Quit, Get Lost and Support the New Economy: Redefining Entrepreneurship

It’s a new economy: slow living, locavores, new entrepreneurs, and community-based practitioners. The idea of what it means to be an entrepreneur and to start and grow a business is changing. According to Claire Wheeler, Vermont-based, MBA in Sustainability Alum from Marlboro Graduate College and Founder of Rework, a consultancy which supports local business owners to do the work they love, says that what our economy needs most is a bunch of quitters; entrepreneurs willing to pursue the change they want to make in the world, even if it means walking away from a cushy job.

“We're taught at a young age to go to work in exchange for the promise of security - a return on the precious investment of our smarts, skills and a whole lot of our time. We are told that if we put in our time now, someday we will retire, relax and enjoy life,” says Wheeler. “I realized that even though I had a good job and was doing good work, I didn’t feel good.”

The defining moment for Wheeler, when she knew she wanted to quit her job and commit to fostering her local economy in Montpelier, was her very first experience in her MBA program. Her professor, Beverly Winterscheid, Founder of Center for Nature and Leadership, instructed the class to hike a mountain, in total silence, in the middle of January. Her goal was for the class to “get lost.”

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Julie is passionate about telling the story of where business meets good. She is the Founder of B Storytelling, a content development company specifically designed to help popularize the good happening through business. They do this by helping Benefit Corporations and other social enterprises identify, build and leverage their brands. Julie has an MBA in Managing for Sustainability from Marlboro Graduate School. She lives in West Palm Beach, Florida with her husband, Thomas.