the entrepreneur win out.

Shannon Lavenia- Polaris Media Group

Self-reliance is a great way to beat stress. The human mind is extraordinary. You can think your way out of the doldrums and you can imagine things into reality. When dealing with stress, try out new ways of thinking. When you find yourself starting to worry, try to stop the thoughts. Work on letting go of things you cannot change.

Learn to say “no.” You don’t always have to do everything. Think it through. Prioritise. Ask yourself “Is it important?”
Do what is necessary to succeed and don’t get swept away with unnecessary tasks and projects.

Relying on yourself is an empowering feeling. You’ll find yourself coming out of “the fear” fairly soon after you take charge of the situation. Remember, there is always a solution.

The human spirit is unbeatable and you will get through it, no matter what “it” may be.

So don’t let stress get you down. Self-reliance is yours for the taking.

Shane Krider- Polaris Media Group

I see the correlation between sports and business, but I don’t believe that the world works like a professional sport. It’s closer to playing on the playground with a bunch of kids you know – and maybe some you don’t.

When you’re in a rigid environment like a big corporation, there’s no room for real individuality. It’s like being shoved into a uniform and told to “get the ball no matter what.” On the playground life’s forces come into play. People can try and cheat, the rules are sometimes made up on the spot and people pick whomever they like.

Now that is closer to real life.

In this environment it is the fun of the game and the adventure of the constantly changing imaginations of all involved that make it so special.

Whatever you create in your mind as a kid is absolutely real. Beyond a shadow of a doubt. There are light sabers and aliens in the backyard and a whole army in the field at the bottom of the street. The collective imagination and overall lightness of the effort used in creating these realities is the key to self reliance and the entrepreneurial spirit.

So go out there and have a blast! Anything you can imagine is real.

Shane Krider- Polaris Media Group

Remember what Polonius said in Hamlet? “Keep thy own counsel. And this above all else…to thine own self be true.”

This is timeless advice.  It doesn’t only apply to people going off to University, but generally in life and most especially in business.

Listen to all you hear and then make up your own mind, which to heed and which to turf out like yesterday’s dishwater.

Learn as much as you can and then when the time is right …execute your plans.

Simple? Actually it is.

All you have to do is always be true to yourself, your ideals and principles. It is actually far easier than the not-so-straight way of doing business. While the old adage honesty is the best policy applies, it’s a lot harder to put into practice in the real world. People’s opinions can get in our heads and twist us around so we are actually going backwards.

So the best advice is:  always examine your principles and your gut-feel on something.

We all know what is right and fair inherently, and if you always strive to give your client base a huge abundance in exchange for their hard earned cash, you will be set. And don’t believe people who say it can’t be done. Because it can. Self reliance is a heartbeat away.

“Before taking anyone’s advice, do your due diligence, educate yourself and then do what feels right to you.”

Shannon Lavenia- Polaris Media Group

Well, these are interesting times, aren’t they?

It’s a brave new world –exciting, dynamic and new. But do we have the skills and self confidence to survive in this rapidly changing reality? Things that were the norm even two years ago are now obsolete.

The way people communicate has shifted radically and in turn, how we work and earn money has shifted with it. While some businesses are closing, with people being laid off and struggling to support themselves and their families, others are finding their path to success in these tough times. But you have to know how to succeed.

Australians are adept at making the best of a rum deal. It’s our entrepreneurial spirit – that ‘never say die’ attitude.

The “proudly Australian” campaign in the 90’s proved that we’d support our own. Proudly. (Even if some of those silly swing tags got in the way when we tried on a new t-shirt.)

Now, I am not for one minute suggesting that we put swing tags on our entrepreneurs. That would be sillier than a koala founding a ministry of silly walks.

However, if more people stopped relying on others to take care of them and instead took responsibility for their own lives and their own future, their happiness and most of all their sense of fun…the world would be an undeniably better place.

Now is the time for “thinking outside the box” and all the other buzzwords you can think of. It’s how we deal with the challenges that mark us as men and women. It makes us who we are.

Entrepreneurs are the dreamers in our society. They have the vision and the strength to succeed through adversity.  They have the self reliance to know they’re going to get where they want to be.

And right now, today, more than ever, we need entrepreneurs to dream big and succeed.  Not just here in Australia, but globally.

And the bigger, better, and more competent you are, the better it is for the world. Because when your business or idea succeeds, it makes the world a better place for us all.

Shane Krider – Polaris Media Group