NEWS

WIRES

OTHER

The Joy of Making Something: Kauffman Foundation's Latest Animated Sketchbook Celebrates the 'Maker' Spirit That Drives Innovation and Entrepreneurship

In a new Kauffman Foundation sketchbook video titled "Make It Happen," Tim O'Reilly, founder and CEO of O'Reilly Media, recalls the launch of Make Magazine and Maker Faire, and says that hobbyists playing with new technologies have often led the way into hotbeds of a new industry.

"I think that self-motivated spirit is what drives entrepreneurs, and we need to have it drive everyone," O'Reilly says. "Because if you do something useful, if you do something for love, some good percentage of those things will actually turn into a business. That's really the heart of entrepreneurship -- wanting to make something happen."

The video pays tribute to the crazy ideas, fun projects and new technologies that people spend time working on with no idea that their pastime could turn into a business. "They're doing it because they love it and because they're excited about it," says O'Reilly.

To view "Make It Happen," visit www.kauffman.org/sketchbook.

About the Kauffman Foundation
The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation is a private nonpartisan foundation that works to harness the power of entrepreneurship and innovation to grow economies and improve human welfare. Through its research and other initiatives, the Kauffman Foundation aims to open young people's eyes to the possibility of entrepreneurship, promote entrepreneurship education, raise awareness of entrepreneurship-friendly policies, and find alternative pathways for the commercialization of new knowledge and technologies. In addition, the Foundation focuses on initiatives in the Kansas City region to advance students' math and science skills, and improve the educational achievement of urban students, including the Ewing Marion Kauffman School, a college preparatory charter school for middle and high school students that opened in 2011. Founded by late entrepreneur and philanthropist Ewing Marion Kauffman, the Foundation is based in Kansas City, Mo. and has approximately $2 billion in assets. For more information, visit www.kauffman.org, and follow the Foundation on www.twitter.com/kauffmanfdn and www.facebook.com/kauffmanfdn.