A Visit From Erik Hanberg

Erik had a broad range of experiences in what seemed to be a relatively short time frame. This experience was likely inevitable in scope and overlapping time frames. What I observed to be the reason behind this is that Erik is driven by a spirit of entrepreneurship, that may even be called serial entrepreneurship. He has a constant and evolving interest that seemed to both help and hurt in ways. It hurt in the sense of a changing focus and evolving goal. But it helped in many other ways for the reasons I will now discuss.

If success were measured in happiness and contentment, I Believe Erik has both, and is therefore successful. His multiple interests seem to flow naturally from a creative-arts stand point. Clearly Erik likes creative works and seems just as eager to encourage and support the same in others. I believe that this is where Erik’s passion for his works comes from. I also believe that Erik would consider all of them successes for this very reason, without consideration of finances. I don’t believe that money is a primary motivator for Erik. But it the creative passion that makes all Erik’s works seem to flow and intertwine in a complimentary way, like a loosely diversified portfolio of interests.

From Erik’s experience at the theatre in learning that he was too close to operations to fulfill his greater purpose, to the podcasts as a potential, small but stable, income and audience generator, the books he published and the manor in which he did, all contributed in practice or effect to his overall success. As an example, the steady income of paid work, as he called “wage work” has its advantages, which Erik used at times. In contrast the seemingly limitless potential earnings from creative works also has a big financial incentive producing higher, but less consistent income. Erik sought to capture this as a complimentary revenue source. He even managed to find a way to use his podcast for income generation, although there is work to be done yet, here. This diversity, the shared experience and the tools shared for modern publishing, advertising and literary resources made Erik a valuable contributor to my knowledge in business. I appreciated Erik’s visit to our class.