Very Short Interview No. 1

I interviewed a very successful entrepreneur and outside-the-box thinker, Leo Murri.  He has taught me about entrepreneurial ways, how to acquire knowledge, and how to follow the path to be successful. He has developed many apps that are on the Apple App Store market and has made a business for himself in coding and programming unique apps that separate him from his competitors. He has about five employees working for him and he makes his money by not following the norm, but rather creating revolutionary apps. I asked him three questions to better understand what makes him different from all of the other entrepreneurs out there. His responses are below:

1. Me: "What does it mean to be an entrepreneur?"

Leo: "Many define entrepreneurship as the act of starting a business, however to me, it applies to a lot more than business. Being an entrepreneur means to follow your higher purpose in life. Just like the sun shines and birds sing, we all have that one thing in life we are supposed to be doing."

2. Me:  "What do you think I should learn in an entrepreneurship course?"

Leo: "In my opinion, a true entrepreneurship course should not be based on learning factual information about business, or even case studies of any sort. The information out there is so vast and complex that it would take years to scratch the surface. So that said, I think a entrepreneurship class should based around problem-solving competitions.  First of all, it is incredibly fun for a creative mind to be challenged in an intellectual competition, which would help drive more students towards the course. Second, entrepreneurship is a competition because at all times, thanks to this beautiful free market capitalistic society we live in, there is someone out there trying to outsmart you. Lastly, problem solving will teach students about the right mindset. These problem solving competitions could be as simple as: you have 6 pieces of paper, some duck tape and straws, build a device that keeps a ping pong ball rolling as long as possible. The solutions to this problem are endless, but some work a lot better than others, which will teach students a great lesson in being an entrepreneur in solving the world's problems."

3. Me:  "What do you wish you had been taught in school before setting out on your own path as an entrepreneur?"

Leo: "Bundling of the previous question: creative problem solving. School does a great job at giving you access to the latest and most accurate information out there in any given filed, however it rarely puts you in a problem solving situation where you have to leverage your array of knowledge to create a truly unique solution to a problem."

Reflection:

After interview Leo about what it means to be an entrepreneur, I found that it may be our school system that is limiting our creative minds in achieving our greatest potential. Instead of teachers telling us we can't do something, we should be succeeding through trial and error. Rome was not built overnight and neither were the majority of the world's greatest products, inventions, or companies. Leo has a very unique take on entrepreneurship in that it is such a vast topic it is tough to build a class around educating current students on what they should be doing. In reality, it seems as though students should actually be "doing," not just talking about doing.