Smart Business Magazine, January 2016

January 2016 Smart Business Columbus 27 So walk when you can and run when you must From an entrepreneurial perspective we have to do the same thing he says Pick our spots when do we charge ahead with high risk innovative ideas and when do we take a breather and make sure that were covering the bases and growing our business or entity Unexpected innovation At Livestrong Ulman had the privilege of working with people who were naive enough to think they could change the world and audacious enough to try The philosophy was that if they failed they would have only positively impacted the lives of a few million people which isnt so bad he says But sometimes innovation comes unexpectedly Sometimes innovative ideas strike you at first as things that are not possible And you might sort of brush them aside and say Thats a bad idea We shouldnt go down that path Ulman says In 2003 he was sitting in a room brainstorming ideas on how to create something that would inspire millions of people Somebody suggested creating a little yellow rubber wristband and then selling it for 1 The organization could ask people who were supporting loved ones with cancer who cared about cancer research prevention and survivorship to wear it as a symbol of hope There were about eight or nine of us in the room and only one thought it was a good idea he says I was in the seven or eight that thought it was a terrible idea As a cancer survivor I said Nobody is going to wear that Why would somebody put something on that outwardly showed that they were a part of this community Ulman says Measuring impact Remember that the dollars are simply a means they are not in any way shape or form the end Ulman says In the philanthropic world people always ask you How much money did you raise How many donors do you have And while thats one metric the ultimate impact is how many lives did we improve How many lives did we save How many lives did we positively affect in a way that was transformational he says The evolution of Pelotonia Pelotonia started as an event but has become so much more As we think to the future of sustainability weve got a huge challenge he says How do we take what started as an event in one city in one location and grow this to a national or international social movement to eradicate the suffering and death this disease causes Its going to take innovative ideas support and even things like technology and infrastructure Ulman says because for an organization that is 7 years old and has raised more than 100 million there wasnt a lot of time to think about how to scale it In order to create a sustainable organization you need to build your brand into a catalyst and keep communicating the impact you already have to inspire others he says Uniting into a community Ulman grew up in the first planned city in America Columbia Maryland It was built on the values of diversity acceptance inclusion and service he says Its a place that fostered a belief that you can make a difference give back and have an impact on society and your community Ulman says his parents who were inspired to join this community always talked about the stark difference between a community and a crowd They said In a crowd people push and they shove and they elbow and they try to get ahead of the person next to them And in a community people embrace and they smile and they may hug or shake hands and they realize that if we ever want to move forward we have to move forward together he says And Ulman has witnessed time and time again how people can unite including recently when he climbed Mount Kilimanjaro with a group of cancer survivors A group of people no matter how well they know each other with one goal with a unifying mission can achieve anything he says How to reach Pelotonia 614 221 6100 or www pelotonia org