The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation earlier this week released the latest in its line of animated sketchbook videos. This one features Tim O’Reilly (left), the founder and CEO of O’Reilly Media, which is responsible for MAKE Magazine and Maker Faire, sharing his thoughts on the importance of makers.
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O’Reilly’s remarks, which he made at Maker Faire: Kansas City last June, focus on the role makers play in innovation.
“Often the future of innovation doesn’t begin with entrepreneurs,” he says. “It begins with people who have no idea that there’s ever going to be any money in the space; they just do it because they love it and they’re excited about it.”
O’Reilly points to hobbyists who have unwittingly spawned entire new industries and encourages people to think of themselves as “makers of their own lives.” He says there’s good to be derived from people focused on addressing needs rather than fixated on making money. Oftentimes, he says, money will follow those ideas that address needs.
“If you do something useful, if you do something for love, some good percentage of those things will actually turn into a business,” O’Reilly says. “That’s really the heart of entrepreneurship: wanting to make something happen.”
For more from O’Reilly, check out the video embedded above.
Credits: Video from kauffman.org. Photo of Tim O’Reilly from oreilly.com.