Lagos street vendors

I have the opportunity to observe Lagos street vendors in action on my daily ride to school. At one round-about which is particularly jammed, dozens of them offer drivers all and any kind of products: ceiling brushes, soft drinks, clocks, CDs, flip-flops, chewing-gum, underwear, posters, soccer team flags (including that of Barça F.C.), magazines, windshield…
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How an increase in minimum wage backfires on the poor

Income inequality has increased in practically every industrialized nation in recent decades. The best measure of that change is the Gini index, named after the Italian statistician Corrado Gini, who designed it in 1912. The index values vary between zero, when everyone has exactly the same income, and 1, when one person has all of…

Africans' communal mentality

In a comment to an earlier post, Patricia Ferrando shared her experience coaching successful Nigerian entrepreneurs. She highlighted their commitment to giving back to society and to contributing to the development of the less privileged. Patricia's comment made me reflect upon Africans' communal mentality. Let me share some examples I have seen while in Lagos.…
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Empowerment Creativity Skills for a Social Entrepreneur

In his wonderful book on Creativity, Lifelong Creativity, Dr. Pradip Khandwalla talks about the concept of Empowerment Creativity. . History of mankind is replete with examples of great men and women who dedicated their lives to uplift the downtrodden and the poor. Social entrepreneurs provide a great example of empowerment creativity. In this post I…
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