Originally published by Christopher M. Schroeder on LinkedIn: An Entrepreneur in Havana

I suppose if there were a great metaphor for a new day in Havana visit, as I just did, La Galeria Amos.

This stunning photography studio is located in a recently renovated crumbling town house in a changing neighborhood behind the capital building. It is the vision of a two highly regarded photographers that show not only their remarkable documentation of today’s Cuba, but what it means to be leading social entrepreneurs in this changing country.

Free of charge they teach kids from some of the poorest parts of the city to learn how to photograph but much more. They recently took a class to the nearby coast and spent the day picking up discarded plastic trash. The kids learned that they can clean up their community by simply deciding to do so. And in filming some of what they cleaned, that art can be found anywhere and in anything.

The artist/entrepreneurs names are Ramses Batista and Alex Castro. The former is a descendant of the strongman who lead Cuba until New Year’s Day in 1959. The latter is the son of the man who overthrew him.

They studiously discuss their art and students and shun discussion of this remarkable familial connection. But that story is less indicative of the complicated and shifting Cuba than this one:

One of their students is a 12 year old girl who lit up at every element of photography, digging deeply into the technical aspects as much as the filming itself. One day she was studying different lens at the studio and asked how much one would cost. When she heard it was $2,000 or more she visibly, bodily jolted.

The average pay in this socialist country is $20 a month.

A few days later there was a gathering of her class that was filmed for Cuban television. Each kid was asked if they wanted to be photographers, and each said yes until they came to this girl. She adamantly barked “no!”

People were worried what had gone wrong, and one journalist asked, “Well what would you like to be?”

And she didn’t skip a beat: “I want to sell lens.”

If there was one word used most often to describe Cubans during my visit it was “entrepreneurial spirit.” If socialist constraints cap salaries and incentives to build and scale enterprises, it seemed everyone had their own way to sell goods and services to enhance their income and create better futures.

Some of these were simple side hacks like the hard working tobacco rollers in the cigar factories who were allowed a few cigars a week they could smoke or resell. Some run a series of highly creative and popular restaurants that are growing rapidly with rising tourists. My favorite was an entrepreneurs’ entrepreneur who refurbishes 1950’s Chevys — still one of the most regularly viewed vehicles swarming the streets of Havana — into a rapidly rising fleet of taxis. He knows every cost and pricing possibility, understands every aspect of his inventory, and knows how to manage and inspire drivers. Seemingly impossibly, we saw wonderful homes posted on AirBnB.

I say impossibly because unlike most rising markets I visit, mobile and smart phone penetration is surprisingly low and access to data difficult to attain. The costs of access seem cheap to western standards until one remembers they can represent 20% of income. And data access relies on an antiquated card payment system requiring the re-entering of codes and passwords repeatedly.

So the tech startup ecosystem is all but non existent. And for a country that legitimately prides itself in universal education, good health care and excellent doctors, too often the best of the talent in the skills of the 21st century pick up and leave.

Entrepreneurial spirit is inspiring and foundational but alone does not unleash the massive economic and societal impact of entrepreneurs I am seeing around the world. It takes a real commitment not only in rule of law but in culture to embrace this potential. And it takes time. But, as we’ve seen over the last 50 years, its ramifications on bettering human lives could not be greater.

That unleashing the passion, gumption and creativity of individuals and a commitment to better, more just society overall are opposed reflects a mind set of the 20th century. Look at the significant drop in mortality, poverty, hunger and crime rates across much of South East Asia and the drive and innovation unleashed there for some provocative lessons.

I am hopeful for this beautiful country of warm, talented, educated and entrepreneurial people. I celebrate, and am thus most hopeful of all by, the remarkable new generation looking at their worlds afresh here as they are everywhere I travel.

Put gasoline on the fire of passion that is that 12 year old aspiring photography entrepreneur, give her and thousands like her the tools to do the job, and the future is bright indeed. Allow her drive and energy to lay fallow, and I’ll look forward to investing in her company in the States in a few years.