The Bill and Gayle Cook Center for Entrepreneurship is celebrating its 15 th year providing tools to those seeking to start or grow their business.
The center held its annual luncheon to celebrate today at Ivy Tech Community College in Bloomington.
Former governor and president of Purdue University Mitch Daniels delivered the keynote address. He spoke on entrepreneurship, innovation, and his lessons learned in business.
One point he made was that there are more ways to fail than succeed.
“Sometimes there are good ideas, whether it’s a new business or it’s a public policy where the idea itself is very, very sound, but people don’t have the will or the perseverance to see it through,” Daniels said. “Eventually you’ve got to decide to persevere in the face of the inevitable criticism.”
The Cook Center for Entrepreneurship provides entrepreneurial tools and resources to students and the local community. It was founded in 2010 and named after Bill Cook, who co-founded the Cook Group with his wife Gayle.
It also offers an entrepreneurship certificate program, for students to either launch a startup or grow their existing business.
Preston Wheelock, owner of Wheelock Heating and Cooling, started his business in 2020. He started at Ivy Tech in the fall of 2023 and graduated the following spring.
“I knew what I was doing. I just didn’t know how to gain the traction to get where I was wanting to go,” Wheelock said. “After graduating from the program, I was able to have enough traction then and know the right people to grow my business. I doubled my business from that year I graduated.”
Now an alum, Wheelock works with those still in the program to help develop their own business ideas.
