Don’t expect people to change

Speaking of New Orleans and its relinquisher model, here's a friend with a very interesting analogy:

 

Just reading one of your investing emails in which you attached some life lessons from famed investor Warren Buffett.  One of them sounds like good advice for ed reformers/relinquishers:

 

2. Don't expect people to change. Berkshire Hathaway owns over 70 businesses. They buy a few more every year. But they only buy ones they won't have to improve (contrary to what happens in acquisitions elsewhere). They've realized how futile is to try to changes others' behavior. We love to paint a rosy picture that things will be better after some special event happens (an acquisition, a marriage, kids, a move, a new job, whatever), but for the most part, how people act is out of our control. Make sure the people you surround yourself with are the right fit from the beginning. [Tweet this Lesson]

"If we thought the success of our investment depended on them taking our advice, we'd move on." – Charlie Munger

 

Evidently, even the great Warren Buffett doesn't think he can turn around businesses, even those that are not saddled by union contracts and decades of mismanagement.  Good thing all these superintendents who have never even run a school are more competent managers than Buffett and anyone he could hire to do a turnaround.