“I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. In my youth I travelled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer.” Benjamin Franklin
Aug 18
As an entrepreneur and Mac user I regularly get asked questions, but it was not until I took at look at a handout list of questions that I began to think about the questions themselves. So here is a list of quote about questions that just might get you to thinking.
- A timid question will always receive a confident answer. Lord Darling
- To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks real advance in science. Albert Einstein
- Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers. Voltaire
- You see things; and you say, “Why”; But I dream things that never were; and I say, “Why not?” Karl Bismarck
- It is not every question that deserves an answer. Syrus (Publilius Syrus)
- Every clarification breeds new questions. Arthur Bloch
- A prudent question is one-half of wisdom. Francis Bacon
- The uncreative mind can spot wrong answers, but it takes a very creative mind to spot wrong questions. Anthony Jay
- You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers. You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions. Naquib Mahfouz
- Question everything. Learn something. Answer nothing. Engineer’s Motto
- Quality questions create a quality life. Successful people ask better questions, and as a result, they get better answers. Anthony Robbins
- No man really becomes a fool until he stops asking questions. Charles Steinmetz
- To solve any problem, here are three questions to ask yourself: First, what could I do? Second, what could I read? And third, who could I ask? Jim Rohn
- Take the attitude of a student, never be too big to ask questions, never know too much to learn something new. Og Mandino
The event that I attended speaker had arranged the questions on the handout so that the answer of each one built onto the next one. Much like building a house, you start with the foundation. And each subsequent question was essential to getting stuff done.
If you don’t ask, you won’t get an answer.
What are your questions?
Aug 16
As an entrepreneur using his Mac I can find many ways of learning new ideas. In the story about the Goose that laid the Golden Egg I find that I can apply it toward business.
As the story goes, the goose that lays the golden egg the owners get too greedy and decide to kill it to get at the gold, like right now. Problem is, they killed the opportunity for the goose to keep producing the golden eggs, and therefore their future chance of every getting any more gold.
There’s two other sides to the story that proceed this, the greed of those that want to get at the gold before “it’s time” and kill the goose. First, what about another goose owner that does NOT kill the goose and keeps earning a living from the goose as it lays the eggs? These owners reap at the level of production that goose can produce. They feed it and take care of it and allow the goose to produce at it’s pace. No more, no less than the goose can. Smart business owners here.
Second, but what about the owners that are so enamored with the golden egg they don’t see the source of the golden egg? The goose! They go spend the money from the egg on their immediate needs and wants and actually forget about the goose. Have you ever seen someone act like this?
I recently had someone ask me for a FREE copy of my book How to Start a Business: Mac Version so they could start a business with their Mac. I ask them that if they could find three people that will buy my book I’d give them a copy of my book as a commission for their work. They balked at this!
As I have seen in the past, if I had given them a free copy some would walk off with nary a “Thank You” or a positive response of any sort to someone generosity. You can see this in the “entitlement” or “I want something for nothing” crowd. They’d take the golden egg and vamoose. They’d forget about the goose that lays the golden egg completely.
You see this when you help others and don’t receive anything “in kind” back. Not that I’m expecting it, but it says a lot about the type of business people they are.
These are not business people, they’re freeloaders.
How do you see this story playing out in your world?
Aug 02
We all know of Thomas Edison, but most are not aware of Nikola Tesla. Here’s a short video about who he was.
The History of Nikola Tesla – a Short Story
Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration. Thomas Edison
If Edison had a needle to find in a haystack, he would proceed at once with the diligence of the bee to examine straw after straw until he found the object of his search. I was a sorry witness of such doings, knowing that a little theory and calculation would have saved him ninety per cent of his labor. Nikola Tesla, assistant to Thomas Edison
Aug 01
Hi all,
Had an interview this past Saturday with MrNetcast.com himself, Esbjorn Larsen, about my book and being an entrepreneur. Check out the interview here. Let me know your thoughts.
Jul 26
As an entrepreneur you’re always looking out to solve problems, but where do we get this skill? Is creativity learned? Is it innate? How are our next generations going to solve some of our future problems?
