Developing Entrepreneurial Spirit (Pt.1).

A recent collection of essays on entrepreneurial innovation in developing economies, titled 'Lessons from the Poor', mentions an aspect of Nigerian clothing design. Examining the traditional adire dye industry, author Thompson Ayodele informs that the bottom 19% of entrepreneurs polled for the study earned more than state and federal civil servants.

For the purpose of this essay, the story is significant in more ways than one. First, it is a classic instance of entrepreneurial spirit, describing the transformation of an established Yoruba craft into a venture for wealth creation and employment generation. Second, and perhaps only in between lines, it reflects a measure of the serious …