WHEELING — There are plenty of things happening at Marshall University that will allow it to help push the state of West Virginia into a bright future, MU President Brad Smith told an audience in Wheeling on Thursday afternoon. And the concepts born on that Huntington campus can be implemented all over the Mountain State.

Smith, the former president and CEO of Intuit who now serves as Marshall’s president, addressed a crowd of hundreds of the Ohio Valley’s leaders Thursday at the Wheeling Area Chamber of Commerce’s annual Lunch With Leaders program at Wheeling Park’s White Palace. He said there are ideals fostered at Marshall – grit and hard work, nimbleness and a spirit of collaboration – that is helping that university grow. Those ideals, he said, are ones that should be universal when it comes to helping West Virginia grow.

Smith’s address to the audience took the form of a fireside chat, with Marshall Chief Legal Officer and Vice President for Strategic Initiatives and Corporate Relations Toney Stroud offering the questions.

The first ideal Smith mentioned was grit, that nose-to-the-grindstone mentality that allows people to clear hurdles to success.

“I think all of us here in West Virginia know that adversity makes you stronger,” Smith said. “It builds grit. It builds resilience. In fact, there’s a book written by Angela Duckworth called ‘Grit,’ and it says that, of all the things that predict success in life, the number one thing is grit. And God made us out of grit and he made us out of grace here in West Virginia.”

That grit was put into action at Marshall by not ducking the challenge of the enrollment crisis that has hit universities across the country. To help reverse that, the university came up with a plan called “Marshall For All, Marshall Forever,” where by 2037, Smith wants all university students to graduate with zero college debt and a job. The university also focuses on programs where there is a need in the workplace – cybersecurity, healthcare, manufacturing, energy, aviation and entrepreneurship.

Smith and Stroud then mentioned speed and the ability to adapt as fast as necessary. Smith quoted Rudyard Kipling that, in the jungle, it isn’t that the big eat the little; it’s that the fast eat the slow. The pace of change has reached warp speed over the past few years, and success derives from keeping up with that pace.

“We adopted the best practice from Silicon Valley, known as design thinking,” he said. “That’s where you fall in love with the problem. You come up with at least seven different ways to solve it, so you don’t fall in love with your idea. You have to experiment. And then you run rapid experiments, and you double down on the thing that works.”

And when you’re trying to gain speed, anything you can use as a rocket booster is essential, he added. That includes artificial intelligence, a rapidly growing field that has allowed problems to get solved much faster than before. Smith said that, while there might be some concerns about that technology, it must be embraced, as it will help West Virginia maintain the pace of the rest of the world.

“This is going to sound like hyperbole, but I do fundamentally believe it’ll be the most transformative technology since the Gutenberg press, electricity and the World Wide Web,” Smith said.

Technology has been key in another concept Smith has endorsed – welcoming and incentivising remote workers to move to West Virginia. To do so, Smith and his wife Alys helped fund and found Ascend West Virginia, which offers a $12,000 incentive to stay two years, free outdoor recreation for a year, and co-working facilities.

Another key, Smith said, is to not be afraid to work with others, even if they might be considered rivals. Smith said Marshall is currently working with West Virginia University through their respective schools of medicine to help solve the numerous health issues affecting the state. WVU is taking the lead on neurological, heart, cancer and pediatric medicine, while Marshall is taking the lead on addiction, obesity, healthy aging and rural health. So when the West Virginia Legislature disburses funds, it isn’t splitting the pie to have two schools work on the same issue.

“I always kid (WVU President) Gordon Gee that, if you mix blue and yellow together you get green anyhow, so it’s all good,” Smith said.

Smith said he sees that spirit of teamwork now in places like the Ohio Valley, where members of the Wheeling Area Chamber of Commerce collaborate on projects to improve the city, and organizations like the Regional Economic Development Partnership brings together entities locally, regionally and abroad to boost the area’s economy.

With that energy, Smith said, West Virginia can shed stereotypes and emerge as a leader nationwide.

“We have always answered the nation’s call,” he said. “We mined the coal, we forged the steel, we built the roads, we made the automobiles. We fought the wars.

“The nation needs us again,” he added. “This is our time. Let’s do this.”