There’s a new trend in the US school system that started in the 1990s: killing creativity. This Newsweek article “The Creativity Crisis” outlines where the US is diverging from the rest of the world in instilling kids with creativity.
Jul 14
I read this blog post and I just had to respond. There is a lot of good business information out there, but some of it reeks of ignorance, stupidity, and fear and scarcity-driven thinking. So here’s the link to the article, “Why do innovation teams fails?” and my answers to his commentary.
- Organized resistance. “Remember, the top priority of every organization is to preserve the organization. Doesn’t matter if it’s a company or a charity or a school. Doesn’t matter what the stated mission or objective of the organization is. Once an organization gets started, it will naturally seek self-preservation as its first priority.” WRONG. Preservation of the company is NOT the primary function of a business, it’s taking care of its customers, without a customer you have no business. You can defend a company all year long, but if you are not bringing in the bacon, you’ll go under. Change is important, but change for change sake is wasteful and unproductive. There has to be a reason for the change. A CEO that puts his ego before his ideal customer and his business idea is the end of the line for the company. It’s all related to your customer, failure to satisfy a customer’s needs means failure of a company and when you quit focusing outward to your customers and focus inward on yourself you become complacent. Same goes for focusing on your competitor, your competitor is NOT your customer.
- Responsibility without authority. “A creative team sailing in uncharted waters towards an unknown destination is bound to fail.” WRONG. Do you think Christopher Columbus was a failure because he did not fine India, his original goal? How about Thomas Edison with his 10,000 failed experiments looking for the idea of the lightbulb? How about Henry Ford telling his engineers to figure out how to make a eight cylinder engine when they said it couldn’t be done? Lastly, how about Lewis and Clark looking for the trail leading to the Pacific Ocean, they failed in this primary function? What about all of the accidental successes such as Goretex and the like? What determines failure? When you read the book “Getting to Plan B” you’ll see that there are lots of failures, just don’t get hung up on them. It’s how CEO looks at the failure and those that make them that makes the difference. It boils to beginning with #1 above. It’s all about leadership and doing the right think, not about management.
- Lack of self-awareness. “Self-awareness is in chronic short supply in most corporations. And yet, the ability of the innovation team to convince the organization to adopt their recommendations depends entirely upon mutual self awareness and empathy.” Some Wrong. There are some good points here and Tercek’s comments have some validity to them. Taking various tests to determine they type of person you are, such as the Myers-Briggs, the DISC test, and the online multi-personality assessment tests are all great to tell us who we are, but until leaders embrace these “soft” ideas in “hard” business environment, businesses will not be as productive as they could be. Dan Pink’s book “Drive” gives a great idea as to how change is needed.
Your thoughts about this?
Jul 12
As an entrepreneur, you’re always looking for what it takes to be successful. Learning new skills is one thing, but translating your current skills from one channel to another is just a matter of changing your mindset.
Watch this NY Times video about Randy Kearse, who served more than 13 years in federal prison, has used the business skills he honed as a drug dealer to sell thousands of his self-published books in the streets and in the subway.
You, too, change, turn your life around. Change your mind, change your results.
Jul 09
The Kauffman Foundation has a new study.
“Key findings: In every single year from 1996 to 2007, Americans between the ages of 55 and 64 had a higher rate of entrepreneurial activity than those aged 20-34, averaging a rate of entrepreneurial activity roughly one-third larger than their youngest counterparts.
- The 20-34 age bracket has the lowest rate of entrepreneurial activity.
- Long-term employment has fallen dramatically for people ages 35-64 over the past fifty years.
- With longer life expectancies and greater health in later life, older generations may continue to start new firms—or mentor young entrepreneurs.
- Since the first Internet-era recession, transaction costs and barriers to entry have fallen for entrepreneurs of every age.”
Where are you on the entrepreneurial train?
Jul 07
Great article “Invincible Apple: 10 Lessons From the Coolest Company Anywhere” about what Apple does great and how to do it.
