Innovator Spiros Raftis held up a cross-hatched poster that formed what seemed to be 12… Innovator Spiros Raftis held up a cross-hatched poster that formed what seemed to be 12 squares.

“You have to see the squares in the squares,” he said.

Such creativity was the idea behind the Institute for Entrepreneurial Excellence’s fifth distinguished entrepreneurial lecture event held yesterday, featuring Raftis of the Red Valve equipment company.

“We all look at the same things but the key is to see something different than someone else,” he said.

The event exposed students, as well as the University community, to an innovator who entered a simple industry and took his abilities and changed the industry completely, according to Anne Dugan, assistant dean and executive director of IEE.

“We really just wanted to teach students how businesses start and grow, how hard it is, how long it takes and what it takes to succeed,” Dugan said.

Raftis, who has more than 50 patents in the United States and overseas – mostly in the water and sewage industry – discussed how he believes one can successfully start and sustain a company.

The first step is reviewing your own qualifications. An entrepreneur must have an active imagination and must pursue his ideas – this is what led Raftis to success in the valve equipment industry, he said.

“When I looked at a two inch valve, I actually saw a 24-inch one,” he said, citing the importance of innovation and an open mind.

According to Raftis, 90 percent of start-up businesses fail within the first year, and 45 percent fold after five years.

Raftis associates this high failure rate with too much discretionary spending and lack of persistence.

“If you are sitting in a job you do not like, just get up and leave because the only way to be successful is to have dedication,” he said.

Students attended the event in hopes of learning about entrepreneurial success from Raftis’ personal experiences.

“I really wanted to hear the back-story, especially because he was fired for doing a good job,” Pitt senior Banke Owoeye said, referring to Raftis losing his first job at a pipe manufacturing company.

From such lectures, Raftis hopes to give students some direction – in the way that a mentor had once done for him, ultimately leading him to pursue pipe fabrication.

“When you are young, you don’t know much but you have a lot of avenues to choose from,” he said.

Raftis started his business 55 years ago in a cement shack without the financial means to expand, and today the Red Valve Company has become one of the world’s largest manufacturers and suppliers of pinch valves and the preferred supplier for municipalities and industrial plants worldwide, the company’s website maintains.

Students hope to apply the same drive in their future endeavors.

“I am not only going to read the book he wrote but also apply persistent want to succeed and dedication,” Owoeye said.