On TED Talks Director on YouTube Mike Rowe goes on and reveals a very fascinating idea about today’s US culture. We have a:
“War on Work”
Those words sunk into me because of a number of factors.
But I don’t want to go into those factors until you see Mike’s 20 minute commentary. So, take a view.
One of the facts that most entrepreneurs realize is we’re about solving people’s problems. A significant point in entrepreneurship is social entrepreneurship: Helping those with simple solutions that make a BIG impact on their lives.
As I have mentioned before in another blog post regarding Startup Entrepreneur for the Poor: Liter of Light sometimes the simple solutions affect more people that complex or complicated ones.
Here is another example showing that “certificates” or “degrees” from “approved” colleges and universities may be overkill for solving problems as the principles are the same. Failing to understand how a cell phone works does not stop me from using it much like these people solving their own problems
There’s a saying: Earners are learners. As an entrepreneur you have to continually learn new things about yourself, your market, your competitor, and various others aspects of life.
Here’s a list of more books to read by Venture Capitalists and Founders of companies that affected how they see markets and starting a business that BusinessInsider.com has listed Founders And VCs Reveal 21 Books Every Entrepreneur Should Read.
Here’s the list:
I came across this today and even though I discuss Apple technology, sometimes even low tech can make a difference in someone’s life.
Here someone has designed solar lighting using a liter soda bottle, water with bleach, and putting them in needed places that can’t or it is too costly to get electric light.
Watch the two videos below to see how a soda bottle is changing lives.
As a beginning entrepreneur I’ve learned that we startups “need to know our numbers.” For entrepreneurs, numbers are the results of what we measure, and we need to measure the right things.
I had a brief discussion with a “up and coming” entrepreneur in Ohio recently and in our discussion he asked me, “How many employees to you have?”
I said, “Only me.”
I can’t make this up, but it’s gold to entrepreneurs. A quick way to test out an idea from an objective source over coffee.
Snooty Monkey’s The $20 Starbucks Test.
I loved the idea.
What do you think?
Image via Wikipedia
When you hear about entrepreneurs who start up new companies, you may not realize that our US history has stories to tell of entrepreneurs and what they went through. Below is an hour long speech about the supposed “Robber Barons” regarding steamships and railroads and both the US government’s subsidies of them and what it cost the US taxpayers. In some cases Congress STILL considered that some companies were “too big to fail” and kept using taxpayer money to keep thing afloat, but in the end, entrepreneurs won out.
If you want to read about Vanderbilt or Rockefeller, read the books “The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbit” and Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller.” On page 200 in the biography about Vanderbilt you see how investing in steam engine technology called the “walking beam engine” affected both fuel consumption and hull design, and with a smaller engine he was able to save valuable operating expenses and thus lower is costs thereby make more profit and/or lower prices to gain more market share.
