Entrepreneur Thinking: What It Is, What It Ain't

My superintendent in the East Village apartment I rent would like me to believe that his solution for the cracks around the somewhat faulty plumbing in my bathroom ceiling and wall is entrepreneurial in its deployment and conceptualization. It most certainly is not. It is not Entrepreneur Thinking to “patch” water permeable cracks with duct tape and then paint over them with a layer of white latex. It’s not Entrepreneur Thinking because eventually the water builds up to a point that reveals to us this morning a pool of water, a dirty toilet and the beginnings of what look like mushrooms growing out of where the pipe connects to the wall. Try again. Entrepreneur Thinking is what Dr. Mark Weaver and Kristy Hebert are doing in New Orleans. They are literally putting efforts into redesigning the way principals do their jobs in a range of schools that run the gamut from public bricks and mortar to charters. How entrepreneurial is this thinking? They are coming up with ways to get students to open up cyber cafes in schools so that they can create services for the community. They will start with offering online virtual education resources to the parents of the students. If that plan is successful, then they will offer that service to the rest of the community. Wonderful. School as a community resource and a hub for economic development. Can’t get better than that. And it uses less tape.