Success Breeds Success
Welcome to MeetCleveland. My name is Aaron Sakowski. The topic of this site - the healthy economy of Cleveland, Ohio - is very important to me. For years I have felt helpless to influence the direction of the City. I have watched as Cleveland squandered away it’s economic and intellectual advantages. I have witnessed and been a part of the “brain drain”. I chose, because of limited options in Cleveland, to leave the City and move to Palo Alto, CA. I feel that I can do more for Cleveland by seeing how a healthy region operates than I can by continuing the downward trend that we have seen in the city for the last few years.
Since the ’70s, Cleveland’s population, job growth, and income levels have all failed to keep up with national averages. In fact, in the ’90s, Greater Cleveland’s population grew by only 1.8%. That is compared to a national average of 10.5%. Much of that difference is attrition - young people like me moving to growing regions to have access to better career opportunities.
The distress in the economy is hard to ignore these days. When I am visiting Cleveland I see for sale signs every few houses. There has been a recent upturn in crime. Cleveland has gained national attention as nation’s leader in poverty (though we recently yielded that title to Detroit). It is a city on the verge of desperation, with much of the population waiting for the other shoe to drop and things to really get bad.
I remind you of this not because I am a pessimist or because I am beyond hope, but because I want to be realistic about what we are up against. Now is not the time to examine ways to make the city hip to attract workers. Attracting workers is not the problem. Cleveland has one of the best standards of living in the country. I know from experience. Living on the west coast one has to constantly fight for space. It is very competitive to find a good place to live and bidding wars keep sending prices higher. The places that are being bid upon are smaller and more cramped than anything I lived in in Cleveland, and yet the prices are 5 times higher. Cleveland also has an excellent and active arts scene and my times home are kept very busy enjoying all Cleveland has to offer.
Now is the time to figure out ways to generate jobs. I’m not talking about manufacturing jobs. These jobs have anchored Cleveland’s economy for years, but the current crop of bright young university graduates aren’t going to stay in Cleveland because of it’s manufacturing prowess. Now is the time to create new, creative, high tech business opportunities. Now is the time to shed the old way of thinking - that a career is built by finding a company and serving them faithfully for 30 years until retirement. Now is the time to embrace the future. New startups, battling each other for a piece of the pie. Yes, some will go bankrupt. But this is part of the game. Bankruptcy is not a sign of failure, but a learning experience, a time to pick up the pieces of what was probably a very good idea, reassemble them into a better business plan, and try again.
I cannot emphasize enough the attitude shift that must take place for Cleveland to survive. Cleveland needs to step into the 21st century in a big way. In Cleveland Heights, I see a ton of new construction. Condos, condos, condos. No plans to build business space, to encourage young engineers and finance people to get together and come up with the next big ideas. Just condos. If condos is our best idea to date, we are definitely in trouble. Build places for people to work and collaborate. Provide funding for startups. Allow failure. In fact, get used to failure. It is always the flip side of success. But embracing failure will allow us to embrace success, and this will drive more success. And soon, success will be the norm, not the exception.
I believe in Cleveland. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t waste my time writing these pieces. But I am trying to be realistic. I think there is very little I can do alone, but I hope to be a spark. I hope I can get some other young people thinking about new ways they can be “the next big thing”. Because success breeds success.