OTA Spotlight: Corey Vilhauer

The folks over at OTA interviewed me for their OTA Spotlight column, so if you want to learn more about my kids and read answers that include the words “pretty great” and “pretty smart,” this is required reading.

Who is the most community-focused person in your life, and how do they impact their communities?

It’s not a person, but an organization: we take for granted what a wonderful resource the public library system is, and we don’t use it to the extent that we could. Siouxland Libraries provide: information, inspiration, imagination, technical resources, space, research assistants, distractions — all for free. To many, they are a wildly important resource for making positive change happen. To my kids, it is like magic.

What’s the best way to put inspiration into action?

I’m too realistic to think that inspiration always needs to be put into action, so my first suggestion would be to determine whether that inspiration has legs. We tend to chase after every fleeting bit of inspiration, but the real challenge is knowing when to act and when to let go.

Hell, if I pushed after every wild idea that came to mind, I wouldn’t have time for the things that actually inspire me.

Thanks to Angela and Abby at OTA for making me look better than I probably deserve to look.