As a native of Wisconsin, I should know more about Frank Lloyd Wright. Sure, I watched Ken Burns' film, and I visited the Robie House while I was living in Hyde Park. But I don't know much about the man and his work, except that I love the Robie House chairs and windows.

Today I left work early to go for a fall color drive with my wife and twin sons (age seven). We decided to head for Spring Green, about 25 miles from our home. I wanted to tour Taliesin, Wright's magnificent home. Unfortunately, children under 12 are not allowed on the tour. Even if they were, the tour is $40 per person, which seems a bit steep for us frugal Wisconsinites. So we contented ourselves with a drive-by.

As we took in the beautiful color in Spring Green, I wondered about Wright the man. Perhaps this is a by-product of doing this blog, but I wondered if we might consider him an entrepreneur. Of course, he is usually referred to simply as an architect. Nevertheless, he surely displays the attributes we normally associate with entrepreneurs, including innovation coupled with implementation.

You might be forgiven for wondering why I would care what we call him, but this issue has become salient for me recently because of my participation in a group that is exploring ideas to promulgate entrepreneurial values across the UW campus. I will write more about this in the future, but we are struggling with fairly fundamental questions relating to the viability of our enterprise. Questions such as: What attributes distinguish entrepreneurs from other people? Should anyone outside of the business school care about entrepreneurship? To what extent is wealth creation central to the idea of entrepreneurship?

I would be happy to hear your thoughts.

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