Dr. Bell: Sense of mission. There is an old phrase that I really use a lot, I have used it for 20 years, but it's a great saying that we all need to start with. That is I don't need a Tennessee Tech University trying to become a Harvard University or Oxford University . That is not the mission of Tennessee Tech University . So there is an old phrase that I will try to quote: “Be what you is, and not what you ain't, because if you ain't what you is, you is what you ain't”. There is a little bit of circular reasoning there, you have to think about it a little bit. But, when we start a mission for our community for perhaps economic development within our community, I think it is very important for us to understand the concept of being what we are, and understanding who we are, and moving from there to something beyond that.

It's also important for us to understand that what we is is probably going to change. It is going to change over time. If you think about the industry in your region, or certainly in our state in the last 30 years, you can sense pretty major changes that took place in that, the introduction of NAFTA in the state certainly changed our manufacturing framework quite a bit. Tobacco, a base for many of our agriculturally based economies, is being threatened at this point, and there is a lot of change going on at this point in agriculture in our state. I would have never believed that we could grow shrimp in the Upper Cumberland ; being from the state of Florida , I thought I knew that shrimp came out of the ocean, but we grow shrimp in the Upper Cumberland in aquatic farming. So, be what you is, and understand who you are, and understand who you are not, and don't try to benchmark or develop a framework to say “we've got to become Chicago , or we've got to become the technology corridor in route 128 in Massachusetts ”. For many of our economies, that's not going to happen, so we've got to ground ourselves in who we are, and move from there.

One other thing, and I will see if you want to argue with me on this one, I know a lot of people who drive using their rear view mirror, a lot of them. I know a few who drive primarily using their rear view mirror. Have you ever tried that? If you are on the curvy roads of the Upper Cumberland that doesn't last long, if you drive using your rear view mirror. But in our economic development strategies, we frequently say we need to rebuild this base, we need to go back to the future, that is, we need to redevelop this manufacturing and textile business that we had in the Upper Cumberland 20 years ago. We need to make sure that tobacco remains strong. All of us need to understand our heritage, and we need to use history, our rear view mirror, in our driving. Most of us use that rear view mirror occasionally, but the rear view mirror is going to cause a wreck if that's all we use. So one of the lessons in planning with leadership and a sense of mission that I think is very important to us is “what you is” is going to change. Understand the rear view mirror, but don't assume that looking at it is the best planning method we have to lead our communities.