Here's the latest installment in our series of motivational quotes, personally selected to get your week off to an inspired start.
This week: Ode to a universe ruled by chance, not design. And happy surprises.
"We need more tinkering: Uninhibited, aggressive, proud tinkering. We need to make our own luck. We can be scared and worried about the future, or we can look at it as a collection of happy surprises that lie outside the path of our imagination. "
Nassim Nicholas Taleb, applied statistician and derivatives trader-turned-philosopher/essayist; author of The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable.
A former managing director and worldwide head of financial option arbitrage at CIBC-Wood Gundy, Taleb is described by Wikipedia as "a polymath scholar of randomness and knowledge... As a pioneer of complex financial derivatives, he had as a day job a lengthy senior trading and financial mathematics career in New York City, before he started a second career as a scholar in the epistemology of chance events."
Taleb is the morning keynote speaker tomorrow (May 13) at the Ontario Centres of Excellence conference, Discovery 08.
I certainly agree with Taleb's point that the randomness of success needs to be better understood. As he wrote on Forbes.com last year:
"Things, it turns out, are all too often discovered by accident--but we don't see that when we look at history in our rear-view mirrors. The technologies that run the world today (like the Internet, the computer and the laser) are not used in the way intended by those who invented them. Even academics are starting to realize that a considerable component of medical discovery comes from the fringes, where people find what they are not exactly looking for."
Showing posts with label success. Show all posts
Showing posts with label success. Show all posts
Monday, May 12, 2008
Monday, January 28, 2008
Best-Ever Entrepreneurship Quotes, week 69
To help you get your week off to an inspired start.This week: a best-selling author on the primary paradox of entrepreneurship.
"Failure defeats losers. Failure inspires winners."
Robert T. Kiyosaki, Hawaii-born entrepreneur and author (Rich Dad, Poor Dad)
Robert T. Kiyosaki, Hawaii-born entrepreneur and author (Rich Dad, Poor Dad)
Saturday, April 28, 2007
25 Questions to Ask an Entrepreneur
According to the analytics for this blog, a lot of people (presumably students?) come to this site using search terms such as “questions to ask an entrepreneur.”
So why not give the public what they want?
If you're interviewing an entrepreneur, for school or business, here are 25 key questions (plus a few supplementaries) that you might profitably ask:
How did you get started in this business?
Did you found the company?
Is this your first business? (If not, ask what the others were, and what happened to them.)
Were you exposed to entrepreneurship as a child (say, from family members or friends)?
How did you finance your business? What have been your most effective sources of financing over the years?
What are the revenues of the business? (They may or may not answer this.)
How many employees do you have? Full- or part-time? (This gives you some idea of the company size in case they didn't answer the revenue question.)
What is an average workday like for you?
Who are your customers? What are your most significant products or services?
How has your market changed in the past few years? How has your business changed to keep pace?
How have sales grown in the last few years? (gives you an idea of how successful the business is.)
Is the business profitable? What kind of profit margin does it have? Is that pre-tax or after-tax?
What are the most crucial things you have done to grow your business?
What plans do you have now to expand your business further?
What systems have you used to automate your business to give you more time for business planning and development?
What outsiders have been most important to your business success? (e.g., bankers, accountants, investors, customers, suppliers, mentors, etc.)
Do you have a business plan? A marketing plan? When was it last updated? (gives you some idea of how sophisticated their planning process is)
How do you market your products or services?
What has been your most effective marketing tactic or technique?
What’s the worst business advice you’ve ever received?
What three pieces of advice would you offer entrepreneurs starting out today? (asking for three is a lot, but it forces your subject to dig deeper than just saying , “Just do it,” or “Hire good people.”
How long do you plan to keep operating this business? Do you have an “exit” strategy for getting out of the company?
If you were to start another business, what might it be?
Do you believe business has any obligation to make the world a better place?
How does your business “give back” to the community or to society?
Note to students: Don't try to ask all these questions in one interview. Pick and choose.
Note to teachers: For permission to reprint this list at no charge, please e-mail me at rick (at) rickspence.ca
So why not give the public what they want?
If you're interviewing an entrepreneur, for school or business, here are 25 key questions (plus a few supplementaries) that you might profitably ask:
How did you get started in this business?
Did you found the company?
Is this your first business? (If not, ask what the others were, and what happened to them.)
Were you exposed to entrepreneurship as a child (say, from family members or friends)?
How did you finance your business? What have been your most effective sources of financing over the years?
What are the revenues of the business? (They may or may not answer this.)
How many employees do you have? Full- or part-time? (This gives you some idea of the company size in case they didn't answer the revenue question.)
What is an average workday like for you?
