Most entrepreneurs believe they are “different,” but they can’t quite understand how. They usually explain it by insisting that they are driven to follow their passion, need to be their own boss, want to get rich quick, or want to change the world. I now believe that the roots of the difference may go back […]
How to Change the Course of Your Business Gracefully
“Pivoting” is changing a fundamental part of your business model. It happens on the front end for startups to get traction, and then again later for every company as the economy, competition, and culture changes around them. The pivot can be as simple as changing the pricing model, or as complex as moving from a product business to a services business.
10 Ways To Enhance The Legacy You Leave
Every entrepreneur and business leader waits too long before really working on the legacy that he wants to leave to society and his family. They realize too late that they don’t really want to be remembered for how many hours they spent on airplanes, how many emails they produced, or even how much money they made for the business.
10 Ways To Trample And Smother Business Innovation
The best entrepreneurs and the best executives in mature businesses have learned how to foster both high efficiency and high creativity, in a balance that keeps their business ahead of the pack on both sides of the equation.
Why Location is a Top Priority When Launching a Startup
Even in this age of globalization and virtualization, the geographic area where you choose to live and work can still make or break your startup business. I still have to tell some entrepreneurs that even with the best idea, they have to move to Silicon Valley to find the investors they need, or they need […]
6 Technology Trends That Will Spawn Countless New Ventures
Data in all formats will soon be the largest source of new opportunities for startups or death.
10 Ways to Be More Adept at Seeing Around the Corner
How is it that only a few business leaders and entrepreneurs seem to drive exceptional results and disruptive innovation in this rapidly changing market economy (marketquake)? These few seem more adept at executing market and technology turns, not just incremental evolution. They consistently take bold steps to stay ahead of the curve, often contrary to […]
6 Ways Of Telling Your Story That Draws People To You
In my role as a mentor to entrepreneurs and an angel investor, I find that too many are stuck in this myth that a good pitch, and good marketing content, should consist of more product features, and more hype on customer benefits. Naturally, these are important, but real winning content has to start with a […]
6 Steps to Move From Inspiration to Business Reality
As a new business advisor and occasional investor, I get approached regularly by people who have a dream or a new business idea and are looking for support and money to make it a reality. They are usually short on specifics required for execution, so I have to tell them that the idea is the easy […]
6 Keys To Maximizing Your Own Leadership Performance
In my experience as an advisor and mentor to entrepreneurs in business, one of the biggest failures I see is a lack of self-leadership. You can’t lead a business to success if you can’t lead yourself. I define self-leadership as the capacity to set direction and make decisions, to positively drive your own performance. Leadership […]
7 Secrets to Leading Others and Enjoying Your Legacy
By default, every one of you who owns a business or manages a team has the title of leader, but in my consulting experience, I find that just having the title doesn’t make most of us a leader. I also find that leaders are made, not born, meaning that we all can grow into leadership if […]