Everywhere you turn these days you see ‘entrepreneurs’, whether it’s the kid on the corner with a lemonade stand, the owner of the new cupcake shop or Mark Zuckerberg—they are all entrepreneurs.
Entrepreneurs aren’t a new phenomenon, some five centuries ago Niccolo Machiavelli offered a definition that still holds true, “Entrepreneurs are simply those who understand that there is little difference between obstacle and opportunity and are able to turn both to their advantage.”
Victoria Claflin Woodhull put it a bit differently, “Entrepreneurs are risk takers, willing to roll the dice with their money or reputations on the line in support of an idea or enterprise.”
Roy Ash offers a shorter, pithier description, “An entrepreneur tends to bite off a little more than he can chew hoping he’ll quickly learn how to chew it.”
Ted Turner, a successful entrepreneur himself, offers a slightly cynical take on the current love affair with entrepreneurs, “My son is now an “entrepreneur.” That’s what you’re called when you don’t have a job.”
Pete du Pont points out something of which many people aren’t aware, i.e., the entrepreneurial path is rarely straight line, “That’s the way it is with entrepreneurial people. You try one thing, it doesn’t work, you try another.”
Nolan Bushnell doesn’t mince words in stating the most important entrepreneurial trait, “The critical ingredient is getting off your butt and doing something. It’s as simple as that. A lot of people have ideas, but there are few who decide to do something about them now. Not tomorrow. Not next week. But today. The true entrepreneur is a doer, not a dreamer.”
Most people enjoy stories about accidental entrepreneurs, but few realize that Richard Branson is one of them, “I wanted to be an editor or a journalist, I wasn’t really interested in being an entrepreneur, but I soon found I had to become an entrepreneur in order to keep my magazine going.”
That’s all for today; be sure to join me tomorrow to hear about a universal truth that might surprise you.
There are many recommended behaviors that most of us follow, but to which we give little thought. They are accepted as common wisdom, but are they? Today’s links are to articles that question that “common wisdom,” but before you dump them give thought to whether you should and how you would implement the changes.
Politeness is something we are raised with; even in these days of total candor people often tend to wrap criticism and other critical communication in a blanket of politeness—but is that good?
Politeness can become problematic, however, when it causes us to sacrifice clarity. … Even worse, say the authors, it takes more of our cognitive resources to process these kinds of polite statements.
Along the same lines, but far blunter, is this advice that says you should criticize in public, across the whole company, to avoid repetition by others and to ‘toughen’ your employees. My own reaction is that very few companies have the culture or managers the skill to do this effectively.
“When somebody does something wrong, you correct him or her individually and then one person learns that lesson. Or you can send an email to the whole company and the whole company learns that lesson. …to survive in that environment, you have to develop a soft shell but a very hard core. You have to be able to take those hits…If you make it through, you’re unbelievably strong.”
More contrary advice comes from research into envy, showing that it actually has positive effects, with one negative that is very new. (I wrote about ego depletion here.)
They were apparently victims of what psychologists call “ego depletion,” a state of mental fatigue originally documented in people whose energy was depleted by performing acts of self-control. Now it looks as if envy depletes that same resource.
Finally, a note about the importance of showers in creative thinking and why you need to create spaces in your day for the “creative pause” that a shower represents.
There’s something about showering that tends to spawn new ideas which may not occur otherwise. …a model for the “creative pause” — the shift from being fully engaged in a creative activity to being passively engaged, or the shift to being disengaged altogether.
A Friday series exploring Startups and the people who make them go. Read allIf the Shoe Fits posts here
Do clichés annoy you? There’s a good reason some of the tired, old clichés stay around—namely, they work. They say what needs to be said in a way that isn’t left open to interpretation, like ‘walk your talk’ as opposed to ‘authenticity’.
I was reminded of this after listening recently to an entrepreneur.
Here are the salient points of the conversation,
he had built a culture based on fairness, trust and authenticity;
he worked hard to hire the smartest people available;
salary and stock options were based on necessity, i.e., he did what he had to do to land the best candidates.
I asked him what would happen when people learned of the discrepancies between their package and a peer’s; that the approach seemed to fly in the face of his “fairness, trust and authenticity” statements.
He replied that
people trusted him to do what was best for the company;
he was fair to each person based on their individual expectations;
any effort to implement a uniform compensation (salary and/or stock) policy would hobble his ability to hire stars; and
it was a non-event because nobody knew anyone else’s package.
I have to admit, the naiveté of his final point cracked me up (I managed to control my hilarity).
Basically, he seems to believe that fairness, trust and authenticity have flexible meanings and that expediency trumps them all.
What do you believe?
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I’m a renew (just fixed my office chair instead of replacing it), reuse (I love garage sales) and recycle (I save stuff that should be recyclable, but isn’t, until it is) nut and have driven a few friends nuts with my recycling “encouragement.”
So it’s no surprise that Tom Szaky, founder/CEO of TerraCycle is my hero and on several levels.
First, because where the rest of the planet saw garbage Tom saw potential profit.
Second, because he turned down a million dollar early stage investment, because it meant going against his/his company’s values.
Third, because his faith held and he didn’t take no for an answer.
Started in 2001, TerraCycle is the tortoise to the multiplicity of Net hares like Groupon, but in years to come it will be TerraCycle’s global reach that will truly change the world.
