By Gus Glenn and
sawyer hawkes
Geyser Staff Writers

Todd O’Hair is the president/CEO of the Montana Chamber of Commerce. An organization devoted to the promotion of entrepreneurship and business in our Treasure State. He is a Park High Alumnus looking to make a positive change for young entrepreneurs.
O’Hair advises that aspiring entrepreneurs need to be a critical thinker; a real problem solver and they need to think outside the box. Anybody can point out a problem, but it takes a different kind of person to identify the problem and find a solution. They must be willing to take calculated smart risks. They need to be willing to fail because that is the only way they can affect people’s success. You need a healthy dose of patience, because success does happen and not overnight, they need to have belief in themselves. Go to the ones that they admire and look up to never be afraid to ask questions, he advises.
How does entrepreneurship affect O’Hair’s life? “He mentioned that his wife has a catering business and is quite successfull, and his son Paul has an interest in entrepreneurship and is enjoying Marketing and Entrepreneur class with Reid Lende. The way enterprenuership affects him in his daily life comes from the organization he runs. Constantly looking for inivation and advice always.
One of his biggest accomplishments is the empowered class of marketing and enterprenuership. He introduced it to Montana. It had never been done before in the treasure state. 160 teachers are currently teaching the class as of today. It is offered at Park High School by business/CTE teacher Reid Lende. The Chamber of Commerce is the nation’s largest business advocate and promotes businesses such as Northwestern and First Interstate Bank, though it also promotes small businesses. These businesses come to the chamber and help promote the business and economy of Montana. They would like to promote businesses to the next generation.
O’Hair said Montana consistently ranks in the top five for the best states for entrepreneurship. He believes what gives us the edge to stay in the top five is our western spirit of independence as well as living in a rural area, because we must solve problems by ourselves more often than not. Sometimes teamwork is required to get by daily.