How Do You Find ‘Your’ Problem to Solve?
July 19, 2021
Albert Edward Foreman, a humble clergyman who cannot read or write, has spent 16 years in a comfortable position at his local church when we meet him in the opening lines of the short story The Verger by W. Somerset Maugham. But there’s a shakeup in his peaceful world. The parish comes under new management, and Foreman is fired from his job because of his illiteracy. On his walk home, the disheartened former verger accidentally…
Read moreApplying an Entrepreneurial Approach in Our Daily Lives
June 28, 2021
The Ice House program takes its name from an everyday problem facing the residents of Mississippi: summer heat. Today, getting ice is as easy as walking over to the dispenser in our kitchens. In the early 1900s though, customers made frequent trips to their local ice houses to buy ice in 25- or 50-pound blocks. Solving the problem of keeping food cold during sweltering Southern summers didn’t take a degree in rocket science—or much formal…
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The Five Dimensions of an Entrepreneurial Mindset
May 18, 2021
Our brains receive millions of pieces of information every second. That’s why we often fall back on our mental default settings to make sense of the world around us. Imagine how little you would get done every day if you had to rediscover what pants are and how they work every time you got dressed. Our mindset keeps our brain from becoming overwhelmed. We have these sets of interrelated beliefs, assumptions, and knowledge about…
Read moreAn Entrepreneurial Mindset Blossoms Among Cleveland-Area Students
April 15, 2021
When homeowners look for outdoor improvements in Gates Mills, Ohio, they might choose Cutting Edge Landscaping, a company run by student entrepreneurs. A vendor looking for a product video or an athlete who needs a recruiting film might turn to Dunlevy Productions, a company founded by another high schooler. Or a nonprofit like the Cleveland Food Bank or Special Olympics might receive a monetary donation from a student donating proceeds from their business.…
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The Time Is Now, Read Our New White Paper, “Entrepreneurial Mindset Imperative”
April 13, 2021
Download the White Paper Here Im-per-a-tive (Noun): An essential or urgent thing; of vital importance Life today is filled with imperatives. Everything seems urgent and critically important in vying for our attention daily. As such, when we sat down to write our new white paper, we did not decide to call it the Entrepreneurial Mindset Imperative lightly. Between the pandemic, political strife, social strain, and massive changes in education and the workplace, the world…
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Tips for Conveying Your Brand to the World
April 8, 2021
Many years ago, a young boy named Clifton Taulbert had a rare opportunity to go to a circus in Jackson, Mississippi. It was a two-man road trip, just the boy and his relative and mentor, Cleve Mormon. As Taulbert shares in the book Who Owns the Ice House? Eight Life Lessons from an Unlikely Entrepreneur, the two bought their tickets, found their seats near the front of the circus tent, and dug into hot,…
Read moreWhat’s the Secret in the Eight Life Lessons?
March 31, 2021
We often share how the eight life lessons at the core of the Ice House Programs were “distilled” through observing hundreds of entrepreneurs. For some, this calls to mind a magic elixir that only a few special people are privileged enough to sample. Spoiler alert: There is no magic elixir. These eight life lessons flow like water all around us—we just held out the cup and let entrepreneurs fill it up. Choice The ability…
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Solutions Are Entrepreneurs’ True Currency
March 10, 2021
After interviewing hundreds of entrepreneurs, ELI’s Founder, Gary Schoeniger, has found one commonly held assumption that drives their behavior. They assume that by solving problems for others, they can empower themselves. Solving others’ problems is the deceptively simple logic from which all other entrepreneurial attitudes, behaviors, and skills arise. It is also the underlying logic that enables them to recognize opportunities that others overlook. From this perspective, entrepreneurs learn to see problems as opportunities.…
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Spreading the Power of Entrepreneurial Thinking Statewide in North Carolina
March 4, 2021
This piece was written by ELI contributor Sarah Williamson. She is working on interviewing some of our most accomplished partners and facilitators. Daisy Magnus-Aryitey doesn’t love public speaking, but you would never know it from her enthusiastic demeanor when she starts to talk about the importance of an entrepreneurial mindset. Magnus-Aryitey, an Ice House Facilitator, is the program director for the NC IDEA Foundation. The foundation fosters North Carolina’s economic development by supporting the entrepreneurial…
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