The Venture Cafe
Chapter One
THE ENTREPRENEURIAL MIND
A year ago my husband and I took a train ride through Germany's
Rhine River valley. As I looked out the window at the gorgeous
scenery, I noticed a curious event going on in the seat across from
me. A four-year-old girl had dropped her ticket between the slats of
the train's heating unit, and this carelessness had caused her
mother to become extremely frustrated. The four-year-old was not at
all sorry about dropping her ticket, but the mother was fighting
back tears. She pressed her hand against her forehead and tried to
avoid looking at her daughter.
A cyclist in a nearby seat noticed the woman's duress and removed a
tool kit from his backpack. After a short conference with the woman,
he began to disassemble the heating unit. While the cyclist labored
over the air grate, the four-year-old pouted. "It's not my fault,"
she seemed to say. "I didn't do anything wrong." She made her hands
into fists and kicked the side of the train.
Although the cyclist tried every screwdriver in his tool kit, he
wasn't able to extract the fallen ticket. After fifteen minutes of
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