One of the enduring myths about making it big as an entrepreneur is that you have to be willing and able to take big risks. This view was widely criticised in Peter Drucker's excellent book "Innovation and Entrepreneurship", where he demonstrated that successful entrepreneurs actually seek to minimise risks. And they do this very aggressively and very successfully.
Successful entrepreneurs essentially minimise the risks and seek an opportunity.
CNN's Money magazine has a short article on this topic for those who will not read Drucker's book. Shame on the lot of you ;)
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Thursday, August 17, 2006
You can't please them all
David Ogilvy said that there are no statues to honour committees. This is because committees never create anything. They control and censure and kill (please note that this does not apply to teams. I love teams. They rock!)
Anyway, Mr Ogilvy has been proved right once again. I don't know if you have seen the tourism ads for Australia. They are very very good. However, The American Family Association does not agree. They want the ads taken off the air because they include the offending phrase "bloody hell". Among the objections?
"I just feel pretty sure the typical American family who is watching TV with their children and they're exposed to this ad are going to be upset,"
"I don't want my children to hear that phrase.
"It's a shocking phrase because we're not familiar with it.
"I guess they use it all the time in Australia, but it's a foreign language here so I think it'll have a negative impact rather than positive."
"When you think 'bloody' in America you think the red liquid that flows from human bodies which is usually a sign of some kind of violence," (But never something that applies in another context. To indicate how you want your steak done for example)
"Australians are spending all of these millions of dollars inviting us, and if we go over there are we going to be exposing our kids to foul language and images of bloody? (Being exposed to images of bloody sounds very painful)
"We don't want our kids to hear the term 'bloody'.
"We certainly don't want our kids to hear profanity."
I think it's crazy. But very funny. I guess they should have taken their "Australian as a foreign language" courses more seriously dammit! Oops...didn't mean to offend.
Anyway, Mr Ogilvy has been proved right once again. I don't know if you have seen the tourism ads for Australia. They are very very good. However, The American Family Association does not agree. They want the ads taken off the air because they include the offending phrase "bloody hell". Among the objections?
"I just feel pretty sure the typical American family who is watching TV with their children and they're exposed to this ad are going to be upset,"
"I don't want my children to hear that phrase.
"It's a shocking phrase because we're not familiar with it.
"I guess they use it all the time in Australia, but it's a foreign language here so I think it'll have a negative impact rather than positive."
"When you think 'bloody' in America you think the red liquid that flows from human bodies which is usually a sign of some kind of violence," (But never something that applies in another context. To indicate how you want your steak done for example)
"Australians are spending all of these millions of dollars inviting us, and if we go over there are we going to be exposing our kids to foul language and images of bloody? (Being exposed to images of bloody sounds very painful)
"We don't want our kids to hear the term 'bloody'.
"We certainly don't want our kids to hear profanity."
I think it's crazy. But very funny. I guess they should have taken their "Australian as a foreign language" courses more seriously dammit! Oops...didn't mean to offend.
Monday, August 14, 2006
Boys Rule!
I saw this post on Tom Peter's blog. The rest of my day was pretty awesome. Simple things huh?
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
The world is about to end
"I have seen a heap of trouble in my life, and none of it came to pass"
- Mark Twain
In discussing Rory Blyth's story below, it struck me that we have always been unnecessarily fearful of a myriad of things that we may come across in our day to day lives. In this (the link to video is in the left hand side of the page) presentation which I urge you to watch, Michael Crichton discusses "Complex Systems" and some of our greatest fears and how they turned out to be nothing more than scaremongering.
Today for example, we are wrestling with the implications of global warming. Well, there was a time when were having a debate about "global cooling" and it was feared that soon the world would be one great ice field. In 1977, a book titled "The Weather Conspiracy: The Coming of The New Ice Age" was published.
Remember the theory of the upcoming population explosion? Again, it never happened. In the developing world, population growth has gone flat. While in the developed world, there is a definite downwards trend. Or what about the Y2K bug? It was supposed to be the end of modern civilisation. The year 2000 came.....and nothing happened.
As Crighton points out, it is very telling to read newspapers from ten or even six years ago. They are full of concerns that never came to pass. In some instances, you will even come across many concerns that you simply cannot recognise.
My point is simple. The world is simply too complex to be reduced to irrefutable theories. And making grand predicitions is a fool's errand.
- Mark Twain
In discussing Rory Blyth's story below, it struck me that we have always been unnecessarily fearful of a myriad of things that we may come across in our day to day lives. In this (the link to video is in the left hand side of the page) presentation which I urge you to watch, Michael Crichton discusses "Complex Systems" and some of our greatest fears and how they turned out to be nothing more than scaremongering.
Today for example, we are wrestling with the implications of global warming. Well, there was a time when were having a debate about "global cooling" and it was feared that soon the world would be one great ice field. In 1977, a book titled "The Weather Conspiracy: The Coming of The New Ice Age" was published.
Remember the theory of the upcoming population explosion? Again, it never happened. In the developing world, population growth has gone flat. While in the developed world, there is a definite downwards trend. Or what about the Y2K bug? It was supposed to be the end of modern civilisation. The year 2000 came.....and nothing happened.
As Crighton points out, it is very telling to read newspapers from ten or even six years ago. They are full of concerns that never came to pass. In some instances, you will even come across many concerns that you simply cannot recognise.
My point is simple. The world is simply too complex to be reduced to irrefutable theories. And making grand predicitions is a fool's errand.
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
Sun,fun and good times
If you are in London this weekend, please join my friends and I at the Fruitstock Festival in Regent's park. We will be there on Saturday afternoon. Just give me a call if you'd like to hook up. My number's in my profile. Onwards!
Criticism
There are people who moan,whine and complain about how things are and how they should be. While I don't have a problem with that per se, I do have a problem with those people who do it from the sidelines. How about they get in the game and make something happen?
Seth Godin has an interesting take on the wider issue of criticism. How do you guys deal with it?
Seth Godin has an interesting take on the wider issue of criticism. How do you guys deal with it?
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