Sunday, January 20, 2008

Enterprise (Square) is dead


Recently, I was updating the List of Stuff I Want to Do with My Life, an idea I stole from John Goddard. As my updates center around showing my 3 boys things around the country, I went searching for Enterprise Square, a museum befitting one of the most conservative states in the nation. To my dismay, the Oklahoma Ciy museum shut its doors in 2002, probably more due to mismanagement than to the 2001 economic downturn.

And what a shame. I visited the museum only once, but anything that starts off with a hall of dead animatronic presidents sticks in your head. There were a number of video games centered around traditional kid entrepreneurship - how much money to charge for mowing lawns or a cup of lemonade, given the costs. Alas, the experience exposed my lack of business saavy that firmly tethered me to a career of working for the Man.

The pinnacle of my failure at free enterprise was the final challenge - as CEO of a car company in postwar America. Not realizing that my expenses had to be divvied up across several areas of the business, I sunk my entire budget into advertising. I didn't have a product to sell, but my company sure made some entertaining commercials. We held on until 1948.

2 comments:

Jeffrey Hill said...

If I recall, that museum was on the OCCCCCCC campus. I wonder if it was self-supporting or whether it received funding from the city or the school? Anyway, looks like now you'll just have to take your kids to the Experimental Prototype City Of Tomorrow.

Dude said...

I think it received money from the school, which may explain why it dried up in less than 20 years' time. I'm sure they could set up a foundation with the assistance of the Gaylord family and Sonic.

It's a shame, really, because I think the country could really use one.