Even a street performance can hold business lessons

Travel is a powerful learning tool. But let me begin with the story of two entrepreneurs I met on the streets right next to the Duomo, Milan’s iconic cathedral. These 23-year-old students of physical training and nutrition, Mattia and Samuele started by placing a blaring boombox in the middle of the tourist spot’s crowded paths, pumping out catchy numbers and stopping passersby, mostly by performing acrobatics, break dances and funny set-pieces. And they have to get it right the very first time, because if the first ‘early adopter’ refuses, the next one becomes much harder and this act just doesn’t work without volunteers. The jumper cleared space in the by-now-sizeable crowd for a run-up for this jump, while Samuele instructed the girls to stay still and started rousing the crowd with loud chants and cheers and upping the volume of his boombox.