River economies (above) have materials, energy, and value run through communities, leaving little value behind. Lake economies (below) pool resources and value locally for longer lingering value and impact.
Join me tomorrow and meet the entrepreneur at the forefront of lake formation.
Eighty percent of respondents who reported a good employee-supervisor relationship claim that the most important thing a boss can do to create a positive working relationship is to both solicit and value their input.
Among respondents who claimed to have a poor relationship with their boss, 42 percent stated that one of the top reasons the relationship was strained was due to their boss’ failure to listen or take their input into account.
Of the managers surveyed, less than 25 percent identified soliciting input as an area in which they wanted to improve.
What many bosses don’t get is that this desire isn’t a demand driven by ego, entitlement or insecurity.
It is simply a display of intellectual self-worth on the part of employees and what they are looking for is an affirmation of the boss’ trust, belief and reason for hiring them.
I got it, maybe because I felt the same way, and focusing on that desire put me in the top 10% of MRI recruiters for 12 years.
Think about it; if the people on your team aren’t capable enough to comment intelligently and offer viable input why in the world did you hire them?
Yesterday was Boss’ Day and it reminded me of The Top Five Things To Remember If You’re A CEO cards my company gives out.
Although the handout says “CEO,” the content is applicable at every level of management—right down to team leader.
I thought I would share these five “if you remember nothing else” points, because doing them consistantly will change you and your group more than you can imagine.
Remember, the only position-based change is the scope and that’s easy to tweak.
Foremost, you are guardian of the big picture. You must clearly identify the goals of the company, then work with your people to turn them into specifics. Get their buy-in by making sure they understand how their goals, the company’s, and others’ interact. The biggest rewards at all levels should go to those who understand the company’s goals, and ethically do whatever is necessary to achieve them—especially when it takes precedence over their personal goals.
You set the tone of the organization. If you’re political, secretive, nitpicking, or querulous, that is how your organization will be. No matter what — your people will do as you do, not as you say.
People produce best if they know, and help determine, the range of their control. The parameters should be clearly defined and inviolate. Their decisions inside those parameters are final, decisions outside them require approval. Through discussion of their performance, the parameters will grow or shrink. Your company’s strength will increase in direct proportion to your people’s growth, so make those parameters as broad as possible.
Never criticize an employee in the presence of others. Praise in public, criticize in private.
Every successful company must have a competitive edge. Enhance your people’s ability to do their jobs by clearly defining and communicating what it is.
Today is National Boss day and, contrary to what some think, it was not conceived by Hallmark to sell more cards. It was actually registered Patricia Bays Haroski in 1958 in honor of her boss, who was also her father. So in honor of all bosses out there, from team leaders to CEOs, I offer up these quotes by and about bosses.
According to H. S. M. Burns, “A good manager is a man who isn’t worried about his own career but rather the careers of those who work for him.” There are plenty of managers that still meet that description, but they don’t make good media fodder.
Culture is proof that likes attract, which is why you find so many managers who fit Peter Drucker’s description in the same company. “So much of what we call management consists in making it difficult for people to work.”
Not to mention the truth of as spoken by General Joe Stillwell, “The higher a monkey climbs, the more you see of his behind.”
Sam Walton saw bosses in a different light, “There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else.” What Walton didn’t see is that workers are also customers of their boss and they, too, can vote with their feet.
And Robert Frost offers up irreverent advice for those who want to become bosses, “By working faithfully eight hours a day, you may eventually get to be a boss and work twelve hours a day.”
After spending more than a decade as a recruiter I can attest to the truth of John Gotti’s comment, “If you think your boss is stupid, remember: you wouldn’t have a job if he was any smarter.”
Finally, for all those stuck in a Dilbert-like world there is Homer Simpson’s fantasy to fuel yours, “Kill my boss? Do I dare live out the American dream?”
Company cultures are much like the people who create them, unique on the outside, but similar basics on the inside—good like good or bad like bad. It’s how those basics manifest themselves that the world calls culture.
First up from Forbes is a quick overview of the basics; it’s a long way from comprehensive, but it’s a place to start.
There’s a lot of talk these days about how Millennials are demanding/driving change in corporate culture, but when you look at what they want it’s similar to what most people want. The difference is found more in their attitude—as it is in all generations.
Creating culture is an inside out function—what is inside the boss will form the foundation of what is inside the culture—for better or worse—so know the culture and you know the boss and vice versa.
Entrepreneurs face difficulties that are hard for most people to imagine, let alone understand. You can find anonymous help and connections that do understand at 7 cups of tea.
Crises never end.
$10 really does make a difference and you’ll never miss it,
Everywhere you turn these days you see ‘entrepreneurs’, whether it’s the kid on the corner with a lemonade stand, the owner of the new cupcake shop or Mark Zuckerberg—they are all entrepreneurs.
Do clichés annoy you? There’s a good reason some of the tired, old clichés stay around—namely, they work. They say what needs to be said in a way that isn’t left open to interpretation, like ‘walk your talk’ as opposed to ‘authenticity’.
Does promotion cause deafness? Is that why it’s so difficult for bosses to hear?
Today is National Boss day and, contrary to what some think, it was not conceived by Hallmark to sell more cards. It was actually 
