The Entrepreneurial Mindset For A Changing World

The glare of the stage lights caught the quiet determination in her eyes. Genevieve Custer Weeks stood before a full conference room at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, a figure of poise and power, recounting the rejections and medical setbacks that had once felt like the end of everything but were, in fact, the very bedrock of her future.

This wasn't a story about business plans or venture capital. It was a story about ballet. It was a story about survival. The last thing she would have called herself back then, she explained, was an entrepreneur. Yet, the daily grind, the constant push against physical and creative limits, was teaching her everything she would need to know.

“Not everyone wants to be, or should be, an entrepreneur,” she stated, her voice clear and direct in the hushed room.

“But anyone can be entrepreneurial in their work and in their career.” It was the central message of the day, a theme woven through the 2025 Future of Work Symposium. Custer Weeks, who had dreamed of a life as a professional dancer, detailed how that disciplined, often brutal, world had unwittingly prepared her for another.

She sorted the lessons into five buckets, simple containers for complex truths: knowing your ‘why,’ being creative, practicing discipline, cultivating resilience, and acting boldly. She had practiced all of these things at the barre, in auditions, and in the face of failure, never realizing she was building a foundation for the moment the reality of two different leases, two different teams, and two different payrolls would set in.

From her seat, UNO Chancellor Joanne Li watched, a thoughtful expression on her face.

The challenges Custer Weeks described on a personal level mirrored the institutional ones Li now faced. With the entire University of Nebraska system under pressure, the call for an entrepreneurial mindset wasn't just inspiring; it was a mandate for survival. She saw the direct line from a dancer’s resilience to a university’s necessary pivot.

Later, she would step to the podium herself, her tone urgent and unflinching. "This is the perfect time, when higher ed is being beaten down so badly, you will — no, must — do this,” Li urged the assembled faculty, staff, and students. "I want to remind all of us: Circumstances create opportunity, difficulty and challenges create entrepreneurs.”

The symposium wasn't a call to action for everyone to quit their jobs and launch a startup.

It was something far more nuanced and, ultimately, more useful. It was a recognition that the path forward is rarely a straight line. Custer Weeks realized she couldn’t personally open every Tutu School she envisioned, an entrepreneurial insight that forced her to innovate her business model. For the students in the audience, the message was clear: your circuitous path, your side hustles, your artistic pursuits, and even your most painful rejections are not detours from your career.

They are the career itself, building the very skills—creativity, discipline, boldness—that will define success in a world that refuses to stand still.