I kept hearing and seeing the slogan “The Honey Badger Don’t Care” in email jokes, on television, and from various people. You may have seen it during the college National Championship Game between Alabama and LSU. You may have seen the signs referring to LSU player #7 Tyrann Mathieu as the Honey Badger.
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Opening Doors is Priority One!
Awhile back, I shared that we were working with a door-opening company called Kopp Consulting. Caryn Kopp and her team assist other companies in finding new clients by having a team of former senior management professionals use Kopp’s secret sauce to get you appointments and allow you to do your thing. What an informative experience! Working with Kopp helped us design and focus our message to best tailor it to our core clients, and they helped us connect with even more clients and businesses.
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Energizing for the New Year!
As this year ends like all the ones before it, we strive to go into the New Year with a fresh outlook and usually one or more resolutions to improve our lives. I often ask others around me about their resolutions and usually find that at least one always has to do with improving health. For an entrepreneur whose world is filled with constant changes, ups, and downs, health and energy are key to pushing forward.
We often hear about how much time we need and how there are never enough hours in a day and so on. We cannot add time. We all have the same number of hours in a day. The level of effort and energy we put into that time can be changed. Much is being written about our need to manage our energy and approach our day and schedule with an energy focus instead of a time focus.
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What are your dreams?
What an interesting week! Last week, I traveled to New York City to participate in the Entrepreneurs’ Organization Injected Campus event, which brings the regional EO Forums together. We met in lower Manhattan to be close to the New York Stock Exchange.
This year during our event, the NYSE opening bell was rung by InvenSense, a company that makes the motion possible in the Wii and in smartphones. InvenSense was launching their IPO and was going public. I had always wanted to be there in person to see the opening bell, but it also made me think of my own dream of being up there to ring the bell with the IPO launch of my own company. That evening, it felt a little closer as my friends on the Global EO Board got to be on stage and ring the closing bell! WOW! Click here to see the video I took of the opening bell.
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Hiring Employees with Value
People generate the most value and are your greatest asset when running a business. Our society runs on knowledge and information. We are not a bunch of cogs lined up to push metal through a machine in order to output something better on the other side. Even these types of jobs now require knowledge to operate these intricate computers and technology.
Did you know that the unemployment rate for college educated individuals is less than 5%? Compare that to the average unemployment rate of 9-10% or the 14% or more unemployment rate for those with a high school education or less. Today’s economy needs knowledgeable workers, and they are a rare find. We are searching for knowledgeable workers to fill roles in software architecture, business analysis, and software solution sales and have discovered they are not easy positions to fill.
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Want Jobs? Grow Entrepreneurs!
As I travel around the world, I listen to people talk and read the local papers to get a feel for how others view the global economy. It is interesting to try and see the world from their perspective. It seems that many people are just looking for their economies to get better and waiting for leaders to do something about it.As I discussed in my last blog, I have a different point of view on changing the world. I see it as you, the individual, who holds the responsibility to change the world. Great leaders simply provide the mindset and inspiration for you to do so. They also create an environment that is conducive to allowing the common man to make a difference.
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Creativity… how do we get more?
Many people say they are happiest when they are creating. Maybe it’s because we are made in the likeness of our creator and are doing what comes naturally. Just like an artist or musician, entrepreneurs are creating and bringing things to life, out into the world and the marketplace to solve problems.
I’ve spent the last few days in Asheville, NC on an EO Forum retreat with my long time Knoxville Forum. Asheville is known for its community of artistic people, and like artists and musicians, we like to be in places that stimulate us to create. Many of us know that being in environments like the islands or the mountains stimulate us to create, but do we know why?
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What Disruptive Technology is Sneaking Up on You?
This week when I was reading about all the trouble that Netflix is experiencing with their pricing, it got me thinking about all of their success and how they got their start. Did you know that back in 2000, Netflix founder Reed Hastings went to Blockbuster and proposed running an online brand for them? They laughed at him, so he went out on his own. Now look at all that has transpired. Blockbuster is going sneakers up, while Netflix has become the single largest source of web traffic in North America this year.
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How Many Clicks to Financial Freedom?
Back in mid May I attended the Fortune Leadership Summit. A fellow EO member named Marc Ostrofsky also attended the event, and although he was not a scheduled speaker, he did take a few minutes to speak to all of us.
Marc has a successful background in entrepreneurial start-ups, with his current portfolio of online businesses generating over 75 million a year. When he got on stage, he talked about making money online and the vast opportunities available. One story that he told literally made my jaw drop.
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What is Inflation?
I’m a news junkie, and lately there have been an overwhelming number of reports on inflation. Whether on TV or in the paper, it seems every day I hear about prices going up…but is that really what inflation is?
My 20 years in the economic and investment world have taught me a lot about inflation. Early on I did a lot of reading, but it took some time for the true mechanics of inflation to really sink in. My goal is to share my thoughts with you on this subject as simply as possible, because I feel like understanding this matter is essential to maximizing strategy and ongoing profitability.
Generally, when you hear the term “inflation” in the news, it’s associated with rising prices. Rising prices is actually the result of inflation, not inflation itself. Let me explain this with a little history lesson:
