In “The Man of La Mancha,” Don Quixote, the idealistic patriarch of the victims of the Spanish Inquisition, inspires as he extols the benefits of dreaming the impossible. Life does imitate art, and big dreams often rouse great feats that reap benefits enjoyed far beyond the circle of visionaries and dreamers. Risk-takers embark on a quest to realize their dreams, but the ones who do not implement well often see their dreams face the same fate as Don Quixote, who died early at the hands of the authority figures of his time.

In the world of innovation, implementation reveals the efficacy of impossible dreams. Without the perseverance to think critically, experiment and execute to realize a dream, a vision — as they say in Silicon Valley — is mere “vaporware.” Innovation hubs, as President Obama celebrated in a recent speech in North Carolina, are emerging as places where visionaries gather to dream, prove concepts, birth products, and launch manufacturing enterprises.

The California Innovative Hub initiative was crafted in Palm Springs several years ago, and today the Coachella Valley iHub is incubating 20 start-up companies creating high-tech products from branded social messaging to storage solutions for renewable energy.

It is one of 16 innovation hubs in California and first to add an Accelerator Campus to its iHub network.

The CViHub first nurtures and assesses the entrepreneurs’ dreams to the threshold of reality, and then mitigates the risks of entrepreneurship through the implementation stage of operating a business at the Accelerator Campus.

The question of the next decade may be this: Can innovation hubs lead the United States out of the Great Recession and toward a sustainable future where the American dream can again become reality for most of our citizens? Early results of the CViHub indicate the answer is yes.

The kind of creativity that drives innovation and entrepreneurship may be widely praised and desired, but, in reality, creative solutions often meet with resistance and open hostility. Apple’s Steve Jobs and other highly successful entrepreneurs are known for anti-social behavior, acting as though rules did not apply to them. Whether we like it or not, creativity correlates directly to nonconformity, and the success of innovation hubs will depend on recognizing, attracting and nurturing nonconformity.

A 2010 Kauffman Foundation study by Tim Kane concluded that “all net job growth in America comes from start-up companies.”

The CViHub surrounds its start-up companies with professional mentors and a workforce development program aligned with needs of the jobs being created. It is also Spartan in its surroundings to keep the entrepreneurs hungry and humble — a way to encourage the start-ups to work hard to graduate to the real world, creating wealth and much-needed jobs for the local economy.

President Obama is on the right track to embrace innovation hubs as a path to a sustainable future. When implemented in an exemplary manner, innovation hubs can be the birthplace of the jobs of the future where the American spirit of entrepreneurship is revived.

It is this spirit that can resurrect a time when each generation can once again expect to be better than the previous generation making the old American dream the new reality.

Innovation hubs — whether deliberate creations of the public, public-private partnerships, for-profit entities or even random gatherings of creative people with ambition — have the greatest potential to return the U.S. economy to one that continuously expands the middle class on the sustainable basis of desirable products built by people with valuable skills. To do that, innovation hubs must be more than places where people think outside of the proverbial box. To really elevate this country’s relevance on the world stage, innovation hubs will have to be places where people are inspired to live outside the box, to dream, invent and to build the impossible dream.

IL STAFF for www.theindianalawyer.com

In 2013, Indiana Lawyer kicked off its series “Legal Lions” as a way to highlight attorneys who have had long and distinguished careers spanning half a century, or in Alexis “Alex” Thomas Cholis’ case, more than 70 years. Cholis was admitted to the bar in July 1942 and decided in 2013 that it was finally time to retire at the age of 96.

For more than 60 years, he came to the office his older brother Nicholas founded in South Bend in 1936. Before joining that firm, he served in the Army during World War II. He likely would have continued practicing beyond 2013 if it wasn’t for his eyesight becoming worse.

Cholis practiced in tax and estate matters. Those who knew and worked with Cholis described him as a gentleman and unique character, in addition to being a lot of fun.

Until his retirement, Cholis was the longest-practicing attorney in Indiana by six years, according to the Roll of Attorneys. The No. 2 spot is held by Philip “Skip” Kappes, who is going on 66 years of practice in 2014. Upon graduating from law school in 1948, Kappes worked for Indianapolis Legal Aid Society before going into private practice, eventually forming the firm Dutton Kappes and Overman. After its dissolution, Kappes founded Lewis & Kappes P.C., where he continues to practice a few days a week.

Don’t think it’s just men who dedicated their lives to the practice of law. Phyllis Gratz Poff, a solo practitioner in Auburn, has been a lawyer for 60 years. She’s the longest-practicing female attorney in the state based on Roll of Attorney records. Poff was admitted to the bar in December 1953 and opened her office in February 1954. Those who know her and work with her say she is compassionate, generous and a very skilled lawyer. She concentrates her practice on family law and some estate work and says she has no plans of retiring.

 

ObamaCare will push 2 million workers out of labor market: CBO – ObamaCare will push the equivalent of about 2 million workers out of the labor market by 2017 as employees decide either to work fewer hours or drop out of the job market altogether, according to estimates released Tuesday by the Congressional Budget Office. The CBO said the number of workers dropping out of the labor force will grow from 2 million in 2017 to 2.5 million by 2024. (Washington Times; 2/4/14)

ObamaCare and the incentive to work - The Congressional Budget Office issued a sobering report this week that projected how many people will choose to work less because of the effects of the Affordable Care Act. CBO predicts that the health care law will shrink the number of hours worked by the equivalent of 2 million full-time jobs. That’s about twice the impact that CBO predicted in 2010, when the law was signed. (Chicago Tribune; 2/6/14)

HealthCare.gov can’t handle appeals of enrollment errors - Tens of thousands of people who discovered that HealthCare.gov made mistakes as they were signing up for a health plan are confronting a new roadblock: The government cannot yet fix the errors. Roughly 22,000 Americans have filed appeals with the government to try to get mistakes corrected, according to internal government data obtained by The Washington Post. They contend that the computer system for the new federal online marketplace charged them too much for health insurance, steered them into the wrong insurance program or denied them coverage entirely.(The Washington Post; 2/2/14)

ObamaCare enrollees hit snags at doctor’s offices – After overcoming website glitches and long waits to get ObamaCare, some patients are now running into frustrating new roadblocks at the doctor’s office. A month into the most sweeping changes to healthcare in half a century, people are having trouble finding doctors at all, getting faulty information on which ones are covered and receiving little help from insurers swamped by new business. (Los Angeles Times; 2/4/14)

 

Small Business Health-Care Premiums Have Nearly Doubled Since 2009 - At the end of last year, the National Small Business Association polled 780 business owners with fewer than 500 workers for its annual health-care survey. Here are two important takeaways. (Bloomberg Businessweek; 2/6/14)

ObamaCare will reduce incomes of most Americans – There’s no doubt the Affordable Care Act will redistribute wealth in America. People at the top of the income ladder will pay more; people at the bottom will benefit. But how, exactly, will that work. A new study finds that ObamaCare’s redistribution will be stunningly lopsided. (Washington Examiner; 2/3/14)

Poll: 51% disapprove of ObamaCare – A majority of Americans still disapprove of ObamaCare, according to a new poll. In a Gallup Poll, released Tuesday, 51 percent of Americans said they disapprove of the Affordable Care Act and 41 percent say they approve of the law. (Politico; 2/4/14)