What makes entrepreneurs tick? Creative knowledge, ambition, initiative, trial and error, perseverance, and more. This mini lecture is part of a new series of short, instructional lectures on entrepreneurship.
This lecture is part of the Entrepreneurship and Values series. Other lecturers in the six-part series include Terry Noel, Alexei Marcoux, William Kline, and Robert Salvino.
I spoke on Educating for Entrepreneurship at the Fórum da Libertade in Porto Alegre, Brazil this week. Over 4,500 people attended the two-day conference with many high profile Brazilian business, cultural, and political leaders.
My talk was one of two in a panel on the theme of Education: Obey, Think, or Create? The panel was moderated by Tiago Mattas, and my co-panelist was Claudia Costin, secretary of education for Rio de Janeiro.
‘The sixth panel “Education: Obey, think or create?” Tiago Mattos introduced the speakers, Stephen Hicks and Claudia Costin.
‘Claudia Costin, municipal secretary of education in Rio de Janeiro and university professor at FGV / RJ was the first to speak. She began her presentation by comparing data from previous decades with current education and criticized the functional illiteracy, the public and private education in the country and the automatic approval system used in some public school systems.
‘Then Claudia talked about the importance of building an academic course, which may be accompanied by students and parents. She also stressed the fact that Brazil is a country that says little. “The price of the book is a result of being a country of non-readers,” noted Claudia.
‘Professor of Philosophy and Executive Director of the Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship of Rockford College in Illinois, Stephen Hicks, continued the panel. He began his speech by comparing the situation of education in the United States and Brazil, highlighting the extra-curricular activities, especially sports, from American schools.
‘In addition, Hicks made a critique of how schools tend to standardize the behavior of children. “After a few years in school, children begin to lose the light in their eyes, say they do not like art or science,” he said, and added that he believes in fun as a key element in children’s development: “Children learn about serious things the world when they play,” he said.’
More coverage here, here, here, and more fully here. Video of the event is to be posted soon.
My thanks to Ricardo Gomes, president of the sponsoring Instituto de Estudos Empresariais (IEE), for inviting me to the conference, and to Albert Ling who efficiently helped me with logistics, and my congratulations to the sponsors for an unusually well organized and energetic event.
The latest issue of Kaizen features my interview with physicist R. Paul Drake.
I met with Dr. Drake in Michigan to discuss the realities of professional science — multi-tasking, grant-writing, travel, and learning from failure — the adequacies and inadequacies of American science education, and the likely future of America’s pre-eminent position in world science.
Also featured in this issue of Kaizen [pdf] are student essay contest winners Melinda Schumacher, Darian George, Amanda Hofmaster, and John Polemikos, and visitors Michael Newberry from Los Angeles and John Gillis from New York.
Print copies of Kaizen are in the mail to CEE’s supporters and are available at Rockford College.
I’ll be giving an invited talk at the 25th anniversary of the Liberty Forum, the largest liberty-oriented conference in Latin America. The conference is to be held in Porto Alegre, Brazil on April 16 and 17.
The overall theme of the conference program is 2037: What Brazil will be yours? I’ll be speaking on Education: Obey, Think, or Create?
Posted 1 year, 1 month ago at 9:16 pm. Add a comment
My full interview with Jay Lapeyre is now posted at the Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship’s site. Lapeyre is the CEO of The Laitram Corporation. I met with him in New Orleans to discuss natural disasters and corrupt politics, leadership, and the state of American manufacturing in our global economy. A shorter version of the interview was published last month in Kaizen.
More of my Kaizen interviews with leading entrepreneurs are at my site here or CEE’s site.
Posted 1 year, 2 months ago at 1:35 pm. Add a comment
Four breakthrough trends that will transform the next generation. An energizing talk by Peter Diamondis, founder of the X Prize Foundation and head of Singularity University: computing power and access to it, robotics, artificial life, and personal space travel. Plus how to leverage the unbelievable amounts of untapped human potential out there. (Thanks to R.L. for the link.)
Posted 1 year, 2 months ago at 12:12 pm. 1 comment
I like this section where Hoffman says that each one of us needs to “think about our lives as entrepreneurs, using this playbook as a way five years from now to be in more control of my life, create more value in myself and the world around me, by proactively investing in growing my capabilities and adding more to society. People sometimes think it’s morally wrong to talk about investing in themselves. Absolutely wrong. In a flatter world with more competition, how do you succeed? How do you invest in yourself and gain those skills? You can’t do it accidentally.”
Indeed.
Further into the profile is a good discussion of self-care and other-care, involving Peter Thiel, another philosophy-major-turned-major-Internet-player: “The negative to being an anti-sociopath is you don’t care enough about yourself,” Thiel explains.
Posted 1 year, 2 months ago at 7:55 am. Add a comment
Hurricanes, oil spills, and Louisiana politics — the latest issue of Kaizen features my interview with entrepreneur Jay Lapeyre, CEO of The Laitram Corporation.
I met with Lapeyre in New Orleans to discuss natural disasters and corrupt politics, leadership, and the state of American manufacturing in our global economy.
