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Of Risk and the Entrepreneur

Of Risk and the Entrepreneur

What is risk?

That question was posed by a professor to sixty MBA students who were executives of public corporations.

Is it risky to be an entrepreneur?

I was reviewing my notes from the book, The Millionaire Next Door this week, and transferring them to digital format. My copy of the book is so old, I think Gutenberg himself printed it. E-readers were a fantasy when this gem came out. And yet, the book is still relevant today.

In the book, when the professor asked that question,

One student replied: Being an entrepreneur?

His fellow students agreed. Then the professor answered his own question with a quote from an entrepreneur:

What is risk? Having one source of income. Employees are at risk…They have a single source of income. What about the entrepreneur who sells janitorial services to your employers? He has hundreds and hundreds of customers…hundreds and hundreds of sources of income.

I was asked a similar question recently at dinner with some new friends. When I mentioned that I went out on my own almost two years ago, one man replied, “Wow. That must have been scary and risky.”

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Autopsy of a Failed Business

Autopsy of a Failed Business

Can business success lead to business failure?

Yes. I’ve allowed it to happen.

Five years removed from my time at one business, I had time to do an autopsy. Here is what I learned.

Failed Business Autopsy - Toe Tag

A few months ago, Chris LoCurto posted about what he calls the clarify paradox. The question he asked is:

Why don’t successful people and organizations automatically become very successful?

He then presented four stages which moderately successful business often go through:

Phase 1: When we really have clarity of purpose, it leads to success.
Phase 2: When we have success, it leads to more options and opportunities.
Phase 3: When we have increased options and opportunities, it leads to diffused efforts.
Phase 4: Diffused efforts undermine the very clarity that led to our success in the first place.

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How NOT to Network on LinkedIn

How NOT to Network on LinkedIn

A warm network is critical in today’s economy.

We live in a connected world, dependent upon relationships. I have written quite a bit about networking before and include links to those posts at the bottom of this one. I have also had the privilege of consulting one-on-one with numerous people about building and maintaining a powerful network. The success stories have been inspiring.

Networking on LinkedIn is Not Hard

In your efforts to develop a network, please don’t make the mistakes one poor fellow made below.

A friend of mine and I recently got the exact same email from a mutual connection on LinkedIn. This is someone I worked extensively with at another company, so we have a decent relationship.

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