Who are your customers? What are your most significant products or services?
How has your market changed in the past few years? How has your business changed to keep pace?
How have sales grown in the last few years? (gives you an idea of how successful the business is.)
Is the business profitable? What kind of profit margin does it have? Is that pre-tax or after-tax?
What are the most crucial things you have done to grow your business?
What plans do you have now to expand your business further?
What systems have you used to automate your business to give you more time for business planning and development?
What outsiders have been most important to your business success? (e.g., bankers, accountants, investors, customers, suppliers, mentors, etc.)
Do you have a business plan? A marketing plan? When was it last updated? (gives you some idea of how sophisticated their planning process is)
How do you market your products or services?
What has been your most effective marketing tactic or technique?
What’s the worst business advice you’ve ever received?
What three pieces of advice would you offer entrepreneurs starting out today? (asking for three is a lot, but it forces your subject to dig deeper than just saying , “Just do it,” or “Hire good people.”
How long do you plan to keep operating this business? Do you have an “exit” strategy for getting out of the company?
If you were to start another business, what might it be?
Do you believe business has any obligation to make the world a better place?
How does your business “give back” to the community or to society?
(c) Rick Spence, Canadian Entrepreneur 2007
Note to students: Don't try to ask all these questions in one interview. Pick and choose.
Note to teachers: For permission to reprint this list at no charge, please e-mail me at rick (at) rickspence.ca
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Entrepreneurs' biggest problems, solved!
Rail strikes? Street closures? Epidemics? War? There’s no predicting what obstacles fate will put in your way when you're running your own business. All you can do is be prepared for anything.
How do you do that? That’s the theme of a great article I found today on the Wall Street Journal Online.
“Entrepreneurs' Biggest Problems -- And How They Solve Them,” by Paulette Thomas, says you can tell the companies who are able to overcome disasters from those who can't. She says the most robust, adaptable and ultimately successful companies have the following characteristics in common:
A clear strategy. A well-defined plan can keep a ship on course when the winds would otherwise blow it off the map.
Flexibility. Successful entrepreneurs have a plan, full of detail and rich in data. But they are willing to abandon it when the customers don't follow. They cut losses and retool fast.
A realistic view. Some entrepreneurs, enamored of their vision, swallow it whole and lose the dispassionate judgment they must exercise. "They have to be able to strip away the hype and be brutally honest with themselves and their backers," says a University of Chicago business prof.
Ethical behavior. Investors and government regulators are operating on Level Orange vigilance. Bad behavior has a way of catching up with a business.
A robust network. Successful entrepreneurs turn to their Rolodex in times of need. They make it a point to do favors when they can, because they know that their turn to ask for help will come.
Global perspective. International markets may provide solutions to problems that were unthinkable a decade or two ago. Shifting labor across borders or invading new markets can alter the course of a business.
Ability to deal with technology. Evolve or get left behind, says James Bird, a corporate-film producer in Cincinnati. He recently made the switch to high-definition video-production work to set his business apart from his competitors.
Passion. Not much can surpass the single-minded drive of an entrepreneur committed to solving a problem.
Check out the full story here for complete details and examples.
How do you do that? That’s the theme of a great article I found today on the Wall Street Journal Online.
“Entrepreneurs' Biggest Problems -- And How They Solve Them,” by Paulette Thomas, says you can tell the companies who are able to overcome disasters from those who can't. She says the most robust, adaptable and ultimately successful companies have the following characteristics in common:
A clear strategy. A well-defined plan can keep a ship on course when the winds would otherwise blow it off the map.
Flexibility. Successful entrepreneurs have a plan, full of detail and rich in data. But they are willing to abandon it when the customers don't follow. They cut losses and retool fast.
A realistic view. Some entrepreneurs, enamored of their vision, swallow it whole and lose the dispassionate judgment they must exercise. "They have to be able to strip away the hype and be brutally honest with themselves and their backers," says a University of Chicago business prof.
Ethical behavior. Investors and government regulators are operating on Level Orange vigilance. Bad behavior has a way of catching up with a business.
A robust network. Successful entrepreneurs turn to their Rolodex in times of need. They make it a point to do favors when they can, because they know that their turn to ask for help will come.
Global perspective. International markets may provide solutions to problems that were unthinkable a decade or two ago. Shifting labor across borders or invading new markets can alter the course of a business.
Ability to deal with technology. Evolve or get left behind, says James Bird, a corporate-film producer in Cincinnati. He recently made the switch to high-definition video-production work to set his business apart from his competitors.
Passion. Not much can surpass the single-minded drive of an entrepreneur committed to solving a problem.
Check out the full story here for complete details and examples.
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