Jim Kastama

Let’s start with little bit of his background. He was a Senator in the Washington State Senate representing the Democratic Party. He chaired the Senate Economic Development, Trade and Innovation Committee, and participated on the Higher Education & Workforce Development and Transportation Committees. He represented since 1996 until 2012 was first elected to the Senate in 2000 after two terms in the House of Representatives.

Currently, Kastama is a part-time faculty member at the community college and university level where he teaches classes in Organizational Assessment, Strategic Planning, and Managing in a Political and Legislative Environment. He is also an examiner for the Washington State Quality Awards.

 Coming to the guest lecture, He mentioned he loved traveling when he was younger. He enjoyed going on bike tours and then travelling the world when older. His history of craving independence that put him in all kinds of industries and fields.  He described travel is directly related to growth in his case. When talking about entrepreneurship he gave an advice to build a solid base of clients and then venture on new ideas or business ideas.

Next he mentioned networking is one other tool to for growth. You can have the best idea but if you don’t go out and sell it is not worth much.  You need to reach your market and you have to talk to multiple people and fail sometimes and succeed sometimes. Network and building relationships are important because “you are not an old western cowboy who can do all by yourself”.

In the end, he gave us these pieces of Advice:

·        Tough must be part of character

·        Need to be agile/adaptive

·        Willing to invest in others and self

·        Partners are gold.

·        Need good support system (not a science)