Guest Blogger: Brian Balasia

Brian Balasia is our guest bloggers this week. Brian founded Digerati Solutions, a company that builds electronic medical records for hospitals and private practices, while an aerospace engineering student at U-M. He currently sits on the board of directors for the Detroit Regional Chamber, WIRED, and the U-M Alumni Society.  

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05.10.07
Post No 1

Finding the “they” 

Why don’t they do something with these vacant buildings? Why don’t they have a better cab system downtown? Why don’t they build a mass transit system? Why don’t they make a grocery store downtown? Why can’t they fix the economy? When are they going to create more jobs? When are they going to improve our schools?

As a Detroiter I am asked these questions on a daily basis. I am certain that I can not be alone. I suppose I can understand the questions when they come from out of state. But most inquisitors seem to be local. It doesn’t seem to matter where in the region you live. Almost my entire life I have heard people hunting for answers to the questions that only “they” seem to control. For a long time I have been able to write these questions off, ignoring them and passing them off as generic grievances on our current condition. This was until I noticed that my very own brother (older and much wiser than myself) seemed to be starting his own crusade to blame the “they.” It is for these reasons and for my own piece of mind I have begun to look for “they.” I just want to understand why in the region so many people feel as if their own destiny or plight is under the direct control of the group called “they”. 

As with every great journey of intellectual discovery I had to start by identifying possible root causes for this condition. At first I thought that we might have a lack of visionaries in the community. I considered that we might not have enough intelligent, well-educated people in the community. From the newspaper articles I have been reading I was led to believe we might be a region without any jobs, money, or sustainable economy. Was this the cause? 

As I stared thinking about all of the possible causes I caught myself using “they” to describe the group of people not working hard enough to retain students and innovators in our area. I blamed this group for not trying hard enough to create an environment of innovators and entrepreneurs. Surely if “they” had been doing things correctly our economy would be better and our city more vibrant. With these thoughts I realized that I needed to come up with my own plan to address these issues. I needed to roll up my sleeves and attempt to change the culture and the community of which I am a part. 

With that, my business partners and I embarked on a project to change how the state’s major research universities retain talent and empower innovation. Over the next few posts I will explain the project, how the experiment is progressing, and the lessons I continue to learn about who “they” are, and how we find ourselves in our current predicament.