Driving to my studio every day, I pass a restaurant with a visible rooftop farm right in Chicago’s Edgewater neighborhood. Every time I drive by it I think, “a rooftop farm, what an amazing thing!” When I finally visited Uncommon Ground, I realized there was even more.

Not only is it a successful restaurant with a rooftop farm, but it’s also a live music venue, an art space, and an organic brewery. There are just a lot of interesting things there.

My conversation with Helen Cameron, its founder, quickly revealed the character traits guiding the creation of these unique business elements; visualization, eagerness to try new things, willingness to take calculated risks. All of these traits have enabled them to grow ideas, into amazing things.