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MARQUETTE -- Dave Ollila knows something about entrepreneurship.

The 42-year-old Marquette native has started up seven businesses in the last sixteen years. The first was UP Mountain Biking  in 1996. His best-known start-up was Viosport, which he has since sold, and his current venture is Marquette Backcountry Ski, which is best known for its cross country ski/snowshoe hybrid. He's also an inventor.

"I was always making things when I was a kid," explains Ollila. "I loved Legos, erector sets, and adult tools like hammers and saws. They were like toys to me. I was playing with them for as long as I can remember."

He admits he was not a good student in school. "I never really benefitted from formal education the way it's doled out," he says. "Not everyone learns in the same way. I'm an experiential learner, not a passive learner." In other words, he doesn't care much for lectures; he needs to be hands-on.

"I have a healthy dose of ADHD," he says with a laugh.

Ollila attended a couple of community colleges in California and NMU, but he never graduated. No big loss, he says, because he believes our educational system is outdated. "It's been based on the industrial system and on factories," he explains. "Well, we don't have factories anymore, so there's no jobs, but we still have a factory-based educational system."

The system was an especially bad fit for Ollila. Adults asked him what he was going to be when he grew up. He couldn't tell them. He was asked to choose a major in college. He didn't want to.

"When you have to pick one thing, it takes everything else off the table," he tells you. "But if you're an entrepreneur, you want to eat at the buffet. You want everything."

So he dropped out of school and dove into making things and starting businesses. His interests and hobbies became his vocation. No corporate job for him, no financial security, no 401Ks, no company medical plans. It got a little scary at times, but he has no regrets.

"No way," he says emphatically. "In the last 18 months, I've been in front of the President twice, once here in Marquette and once at the White House. And I'm just a guy from the U.P.!"

The reason for his celebrity? Because he's proven that someone with smarts, ambition, and a willingness to take a risk can succeed in today's economy, and he can do it anywhere. "There's a lot of highs and a lot of lows," he explains. "You take a beating sometimes. Other times you win. But the thing is, you get to decide."

His daughter is already taking her dad's experience to heart. He works at home, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. "She's getting an aducation by osmosis," Ollila says. "Not long ago she told me we needed a mitten-dryer because her mittens were never getting dry. So I told her we could buy one for $20 or we could buy the materials for $100 and make one. That's what she wanted to do. So we bought the materials, she came up with a design, she made it, and it works. And she's seven years old!"

A chip off the old block.

Now, Ollila emphasizes, she--like any other prospective entrepreneur--needs tenacity. "You have to be able to get up and keep going," he says. "The thing is, there are more opportunities for entrepreneurs than ever before. If you're 20 years old and you've got nothing to lose and no family obligations, the biggest mistake you could make is not pursuing your dreams."